About Dognate
Dognate was created with "sharing is the new buying" in mind. A common pain point for shelters and low-income pet owners is a general lack of resources — the sharing economy offers a new, creative way to think about locating, accessing, and trading them.
Benefits of sharing
Sharing is gaining prominence as an addition to the traditional, linear economy — it can lead to happier, healthier, more sustainable lifestyles by putting resources that would otherwise go to waste directly to use.
Benefits of donating
Donating tends to make people more informed about the causes they give to. You end up learning about issues you might not have otherwise, which can put you in a better position to help others understand them too.
Benefits of volunteering
Volunteers are often the glue that holds a community together. It's a two-way street — helping a cause you care about while making connections and expanding your own network along the way.
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Wishes posted
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Supplies offered
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Members
Where it started
Dognate started during the winter of 2013–2014 at Coding Dojo in Mountain View, California, built with a few classmates as a class project. That winter, a cold front hit the San Francisco Bay Area hard, and the Vallejo animal shelter — most of its operations outdoors — was short on blankets, bedding, and anything else that could keep the dogs warm. That's what led to building this, so shelters and organizations like it could get what they actually needed.
It's not a class project anymore. I've kept building on Dognate on my own since — this version is a full rewrite on modern technology, with the goal of making it an actual site people can use, not a demo.
What's next
Right now, Dognate is a straightforward exchange board — post what an animal in your care needs, offer what you can spare, connect directly. Next up is a way to purchase supplies through the site too, for when nobody's currently offering what someone needs.