While studying at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Thomas Doochin and a group of fellow sophomore students began discussing the idea of charitable giving. Specifically, they wondered how they could create a platform that makes the giving experience not only user-friendly but also personal, meaningful, and transparent.
“At the time, we were curious why all of the innovation in giving was focusing on the convenience of helping others,” says Doochin. “We thought convenience mattered but only in conjunction with deep connection and incredible transparency. We wanted to build an experience that centered around why it feels good to give and cut out a lot of the other noise.”
With those goals in mind, Doochin went on to create Daymaker, a digital giving platform that is the first of its kind. The company, which partners with local chapters of nonprofit organizations across the country, is the only online giving website that allows donors to purchase real gifts for specific kids in need year-round. These partnerships with high-impact non-profits, including Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Communities in Schools, play an essential role in differentiating Daymaker from other charitable giving companies, Doochin says.
“[Our non-profit partners] truly understand the unique needs of the children in their communities. It is critical for our partners to have a direct connection to each child/family they serve as the organization is ultimately responsible for ensuring that gifts are delivered to the intended recipient.”
These partners also help create a personal connection between the donor and the child they are purchasing a gift for. Daymaker works with its non-profit partners to create a personalized profile and gift wish list for each child, based on his or her age, location, educational needs, and interests. This means donors can search for children or families who whom they connect to and purchase gifts for them in three easy steps. According to Doochin, Daymaker works because the platform is “transparent, meaningful, and convenient” and “donors know exactly who they are giving to, what they are giving, and when the gifts have been received.”
In addition to transparency and personal connections, another primary goal of the company is to encourage giving throughout the year. To do this, Daymaker creates several “giving opportunities” that range from traditional (holiday and back -to-school giving) to more unconventional, such as the current giving opportunity called Summer Swing. Created as a way to combat the “summer slide” – the loss of academic skills and knowledge that many students experience during the summer – Daymaker’s Summer Swing giving opportunity allows donors to purchase books and other enrichment items for thousands of children in need. This push for year-round giving has encouraged more than 10,000 donors around the world to purchase gifts using Daymaker’s giving platform, resulting in help for more than 30,000 children since the company’s founding.
The company has experienced measurable growth since its founding in 2015, the most recent achievement being the chance to compete in front of celebrity judges such as Ashton Kutcher and Matthew McConaughey for $100,000 in funding at SXSW’s PerfectPitch competition. Despite this and other exciting business opportunities, building Daymaker was not always easy says Doochin, who (along with co-founding Daymaker) serves as the company’s CEO.
“With any early stage venture, there is a lot of disappointment. In the early days, it was 100 no’s to every yes. Now it may be 3 no’s to every yes, but there are still a lot of valleys in the emotional roller coaster.”
He says growth for him, his team, and the company (which now consists of seven full-time employees), has come from recognizing when they don’t have all the answers, and more importantly, accepting that’s okay. To avoid making bad decisions for the company, Doochin says this lesson was a pivotal one to learn.
“It’s been a lot better to take a step back and say, ‘it’s okay to not know this—let’s find somebody who does’.”
Despite the growing pains that are naturally felt by any business entrepreneur, Doochin’s status as a millennial CEO means his views of a traditional corporate world are seen through the unique lens of a twenty-something recent college graduate.
“Daymaker was my first ‘real job,’ and I haven’t been too limited by pre-conceived notions of what is and isn’t possible,” says Doochin. “With that in mind, I still think it’d be incredibly hard to build something you don’t fully believe in.”
Luckily for him, Doochin maintains an unwavering optimism that he states is his strangest attribute as young CEO.
“The belief in our vision and what it can mean for the world has kept us pushing even in dark days.”
