Doing good with a simple click

But digital tenant communication can be used for so much more than just filing maintenance requests or viewing a lease. Social and charitable causes are also suited for integration into a tenant app, as with the donation function powered by easysquare. Particularly around the year’s more reflective holidays, like Easter or Christmas, people feel the desire to spread goodwill and donate. But sometimes these good intentions are forgotten in the seasonal rush or fall at the final hurdle of finding the right initiative and actually transferring the money. A special function in the tenant app can help here, allowing users to make a donation to selected verified organisations with a simple click – for example, conveniently transferring part of the repayment of the latest operating costs statement. A donation receipt is issued.

The Hilfswerk-Siedlung GmbH (HWS) has implemented just this feature. In March 2019 HWS released its very own app for tenants, which was developed together with PROMOS consult and the brand easysquare. Tenants can quickly and easily view their leases, make maintenance requests, or do good with a simple click.

At the 14th OpenPromos user forum in Berlin on 27 March 2019, the managing directors of Hilfswerk-Siedlung GmbH, Jörn von der Lieth and Dorit Brauns, presented the additional function of their tenant app. To celebrate the launch of the donation function, they made a generous €10,000 donation to the organisation Bread for the World, which HWS has been supporting for years. With the launch, HWS tenants now have the option, for example, of donating the credit balance of their last operating costs statement to Bread for the World.

“For acts of social responsibility, the barrier between paying lip service and actually taking action should be as low as possible. With the development of the donation function in the tenant app, we wanted to make things as simple as possible”, said Jörn von der Lieth, managing director of Hilfswerk-Siedlung GmbH. “Donating in the app is as simple for the tenant as pushing the donation button when returning deposit bottles”, added Jens Kramer, CEO of PROMOS consult. “For example, tenants can donate some of the credit balance of their utility statements to a vetted organisation listed in the app”.