Forget “blue checkmark” fiascos and 2 a.m. torso scrolling — Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Carl Nassib has a different sort of app experience in mind. And he just hooked up with the perfect partner to make it happen.
Last month, the out NFL player launched Rayze, a new app to match users with local nonprofits and make giving back as easy and rewarding as possible.
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“When we scale, if we’re hanging around on a Saturday afternoon and we’ve got time to kill, we can get on our phones and within 10 seconds, we can find something in our neighborhood to do to give back,” the NFL star told the AP. “There’s gonna be opportunities galore.”
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Now, the athlete and total mensch is focused on creating those opportunities, and he’s getting help from Financial Finesse Ventures. On Monday, the VC firm announced a major investment towards Nassib’s vision. Details of the deal aren’t public, but the firm’s investment is expected to be somewhere between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
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“Carl is a force of nature,” said Financial Finesse Ventures CEO and founder Liz Davidson. “It’s gonna be really hard honestly to find other investments that can match this.”
On Rayze, people can choose to donate their time through local volunteering or help meaningful community organizations stay funded. Nassib says the idea came to him while volunteering at a juvenile detention facility just down the road from a wealthy community.
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“It was half a mile from a team of millionaires, and a family of billionaires,” he explained to People. “And nobody knew that these kids, 14 year olds who were given Dr. Seuss books, were right there. So I left that day, and I was, like, ‘There needs to be an app…’”
Well, now there is, and Nassib is banking on the idea that providing easy access to giving back will bring out people’s natural compassion.
“Everybody wants to give back,” he said. “It’s just a little difficult right now, but we’re going to make it as efficient as possible.”
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He even sees a potential dating angle to Rayze.
“Say, you have a Saturday afternoon, a Sunday morning to kill, you want to go on a date with somebody and you don’t, you don’t want to go get a coffee for the millionth time. You don’t want to get a drink for the millionth time. So, ‘Hey, why don’t we just go pick up garbage?’ Or ‘why don’t we, like, hand out lunches somewhere as our first date, as a way to give back?’”
The new investment will help fund a series of events called “SaturRayze,” where people can link up with their local nonprofits and learn about ways to chip in. The first one will be Thursday in New York City’s McCarren Park. The Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youth, will be one of the organizations featured.
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“My vision is just getting people up out of their houses and involved,” Nassib said. “It’s just the most rewarding thing ever — being of service to other people. It gives you a sense of accomplishment, of self-worth, as opposed to looking at social media all day, which is just so crippling to your self-esteem and self-image. So we’re combatting all those negatives of social media by getting people out of their houses and giving back. It’s fun.”
And if you happen to run into the history-making athlete at this or any other Rayze event, we have the perfect conversation starter for you and her name is Taylor Swift.
Kangol2
Whatever his political beliefs, this app is a great idea.
CatholicXXX
Was truthmedia no longer good enough for him?
CNY1983
you know what that means…..