Bye bye #localgutscheining - A review of our voucher portal project as part of the #JenaVsVirus hackathon.

Table of Contents:

• How it all began

• The target group: "our locals"

• The problem

• The solution

• The supporters

• Now what?

• What happens to the vouchers?

• Our conclusion to the project

The problem

The restaurants and stores were closed and many of the small local businesses no longer had any source of revenue. Vouchers as a possible source of revenue had only ever been issued by hand and against cash payment. So what to do?

Online voucher platforms already existed, of course, but - from the point of view of our locals - they were either too complicated to connect or too expensive to operate.

The solution

The idea and implementation of #localgutscheining therefore had to be simple and effective: People should be able to buy vouchers for their favorite places like restaurants, ice cream parlors, cinemas, stores, sports clubs or wellness temples online and give them away. And thus help to cover the running costs of the establishments in this difficult situation. The vouchers could be redeemed after the end of the lockdown. As a small thank you, the Locals gave their voucher buyers a little something extra - everything from a free drink to a free training session was included.

And since money was already tight, we developed and operated the platform free of charge, so all proceeds went directly to the locals.

The supporters

The project would not have been possible without the support of a lot of people. A special thank you goes to the core team around Daniela Böttger-Schmidt & Ralf Schmidt, Felix Jauch, Petra Teufel and the involved wunschlöserInnen.

And also again a big thank you to tax consultant Ronald Enke and lawyer André Stämmler for the super fast, competent and equally honorary advice around all tax and legal questions of our locals!

And last but not least, of course, a big thank you to Domenique Dölz and the team of the Economic Development of the City of Jena, without whom the whole thing would not have taken place at all.

Now what?

After the end of the pandemic, our Jena locals have fortunately returned to regular operations. That's why it's also time for us to end the project. On 25.08. #localgutscheining will be shut down.

In this context, we as wunschlösung and also the #localgutscheining team would like to thank everyone involved:

• Thank you to all Jena locals who offered their vouchers and got excited about this idea.

• Thank you to everyone who bought vouchers and thus contributed to the diversity of our local economy.

What happens to the vouchers?

All purchased vouchers can of course still be used according to the stated validity period and are not affected by the closure of the online portal. Do you have any questions? Then just contact us or your locals.

Unser Conclusion to the project

Together we have shown how strong and solidary our city can be.
A tidy 5-digit turnover amount could flow directly to the locals and make at least a small contribution to the preservation of local diversity.

For a purely voluntary project without a large advertising budget, a nice result. #localgutscheining will now retire, but the memory of this project and the connection will remain.

Let's continue to support local businesses and institutions. They are the heart of our city. Now that our favorite places have reopened, we look forward to sharing more beautiful moments with you.
Thank you for everything!

Your team from #localgutscheining and the wunschlösung.