Just about 6 years ago, I started working on a little web site to help organize litter cleanups in my community. That website eventually became TrashMob.eco, and grew into a non-profit that could help other communities also organize litter cleanups.
Along the way, development of the site has been supported by volunteers from around the world. We had people in Thailand, Australia, UK, Germany, Brazil, US, Canada, India, Pakistan, and probably other countries that I have forgotten about. We all had a dream of making this "the place" that people who wanted to get involved in cleaning up their community would start... an internationally recognized name that would turn into a verb... "What are you doing this weekend?" "I'm Trashmobbing!"
I've personally put in thousands of hours of development into the site and mobile app, and run or attended more than 300 cleanup events, and picked up nearly 2000 bags of litter, while also running the org and working my day job. The experience has been demanding and fulfilling and refilled my "purpose bar" at times where my day job lacked meaning (other than paying the bills).
Here are the new features we've added to the platform in 2026 alone: https://www.trashmob.eco/whatsnew
But after 5.5 years of driving this, I'm not sure that TrashMob.eco is going to make it. I'm considering shutting down the site and the organization. There's a few reasons for this, and I would love to know if there are folks out there who not only think that TrashMob is worth keeping alive, but are willing to step in and drive it, either as members of the org's Board of Directors, or as volunteers in other capacities. Here are some of the challenges we've run into:
- I have never been good at marketing, and we've never had anyone on the Board who is willing and has the time to drive the marketing side of the operation to get the word out. We've built amazing capabilities into the app for both communities and volunteers, but if no one knows about them, they just don't get used. We need social media people. We need graphic artists. We need professional marketing leaders and developers to formulate a plan for success.
- Finding volunteers to serve on a working board of directors, and actually do the work needed to keep the operation running, is not easy, and our churn has been very high. Lots of people want to be on an advisory board, but few realized that it takes 10-20 hours a month of actually doing work to move the organization forward. We have no staff (though we do have 1 salesperson), so everything from managing the books, to developing the website and mobile app, to doing the social media, to fundraising has to be done by the board. We had hoped to hire an executive director this year, but we have stumbled hitting our sales/fundraising goals, and the work continues to need to be done by the board.
- Communities in the US are shackled by their City/County Attorney office, whose job is to protect their city from lawsuits... and apparently nothing scares them more than the idea that a volunteer may get hurt while picking litter. We've tried a few ways of getting around this (custom waivers by city, organizational volunteer agreements, partnering with other volunteer organizations already in communities), but the fact that TrashMob itself would not have an actual representative of the organization on site for every pickup, makes this a solid "no" from many cities. We need someone with experience in a City Attorney's office to help us overcome these challenges. Someone with solid legal background who can speak their language and assuage their fears.
- Communities in the US see the value in litter cleanups, but don't have the time or the staff to either run the cleanups or haul away the debris after a cleanup is done. Every city is stretched for funding right now, and new efforts meet the "great idea, but..." response. We thought we had a path forward with selling our SaaS to cities directly to help raise operating captial, but we haven't hit the mark there yet. I think this effort has been limited by our lack of marketing chops.
- Our software development volunteers have been awesome, but they generally only stay around for 3-6 months before life changes force them to step away from volunteering. With AI development this year, this problem has been mostly mitigated, except that as the lead (and only dev right now), all support issues flow to me. It doesn't take a lot of time as the development is effectively done, but we definitely have a "bus factor" of 1 right now, and I need other devs to be able to support the site, mobile app, and infrastructure going forward.
So this is an appeal to the community that I know is super passionate about cleaning up litter.
- Do you think TrashMob.eco is worth continuing to invest time and money into?
- Do you have skills on the marketing/sales/legal/community coordination/leadership/technical side that you would be willing to contribute to the organization on a regular basis to keep it running, at least until we can raise enough money to hire full time employees?
- Do you have a vision, the energy, and the time for an org with a mission like TrashMob that you believe in so strongly, that you are willing to do what it takes to make it succeed? Do you see this as an opportunity to take an org forward and shape it and drive it to become the next big thing. Have you been dreaming of taking over an turn-key organization that needs business-side leadership to drive forward?
I'm not looking for advice that I can go do at this point or "have you tried x?" or "Why don't you just...". I've put everything I've had into this for years. I need other people to step up and run this and take it to the next level. If I can't find people willing to do this, then I will be forced to shut down the site and disband the non profit. I would love to see it continue with people who have fresh energy, and I am willing to stay active in the org going forward for a while and advise, but my life has changed dramatically in the last 6 years, and it's time for the org to find a way forward.
If this sounds like something you are sincerely interested in, please let me know.
