

Show HN: My weekend project to connect coders with non-profits - kellishaver

After a weekend of coding, last night I launched a very early-version MVP of Coders Who Care. - The goal of the site is to connect nonprofits with developers willing to donate time to a good cause.<p>Right now, it's simply a directory, but in the future I'll be adding more tools for devs and organizations, including ways for charities to post projects and tools to notify developers when a project is posted that matches their interests, etc. I'll also introduce some social components, like recommendations/endorsements, and I have plans for eventually adding a software distribution system that open source developers can use as a means of stirring up support/donations for their favorite organizations.<p>Anyway, big plans, tiny beginning. I thought HN might be interested.<p>http://coderswhocare.org
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pilom
I'm very curious about how many people you get to volunteer time. One issue
you may want to look at is, many non-profits don't need a developer, they need
a consultant who can help them come up with what the developer is for. Getting
people to understand the difference is important for both ends of the
agreement.

Also the black on white and white on black on the homepage is hard on my eyes.

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catone
That's a good point. My brother -- who until recently ran a small non-profit
-- last year had a grant to build a new website and put out a RFP to a bunch
of local and national design firms. I think at times he was overwhelmed with
the responses and utilized me to sort through them. I spent a good deal of
time going over the proposals with him and helping him understand the
differences between WordPress and Drupal and PHP vs. Ruby and what sort of
features he actually needed on his organization's new website.

In the end he told me that I could probably make a living doing consulting
like that strictly for non-profits. There is definitely a need for that sort
of guidance.

I think that's where orgs like NTEN can help, and maybe this site could also
act as an information clearing house and community for those on the non-profit
side to learn about what sort of technologies are available, what they need,
what's possible, and how to get it done.

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HedgeMage
I've participated in several such initiatives over the years, so I'd like to
offer a tidbit of advice:

The development part is easy.

What happens before (identifying what the group really needs) and after
(maintenance, hosting, back-ups, training, support) is the hard part. Too many
well-meaning groups put together stellar software that non-profits don't get
enough use out of due to lack of attention to the before-and-after pictures.

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kellishaver
Thanks for the advice. It seems to mirror what some others have been saying
and is something I've been putting a lot of thought into today-definitely
going to give it some serious consideration going forward and see what I can
come up with on that front.

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mindfulbee
This is awesome! I don't know if this may be of interest, but I know a lot of
Universities in our area with college students trying to start non-profits or
social ventures whom need help with the developing portion or coding portion.
Here's my email: ckc653@gmail.com Please let me know if you are interested!

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catone
Clickable link: <http://coderswhocare.org>

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triviatise
i think this is a great idea. In austin there is a company convio which
provides a platform for non-profits. It might be helpful to talk to them to
see if you can form some kind of partnership - they have a lot of connections
to non-profits.

This is a chicken and the egg problem and it seems like you need developers.
But developers might need to see non-profits that inspire them before getting
involved.

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kellishaver
Thanks. I'll keep Convio in mind - I have connections in Austin, so that's
definitely something to consider. I've been getting more involved in nonprofit
work lately and have several friends ho are, as well, so we can and want to
start reaching out more.

I agree about the chicken/egg problem. I had considered adding a sort of
nonprofit showcase, or case studies to the site, or even just covering them on
an associated blog, something. I think one of the first things I'll add next
is a "tell us your story" type page where nonprofits can submit info on what
they're up to and I can start building up a database of interested
organizations and details about them.

I'm attending a couple of big-ish charity events soon and primarily wanted to
get the site up and hopefully get a few people signed on board prior to that,
work out a solid plan going forward, add what I can in the mean time, and
start doing some serious promotion in about a month.

It's a bit of a catch-22 on the promotion end of things, as well. You don't
want to promote an empty site, but you need to get users somehow - which is a
problem I'm sure everyone on HN who's ever launched a member-based site has
face, and I'd love some tips on dealing with it. Right now, I'm mostly pushing
it among friends.

