
Ask HN: Have you been able to apply your programming skills for charity? - calabin
Recently I&#x27;ve been looking for a side project and thought that it would be nice if I could leverage my existing skills and interests in a charitable way.<p>Have you been able to use your software engineering abilities for charity? If so, how did you find the opportunity, and what effect were you able to have?
======
DoreenMichele
I'm not a serious programmer per se, but I did a lot of Tech work for a
homeless shelter years ago. They eventually got a serious Tech guy to take
over from me. I'm currently the webmaster for a small local non profit.

I recommend you just get involved in whatever charity interests you and, after
establishing connections, let them know you have X, y and z expertise to bring
to the table.

Some super model began showing up at some program and was doing really menial
tasks, like serving food in a soup kitchen. She wasn't there long before big
wigs jumped on asking her to be the face of their PR campaign.

If you are humble, willing to support their cause and you have unusual assets
they don't often see, most charities will jump on that just as soon as they
understand what you have to offer.

------
grawprog
I'm not sure if it counts as charity but my first job out of school was
managing data for non-profit bat research project. There was a small amount of
scripting and some website work. Not too much intensive programming though. I
also did some similar work for a conservation organization that runs out of a
local park. That one was volunteer work.

Local conservation or biology groups like that typically have a lot of data
but not many people with the skills to organize and analyze it. They're
usually pretty grateful to people that can help with that.

~~~
calabin
Thanks for the tip, I'll make some inquiries in that direction.

