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I've twice done tech work for charities (the second being my current contract) and this is going to affect some charities, particularly the ones that rely on do

I've twice done tech work for charities (the second being my current contract) and this is going to affect some charities, particularly the ones that rely on donors, over others that rely on grant money.

luckylion 4y ago
Though the sums were tiny, weren't they? I mean, it was $400m in 9 years, spread over a million charities in the end. To get a significant amount of money through that program, you'd need to be a big name that a lot of people would choose to donate to ... at which point you're a big name that probably gets a lot more money through regular donations.
- WesternWind 4y ago
  One was an international charity, and tiny sums definitely matter. 12 cents buys a de-worming pill that helps keep kids free of intestinal parasites for 6 months. $35 bucks plants 20 trees in a village. Their main focus was a brick and wire based stove that prevented unnecessary deaths and blindness by reducing smoke, built locally from local materials for pennies. Big charities tend to focus on where they can have the most impact. Smaller charities tend to focus on making an impact in a place that needs it. My current charity work is as as Dev and Technical Consultant for a company that basically helps organizations do online evidence based mentoring and support in both urban and rural communities, using an app they developed. Founded basically by a professor to implement her research, than passed on to a new CEO when it took off. They work with a lot of Big Brothers Big Sisters chapters. My contract runs out in Feb and I'm not sure what I'm going to do after that, given all the local layoffs. It's not like the stuff I'm working on is at Scale or uses Machine Learning or requires K8 or whatever is going to make some hiring manager's eyes light up now.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    Oh sure, you can do good things with small amounts, I meant it more like: if you're a small charity where every penny counts, you probably didn't get thousands of dollars from Amazon because you didn't have the reach (and arguably, the time dealing with amazon may have been spent better doing something else). And if you're a big name, you're not relying on a few tens of thousands from Amazon because you're taking in millions in donations and grants each year. I assume it can be hard to transition between charity and for-profit work. Are charities following with the hiring-freeze? Wouldn't freelancers be more welcome in these times, given that they're easy to let go? Good luck in any case.
    - WesternWind 4y ago
      There's no time spent dealing with Amazon as a charity, they just cut a check to the charity for however much it is. The hiring freeze/layoffs, as best I can tell, has been driven by activist hedge funds like TCI and Elliot Managmenet encouraging companies to make big cuts for a short term increase in the bottom line, not by any major actual economic issues for most tech companies.
- StanislavPetrov 4y ago
  >Though the sums were tiny, weren't they? Yes, but for small, grass-roots organizations even small sums can be meaningful. For example, my chosen donation was to Last Hope Animal Rescue, a small outfit based on Long Island. >This is the quarterly notification to inform you that AmazonSmile has made a charitable donation to the charity you’ve selected, Last Hope Inc, in the amount of $854.65 as a result of qualifying purchases made by you and other customers between July 1st - September 30th. How much does $854 per quarter mean to this small organization? Even if it only helped rescue a few animals, it was meaningful. Now that meager funding stream will, unfortunately, be gone. https://lasthopeanimalrescue.org/ https://lasthopeanimalrescue.org/

luckylion 4y ago

Though the sums were tiny, weren't they? I mean, it was $400m in 9 years, spread over a million charities in the end. To get a significant amount of money through that program, you'd need to be a big name that a lot of people would choose to donate to ... at which point you're a big name that probably gets a lot more money through regular donations.

WesternWind 4y ago
One was an international charity, and tiny sums definitely matter. 12 cents buys a de-worming pill that helps keep kids free of intestinal parasites for 6 months. $35 bucks plants 20 trees in a village. Their main focus was a brick and wire based stove that prevented unnecessary deaths and blindness by reducing smoke, built locally from local materials for pennies. Big charities tend to focus on where they can have the most impact. Smaller charities tend to focus on making an impact in a place that needs it. My current charity work is as as Dev and Technical Consultant for a company that basically helps organizations do online evidence based mentoring and support in both urban and rural communities, using an app they developed. Founded basically by a professor to implement her research, than passed on to a new CEO when it took off. They work with a lot of Big Brothers Big Sisters chapters. My contract runs out in Feb and I'm not sure what I'm going to do after that, given all the local layoffs. It's not like the stuff I'm working on is at Scale or uses Machine Learning or requires K8 or whatever is going to make some hiring manager's eyes light up now.
- luckylion 4y ago
  Oh sure, you can do good things with small amounts, I meant it more like: if you're a small charity where every penny counts, you probably didn't get thousands of dollars from Amazon because you didn't have the reach (and arguably, the time dealing with amazon may have been spent better doing something else). And if you're a big name, you're not relying on a few tens of thousands from Amazon because you're taking in millions in donations and grants each year. I assume it can be hard to transition between charity and for-profit work. Are charities following with the hiring-freeze? Wouldn't freelancers be more welcome in these times, given that they're easy to let go? Good luck in any case.
  - WesternWind 4y ago
    There's no time spent dealing with Amazon as a charity, they just cut a check to the charity for however much it is. The hiring freeze/layoffs, as best I can tell, has been driven by activist hedge funds like TCI and Elliot Managmenet encouraging companies to make big cuts for a short term increase in the bottom line, not by any major actual economic issues for most tech companies.
StanislavPetrov 4y ago
>Though the sums were tiny, weren't they? Yes, but for small, grass-roots organizations even small sums can be meaningful. For example, my chosen donation was to Last Hope Animal Rescue, a small outfit based on Long Island. >This is the quarterly notification to inform you that AmazonSmile has made a charitable donation to the charity you’ve selected, Last Hope Inc, in the amount of $854.65 as a result of qualifying purchases made by you and other customers between July 1st - September 30th. How much does $854 per quarter mean to this small organization? Even if it only helped rescue a few animals, it was meaningful. Now that meager funding stream will, unfortunately, be gone. https://lasthopeanimalrescue.org/ https://lasthopeanimalrescue.org/