6 ms·

Join reddit, xkcd, dtoid, ars technica & more - donate your hacker skills to non-profits

102 points by kn0thing 18y ago

Instead of asking for money, we thought we ought to pool the talents of our community (and the greater geek community) to improve the most worthy non-profits we could find (submissions and voting going on until next week). And for volunteering your time, you become eligible for some great prizes...

kn0thing 18y ago
Also, if any of you would like to become official partners, email me at alexis@reddit.com (all this takes is something nifty to offer as a prize for a lucky volunteer -- it could be a free 1 yr. subscription to your site, pile of schwag, or an extra ATI Radeon you regret using your VC funding to buy)
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Great idea - count us in (just emailed you).
  - sachinag 18y ago
    What, Dan gets listed and our game offer doesn't? Boo hiss.
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      We're bff.
    - kn0thing 18y ago
      Apologies, I was suffering from email bloat and missed it. Dawdle is now listed - thanks! Some gamer is going to be quite pleased.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
scorxn 18y ago
For those of us with specific skills that may not be needed but want to help anyway... Suggestion: Change 'How would you like to contribute?' to checkboxes or add a radio button for 'Either'.
ryanwaggoner 18y ago
If you're not a hacker and you'd like to contribute your skills, you might want to checkout http://taprootfoundation.org/ http://taprootfoundation.org/ Also, I found it a bit lame that feedaneed.org requires you to sign up for a reddit account. Just me, though.
- kn0thing 18y ago
  You're not the first person to have mentioned taprootfoundation in response to my FeedANeed pitch, I second that recommendation though I haven't personally had any experience with them. As for the lameness of requiring a reddit account, this was so that donors could be contacted without any concern of exposing an email address to a third party. It was just the first method that came to mind, esp. given the simplicity of reddit registration. My feelings won't be hurt if you never use that reddit account again :) When the times comes, it can be deleted here: http://www.reddit.com/prefs/delete http://www.reddit.com/prefs/delete Though, every time an account gets deleted, we kill an alien.
- auston 18y ago
  I felt that way about signing up for reddit as well, but then I realized... It's a wufoo form! They don't really validate your username!?
mhartl 18y ago
I like this idea in principle, but as with most such programs---e.g., high-priced corporate attorneys working a day at the public defender's office---it ignores comparative advantage. It makes you feel good, and it's a public way to look good, but if you want to do good it's better to work the same amount of time for the highest-paying client you can find and then donate the proceeds to a charity of your choice.
- kn0thing 18y ago
  Yes, and your lawyer example illustrates your point well. But consider the diversity of talents we're aiming to pool: programmers, web consultants, logo doodlers, designers, marketers... I worry that if each of these individuals did what you recommend and donated the proceeds, they'd certainly be rocking that comparative advantage. But I suspect that non-profit would use that money for their actual causes (I know I'd rather my donation to http://kidcancer.org/ http://kidcancer.org/ go to curing kids' cancer than pay for a top tier web consultant). And that doesn't even consider the Randall Munroe-autographed gear those donors would be missing out on.
  - mhartl 18y ago
    I just wanted to make a counterpoint to my original point, which is that while in theory it might be better if people billed clients and donated money, in practice they probably wouldn't. It's quite possible that the best way to get people off their bony arses and actually do something is exactly kind of program you've started. In any case, I'm confident that your project is doing good in the world, and I'm glad to see it. Huzzah!
- DaniFong 18y ago
  In the language of economics, one could say that the market for programming talent in many non-profits is undeveloped, and so donating can maximize utility, despite other jobs paying better. As another example, the market for the environment is hardly developed at all. And the market for programming talent within companies is quite underdeveloped too; that's the crux of PG's argument anyway, working at a startup gets you closer to market price.
- 18y ago
jwesley 18y ago
Very cool. I am not a hacker, but offered up my online marketing skills.
- kn0thing 18y ago
  Thanks. Neither am I, but someone is getting some top tier logo consulting ;)
sh1mmer 18y ago
Yahoo have been doing some stuff with Social Innovation Camp (http://www.sicamp.org/ http://www.sicamp.org/) in the UK this year. The SI camps have been an incredible success in helping charities. I cannot recommend doing this kind of stuff enough. Part of the reason to do this over donating is that often the biggest problem charities have is getting tech advice without an agenda. Talking them through their choices and getting them a prototype can be the most helpful thing you can do.
- Tichy 18y ago
  He, and I find it difficult to find charities that don't have an agenda to give tech advice to. I mean at least an agenda I could agree with :-( Would be nice if this reddit approach would bring something up.
  - sh1mmer 18y ago
    Obvious you should agree with a charity's agenda before you help them. The problem I was refering to was the charities getting advice about technology that isn't trying to sell them something. Obviously consultants have to eat too, but a lot of charities pay the same kind of rates as SMEs for technology, which I find slightly depressing.
ejs 18y ago
Signed up, but I am not really sure what (of any difficulty) could be accomplished in only 2 or 4 hours. I guess 2 hours of tagging photos would work, as long as the learning curve is short.
bporterfield 18y ago
I've literally been talking about the same idea with friends for almost a month now! We'd met with quite a few non-profits with the intentions of providing some unique contributions using our technical/marketing skills, but soon realized that the barrier to entry for that kind of assistance was high and that we'd probably do better to reduce this barrier to entry and let anyone with design/marketing/programming/etc skills help for a few hours on an existing, managed project. Our plan is to reach out to non-profits to help them generate new ideas for promoting their cause, then break up tasks and provide an interface for those that want to contribute over the web - looks pretty close to what you're doing! I think it's great that you've put this together. I'd love to speak with you directly about your experience and how we might be able to assist you or work together in the future. If you have a minute, could you contact me at ben @ widgetinvolved.org? Again, great initiative and best of luck.
- bporterfield 18y ago
  edit: found your email in comments, so no need to contact! Again, great work. Think of how much you could accomplish for non-profits if half the visitors to this site spent 1 week working on a project instead of reading articles - amazing!
callahad 18y ago
Also in the Twin Cities area: http://www.overnightwebsitechallenge.com/ http://www.overnightwebsitechallenge.com/ Help give a nonprofit a new website.
diN0bot 18y ago
What do ya'll think of the voting part? A single ranking of companies makes sense if I wanted to throw money at someone, but if I'm volunteering I want to find a good match. That means a more personalized algorithm combing project missions with kind of work. I like the idea of assignments because they're like challenges and that's motivating. But the work modules each org is offering should be better filterable and searchable, and one should be able to change one's assignments. My experience with volunteers is that we are much more likely to do something we care about. My experience with non-profits is that we can take all the help, both amount and variety, we can get! I also think the down-voting is offense (that's why I moved to hn rather than reddit, so I guess I'm not surprised). Some of the orgs near the bottom seem pretty good, but now they're the unpopular kids at the party.
- hueypriest 18y ago
  Agreed that it would be ideal to let people select the projects that are most interesting to them or for which they are best fit. Once there is a list of needed projects from non-profits, what would you propose is the best way to make this match?
netcan 18y ago
Interesting point: http://s3.amazonaws.com/feedaneed.org/index.html#non-profits http://s3.amazonaws.com/feedaneed.org/index.html#non-profits From what I can understand, they are going to end up with a few hundred pledges of technical persons' time in small blocs. The leading projects are not those that I think would benefit tremendously from a few hours with a technical person. I imagine they have plenty. The are mostly either directly software related (Free Software Foundation, GNOME), Web Based (Kiva, Watchdog.net), technical in nature (Engineers Without Borders, Solar Energy), very big fish (Medicines Sans Frontier) or others that probably can easily get what a programmer can give them in a couple of hours (atheist organisations & such). As an exercise in community allocation of resources, I think this has hit a wall.

102 points by kn0thing 18y ago

kn0thing 18y ago

Also, if any of you would like to become official partners, email me at alexis@reddit.com (all this takes is something nifty to offer as a prize for a lucky volunteer -- it could be a free 1 yr. subscription to your site, pile of schwag, or an extra ATI Radeon you regret using your VC funding to buy)

fallentimes 18y ago
Great idea - count us in (just emailed you).
- sachinag 18y ago
  What, Dan gets listed and our game offer doesn't? Boo hiss.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    We're bff.
  - kn0thing 18y ago
    Apologies, I was suffering from email bloat and missed it. Dawdle is now listed - thanks! Some gamer is going to be quite pleased.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

scorxn 18y ago

For those of us with specific skills that may not be needed but want to help anyway... Suggestion: Change 'How would you like to contribute?' to checkboxes or add a radio button for 'Either'.

ryanwaggoner 18y ago

If you're not a hacker and you'd like to contribute your skills, you might want to checkout http://taprootfoundation.org/ http://taprootfoundation.org/ Also, I found it a bit lame that feedaneed.org requires you to sign up for a reddit account. Just me, though.

kn0thing 18y ago
You're not the first person to have mentioned taprootfoundation in response to my FeedANeed pitch, I second that recommendation though I haven't personally had any experience with them. As for the lameness of requiring a reddit account, this was so that donors could be contacted without any concern of exposing an email address to a third party. It was just the first method that came to mind, esp. given the simplicity of reddit registration. My feelings won't be hurt if you never use that reddit account again :) When the times comes, it can be deleted here: http://www.reddit.com/prefs/delete http://www.reddit.com/prefs/delete Though, every time an account gets deleted, we kill an alien.
auston 18y ago
I felt that way about signing up for reddit as well, but then I realized... It's a wufoo form! They don't really validate your username!?

mhartl 18y ago

I like this idea in principle, but as with most such programs---e.g., high-priced corporate attorneys working a day at the public defender's office---it ignores comparative advantage. It makes you feel good, and it's a public way to look good, but if you want to do good it's better to work the same amount of time for the highest-paying client you can find and then donate the proceeds to a charity of your choice.

kn0thing 18y ago
Yes, and your lawyer example illustrates your point well. But consider the diversity of talents we're aiming to pool: programmers, web consultants, logo doodlers, designers, marketers... I worry that if each of these individuals did what you recommend and donated the proceeds, they'd certainly be rocking that comparative advantage. But I suspect that non-profit would use that money for their actual causes (I know I'd rather my donation to http://kidcancer.org/ http://kidcancer.org/ go to curing kids' cancer than pay for a top tier web consultant). And that doesn't even consider the Randall Munroe-autographed gear those donors would be missing out on.
- mhartl 18y ago
  I just wanted to make a counterpoint to my original point, which is that while in theory it might be better if people billed clients and donated money, in practice they probably wouldn't. It's quite possible that the best way to get people off their bony arses and actually do something is exactly kind of program you've started. In any case, I'm confident that your project is doing good in the world, and I'm glad to see it. Huzzah!
DaniFong 18y ago
In the language of economics, one could say that the market for programming talent in many non-profits is undeveloped, and so donating can maximize utility, despite other jobs paying better. As another example, the market for the environment is hardly developed at all. And the market for programming talent within companies is quite underdeveloped too; that's the crux of PG's argument anyway, working at a startup gets you closer to market price.
18y ago

jwesley 18y ago

Very cool. I am not a hacker, but offered up my online marketing skills.

kn0thing 18y ago
Thanks. Neither am I, but someone is getting some top tier logo consulting ;)

sh1mmer 18y ago

Yahoo have been doing some stuff with Social Innovation Camp (http://www.sicamp.org/ http://www.sicamp.org/) in the UK this year. The SI camps have been an incredible success in helping charities. I cannot recommend doing this kind of stuff enough. Part of the reason to do this over donating is that often the biggest problem charities have is getting tech advice without an agenda. Talking them through their choices and getting them a prototype can be the most helpful thing you can do.

Tichy 18y ago
He, and I find it difficult to find charities that don't have an agenda to give tech advice to. I mean at least an agenda I could agree with :-( Would be nice if this reddit approach would bring something up.
- sh1mmer 18y ago
  Obvious you should agree with a charity's agenda before you help them. The problem I was refering to was the charities getting advice about technology that isn't trying to sell them something. Obviously consultants have to eat too, but a lot of charities pay the same kind of rates as SMEs for technology, which I find slightly depressing.

ejs 18y ago

Signed up, but I am not really sure what (of any difficulty) could be accomplished in only 2 or 4 hours. I guess 2 hours of tagging photos would work, as long as the learning curve is short.

bporterfield 18y ago

I've literally been talking about the same idea with friends for almost a month now! We'd met with quite a few non-profits with the intentions of providing some unique contributions using our technical/marketing skills, but soon realized that the barrier to entry for that kind of assistance was high and that we'd probably do better to reduce this barrier to entry and let anyone with design/marketing/programming/etc skills help for a few hours on an existing, managed project. Our plan is to reach out to non-profits to help them generate new ideas for promoting their cause, then break up tasks and provide an interface for those that want to contribute over the web - looks pretty close to what you're doing! I think it's great that you've put this together. I'd love to speak with you directly about your experience and how we might be able to assist you or work together in the future. If you have a minute, could you contact me at ben @ widgetinvolved.org? Again, great initiative and best of luck.

bporterfield 18y ago
edit: found your email in comments, so no need to contact! Again, great work. Think of how much you could accomplish for non-profits if half the visitors to this site spent 1 week working on a project instead of reading articles - amazing!

callahad 18y ago

Also in the Twin Cities area: http://www.overnightwebsitechallenge.com/ http://www.overnightwebsitechallenge.com/ Help give a nonprofit a new website.

diN0bot 18y ago

What do ya'll think of the voting part? A single ranking of companies makes sense if I wanted to throw money at someone, but if I'm volunteering I want to find a good match. That means a more personalized algorithm combing project missions with kind of work. I like the idea of assignments because they're like challenges and that's motivating. But the work modules each org is offering should be better filterable and searchable, and one should be able to change one's assignments. My experience with volunteers is that we are much more likely to do something we care about. My experience with non-profits is that we can take all the help, both amount and variety, we can get! I also think the down-voting is offense (that's why I moved to hn rather than reddit, so I guess I'm not surprised). Some of the orgs near the bottom seem pretty good, but now they're the unpopular kids at the party.

hueypriest 18y ago
Agreed that it would be ideal to let people select the projects that are most interesting to them or for which they are best fit. Once there is a list of needed projects from non-profits, what would you propose is the best way to make this match?

netcan 18y ago

Interesting point: http://s3.amazonaws.com/feedaneed.org/index.html#non-profits http://s3.amazonaws.com/feedaneed.org/index.html#non-profits From what I can understand, they are going to end up with a few hundred pledges of technical persons' time in small blocs. The leading projects are not those that I think would benefit tremendously from a few hours with a technical person. I imagine they have plenty. The are mostly either directly software related (Free Software Foundation, GNOME), Web Based (Kiva, Watchdog.net), technical in nature (Engineers Without Borders, Solar Energy), very big fish (Medicines Sans Frontier) or others that probably can easily get what a programmer can give them in a couple of hours (atheist organisations & such). As an exercise in community allocation of resources, I think this has hit a wall.