4 ms·

Offer HN: Improve and show your skills by working with a NPO/NGO

Hello hackers! So I am part of the non-profit organization (NGO) called "Adelante Africa" (Go Africa!) based in Uk/Spain. We really try our best to keep the things going but we really could use a bit of help, and you will be able to add your collaboration to your showcase =) This is our memory and objectives: http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/docs/Annual%20Report%202012.pdf (The 2013 report will come out next May). You can find all the information in English and Spanish in the main web page and I will answer any question regarding this topic here or by e-mail, so let's get to the point. We have already deployed with a bit of help a Wordpress Site (replacing the previous static web-page) but we are not design experts, and also, we don't have the money to pay for one. So, let's go to the point, what are we looking for: 0. UpVoters: anyone reading this who can help us by voting this very same post. 1. A designer: someone who has the time and the willing to facelift our page so it becomes nicer and easier to use. 2. A SEO: someone who has the time and the willing to help us to reach more people. 3. A hosting enterprise: currently we are paying for it nearly 200€/year (hosting/domain). It would be great to cut-off this cost. In exchange we can provide a badge. 4. Any enterprise who is willing to collaborate with the cause, anyone willing to collaborate with the project. 5. Any others! If you think you can help us in any other way, you will be so very welcome, just e-mail me. In exchange we provide: gratitude and acknowledgement. In exchange the children will provide: smiles. Contact me at: professorTuring [ at ] gmail [ . ] com

professorTuring 13y ago
Clickable report: http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/docs/Annual%20Report%202012.pdf http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/...
beshrkayali 13y ago
Because most NGOs (I know it's not all of them, but I would say the majority) are bullcrap, do-nothing orgs. Spending more money on lobbying and staffing than the original cause.
- professorTuring 13y ago
  I respect your opinion but we don't do that and we don't plan to.
  - narag 13y ago
    Also he clearly hasn't took the five minutes to read the memory. Nice project! An email is in your way, I hope I can help.
- yuvipanda 13y ago
  [citation needed] I work for one (Wikimedia Foundation), and we seem to be doing alright.
  - beshrkayali 13y ago
    That's why I said it's not all. I'm not generalizing, I'm just stating the fact of what I've noticed.
    - nollidge 13y ago
      You're not stating a fact, you're stating an opinion as though it were a fact. Don't be surprised when nobody's fooled.
- grageth 13y ago
  I think you should spend more time looking into NGOs before generalizing. There are some really bad ones out there true. But the majority are filled with amazing people, amazing leadership and do amazing things. The reality is that as an organization grows bigger they have far higher administration costs. A for profit company grows naturally as their income and reach grows, so higher staffing needs are covered by the growth of the company. NGOs do not have that luxury, they have to get more donations and those donations often have to go to administration costs. What I look for when donating is a transparent organization that details these costs. Some NGOs I've been involved with do separate drives for their administration costs, which means general donations go directly to their work. The great thing is that there are many people that understand that running an organization costs money and are happy to donate to those drives.
kenrick95 13y ago
By the way, non-profit organization is not the same as non-governmental organization (NGO)
- professorTuring 13y ago
  Ok, let me add that since we are both an NGO and an NPO.
Blahah 13y ago
We're building a site, http://solvers.io http://solvers.io, to enable projects that improve the world to recruit highly skilled volunteers. Adelante Africa is a great fit - we'd love you to post to Solvers and we'll try to put some eyes on the project. Just this morning I heard that a Solver had helped fix the website of another Africa-related charity, TReND in Africa. We're still in open beta and would love feedback.
- professorTuring 13y ago
  Great! I will =)
- mattmanser 13y ago
  Your website is pretty borked. It comes up with 'Uh-oh couldn't find that page' and then loads after a few seconds whenever I middle click a project to open a new tab. Also when I click a project on the home page it doesn't reset the scroll position, so for many projects I'm left looking at a bunch of tags. It also looks like it presents a completely blank page when js is turned off, even if I pretend to be a google bot in my UA string, which means you'll probably be screwed for SEO. Windows 7/Chrome My advice, don't try and make a Single Page App when a simple website would have sufficed. The tech available to us at the moment just doesn't support it.
  - Blahah 13y ago
    Thanks very much for the feedback - I've added issues to our tracker. We're already quite far down the single page app route. It does have some drawbacks, but has also allowed us to develop pretty fast and enables some planned features that are hard with simple websites. There are solutions for the SEO thing - but none that I know of for people with JS turned off. PRs very welcome: https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open.
- dizzy3gg 13y ago
  Blocked by company firewall, stating malware.

professorTuring 13y ago

Clickable report: http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/docs/Annual%20Report%202012.pdf http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/...

beshrkayali 13y ago

Because most NGOs (I know it's not all of them, but I would say the majority) are bullcrap, do-nothing orgs. Spending more money on lobbying and staffing than the original cause.

professorTuring 13y ago
I respect your opinion but we don't do that and we don't plan to.
- narag 13y ago
  Also he clearly hasn't took the five minutes to read the memory. Nice project! An email is in your way, I hope I can help.
yuvipanda 13y ago
[citation needed] I work for one (Wikimedia Foundation), and we seem to be doing alright.
- beshrkayali 13y ago
  That's why I said it's not all. I'm not generalizing, I'm just stating the fact of what I've noticed.
  - nollidge 13y ago
    You're not stating a fact, you're stating an opinion as though it were a fact. Don't be surprised when nobody's fooled.
grageth 13y ago
I think you should spend more time looking into NGOs before generalizing. There are some really bad ones out there true. But the majority are filled with amazing people, amazing leadership and do amazing things. The reality is that as an organization grows bigger they have far higher administration costs. A for profit company grows naturally as their income and reach grows, so higher staffing needs are covered by the growth of the company. NGOs do not have that luxury, they have to get more donations and those donations often have to go to administration costs. What I look for when donating is a transparent organization that details these costs. Some NGOs I've been involved with do separate drives for their administration costs, which means general donations go directly to their work. The great thing is that there are many people that understand that running an organization costs money and are happy to donate to those drives.

kenrick95 13y ago

By the way, non-profit organization is not the same as non-governmental organization (NGO)

professorTuring 13y ago
Ok, let me add that since we are both an NGO and an NPO.

Blahah 13y ago

We're building a site, http://solvers.io http://solvers.io, to enable projects that improve the world to recruit highly skilled volunteers. Adelante Africa is a great fit - we'd love you to post to Solvers and we'll try to put some eyes on the project. Just this morning I heard that a Solver had helped fix the website of another Africa-related charity, TReND in Africa. We're still in open beta and would love feedback.

professorTuring 13y ago
Great! I will =)
mattmanser 13y ago
Your website is pretty borked. It comes up with 'Uh-oh couldn't find that page' and then loads after a few seconds whenever I middle click a project to open a new tab. Also when I click a project on the home page it doesn't reset the scroll position, so for many projects I'm left looking at a bunch of tags. It also looks like it presents a completely blank page when js is turned off, even if I pretend to be a google bot in my UA string, which means you'll probably be screwed for SEO. Windows 7/Chrome My advice, don't try and make a Single Page App when a simple website would have sufficed. The tech available to us at the moment just doesn't support it.
- Blahah 13y ago
  Thanks very much for the feedback - I've added issues to our tracker. We're already quite far down the single page app route. It does have some drawbacks, but has also allowed us to develop pretty fast and enables some planned features that are hard with simple websites. There are solutions for the SEO thing - but none that I know of for people with JS turned off. PRs very welcome: https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open.
dizzy3gg 13y ago
Blocked by company firewall, stating malware.