If you're located in Chicago, I enjoyed volunteering for CodePlatoon as a TA. It's not a huge commitment and it's a lot of fun.
Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
51–60 of 96 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#52Teach prisoners how to code https://thelastmile.org/
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#53I've found the best way to volunteer is at something complementary to what one does in one's day-to-day, something I'm also interested in but don't get paid for. At the moment, that looks like teaching a free English class to new immigrants. I think working on interests outside of one's professional sphere helps keep the work interesting, and the volunteer engaged.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#54I have dedicated untold hours of my life to the FIRST Robotics Competition [0]. I participated in high school and have been volunteering for the past 15 years after I graduated. I can't count how many high school aged students I've interacted with, but I do know that my time makes a difference. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, email in profile. [0]: https://www.firstinspires.org/ways-to-help/voluntee…
Thanks for doing this! Fond memories of participating in FIRST 20+ years ago.
If you haven't seen the advances made to the program in the last 20 years, I'd highly recommend looking up some youtube/twitch videos of gameplay from the 2019 season. A lot has changed!
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#55Just started a coding bootcamp at a public library to teach ppl how to code: https://www.meetup.com/San-Jose-C0D3 Librarians love it when tech people come in to help. They don't have technical skills and most techies don't seem to think about volunteering at the library. My goal: To help local libraries provide a free coding bootcamp to anybody who wants to learn. Libraries are a beautiful place. They don't discrimin…
Love this. How did you gather interest and get this going?
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#56Donating money is almost always more valuable than donating time, especially if you're not going to donate a lot of time. The time may feel better (or it may not -- I've had volunteer gigs where I didn't feel I could accomplish much, and that sucks), but the money is more useful.
I read all of the comments to this post and I don't your's stands up. Donating time can be very valuable. On the other side of the coin, there are a lot of charities and other causes that have substantial overhead costs. It is possible that only a fraction of your donation might be a direct benefit to the intended recipient.
That's why you should donate to low-overhead charities like GiveDirectly.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#57Just started a coding bootcamp at a public library to teach ppl how to code: https://www.meetup.com/San-Jose-C0D3 Librarians love it when tech people come in to help. They don't have technical skills and most techies don't seem to think about volunteering at the library. My goal: To help local libraries provide a free coding bootcamp to anybody who wants to learn. Libraries are a beautiful place. They don't discrimin…
This is a really awesome idea. I love how it leverages a public space that is already culturally oriented towards making knowledge accessible to everyone.
Exactly.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#58Donating money is almost always more valuable than donating time, especially if you're not going to donate a lot of time. The time may feel better (or it may not -- I've had volunteer gigs where I didn't feel I could accomplish much, and that sucks), but the money is more useful.
The economic consideration comes down to the real value of the labor, and that depends heavily on the economic benefits of specialization. A day of you doling out soup to people or picking up trash won't be worth any more than what someone who does it for a living is paid. And it will probably be substantially less because you're not practiced at it. A day of you building houses (assuming you have no training) could…
>A day of you working closely to your profession is probably worth something similarly close to your salary.
A day every 2-4 weeks of working closely to your profession might be, but less frequently than that and most high-skill professions will spend most of their time having to re-orient to what the needs are or get the details of where the org is today vs. where it was three months ago. I've done volunteer work where I spent over half the time figuring out what they needed. What they really needed was money to hire someone that they could get to do that same thing on a consistent basis so that overhead didn't take up more than half of the donation.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#59On the contrary, I use volunteer work as a time to take a break from tech. In the past I've volunteered as elementary school classroom help, tutored students of various ages, and coached line for a local high school football team. Yes, as tech workers, we have the ability to use our valuable skills pro bono. But I think it can also be beneficial to step out of the tech bubble and integrate with the rest of non-tech s…
I volunteer at a crisis center in a number of roles. My sysadmin job gives me the security and freedom to engage with people outside of that realm in my spare time. It has been refreshing and meaningful to focus on something _other than_ tech in that capacity.
There's so much going on in the world that doesn't revolve around computers that has a need for people.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#60I've heard great things about Ovio https://ovio.org/ - they help coordinate open-source project development for social-impact organizations using volunteers like yourself
Here's the direct link to their projects page https://explore.ovio.org/