I've heard great things about Ovio https://ovio.org/ - they help coordinate open-source project development for social-impact organizations using volunteers like yourself
Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
31–40 of 96 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#32Just 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…
>>Libraries are a beautiful place. They don't discriminate against anyone regardless of social status, race, gender, etc.
This is a great idea! Thanks for doing this. Have you had your first session yet? How did it go?
Do you use the library computers for your coding bootcamp?
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#33[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#34Just 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…
>>Libraries are a beautiful place. They don't discriminate against anyone regardless of social status, race, gender, etc. This is a great idea! Thanks for doing this. Have you had your first session yet? How did it go? Do you use the library computers for your coding bootcamp?
Yeah last year we did it for 3 months as a pilot program. It was a little messy, but the librarians loved it. I took about a year break to think hard about how it could be more effective and came up with a self-guided curriculum and then launched this yesterday!
I plan to start small (intentionally so) to build a core group of students and then slowly grow from there. Over the past year The more senior students will pass knowledge down to the more junior ones.
Currently its still too early to determine if there are issues or if things are going well, but we have about 5 students that show up.
> Do you use the library computers for your coding bootcamp?
If students don't have their own computers, we have ssh access for them to code on our computer using a borrowed laptop from the library. VSCode supports remote coding so that's cool. You also have tools like coder.com and repl.it that allows students to code without owning a computer.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#35Just 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…
They're one of the only public places remaining where you aren't expected to spend money.
Thanks for the great idea
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#36I'd probably give https://www.justserve.org/ a look. See what is near you that's listed, if any of the specific organizations interest you hit their websites and look for someone to reach out to locally or at a higher level (if applicable) to see if your specific skills might be used in a volunteer capacity.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#37Donating 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.
Donating technical skills with a market rate of a couple hundred bucks an hour can add up much more quickly than donating cash in many cases. And it doesn't have to be a massive investment - in a few hours you can make a much more manageable and better looking website for a lot of organizations that can't afford to pay for one.
How many organizations need primarily computer work, though? All of the orgs I work with need either to buy specific items, or people with specific trade skills, not more software.
People on HN like to say "Software is eating the world" but when I look at my city, none of the biggest problems I see are going to be solved by more software.
Your software skills only have "a market rate of a couple hundred bucks an hour" because companies like Amazon and Facebook and Google are paying that. You're in a bubble. Small companies and non-profits aren't paying that. Mega-corporations can pay that only because they have massive scale. If one software developer can produce value for a million users, that person is worth a ton of money to the company. The non-profit in your backyard does not share that attribute. Your FAANG salary is not in any way relevant to them.
Finally, every programmer knows there's no such thing as resolving all maintenance "in a few hours". Software maintenance is a never-ending task. Take something that wasn't computerized, and computerize it, and now you've simplified one task for that volunteer org, while creating a new recurring cost for them. (You've taken a visible cost that anyone can help with, and turned it into an invisible cost that requires an expensive specialist.) I've seen countless cases where an org said "We got this new software (for cheap/free) that will help us!", and then 2 months later they're trying to get support, and the person who set it up is long gone.
Please, just give money, and let the organization decide how to use it. They aren't stupid. They know how to hire software people, when that is their most pressing need. Usually it isn't.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#38I 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.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#39It seems unlikely to me that you will make use of much of your skillset this way. Doesn't it make more sense then to use as much of it for your day job and then using that money to contribute to charities? They can hire somebody that can focus on the task full-time so the value received for your time spent should be higher that way (if you are a skilled coder) than contributing time directly.
Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?
#40There's an organization where volunteers teach coding to refugees: https://www.hackyourfuture.net/ It started in Amsterdam and has spread to Copenhagen and Toronto now - you could get involved and help open up a chapter in your city too.