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Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
41–50 of 79 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#42I like this take from Carlos Slim on charity: https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WHB-3852 Basically, the best way to do charity is to first accumulate a lot of wealth. Only then will you be able to move the important pointers. Obviously controversial, but still refreshing to see a different take.
But then you get folks like Sam Bankman-Fried, who long claimed exactly this as his motivation for his crypto business. The question is, is it likely, or even possible, to be motivated to make lots and lots of money, and then have that process of earning lots and lots of money not affect you? Is everyone who chases a seven-figure-income destined to eventually become an asshole?
It's common fo criminals to use charity to ease their conscience, that's all there is to it.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#43I have a GPL project that I would appreciate even some basic commits from another person. I am not registered as anything, but it is intended to help people and I don't intend to charge for it.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#44One tip when donating professional services is to provide an invoice for the work done with the balance indicated as comped. This is essential in making sure that the recipients understand the value of what they’re getting (so on your invoice you would bill your regular rate—if you don’t do hourly billing for work, a good rule of thumb is to take your annual income and drop off the last three zeros to get an hourly rate).
That said, as many people have indicated, working directly with non-profits on a volunteer basis for professional work rarely works out. Your bench time is probably best directed towards OSS projects.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
But then you get folks like Sam Bankman-Fried, who long claimed exactly this as his motivation for his crypto business. The question is, is it likely, or even possible, to be motivated to make lots and lots of money, and then have that process of earning lots and lots of money not affect you? Is everyone who chases a seven-figure-income destined to eventually become an asshole?
It's possible if you're way of making lots of money doesn't involve scamming or exploiting people.
There is no way of amassing a huge amount of money in Capitalism without exploiting people brutally or at the very least vowing to do so.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#46you can't donate your time. my understanding is, it's not tax-deductible.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#47Have you heard of Home Assistant? https://www.home-assistant.io/
The community would love some passionate developers to create or update new integrations (connections to other services) and features (stuff built directly into Home Assistant)
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#48It's been a while, but the most rewarding experience I had in this space was engaging directly with a small local charity. I just pitched them the idea of me getting 10 minutes with every worker that had to use a PC as part of what the charity did. I used the time to interview them, and try to identify something that affected the largest swath of workers. As it turned out, what I helped them with wasn't code, but a b…
Can you bill the time as a tax write-off?
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#49A relative of mine and her friends run an NGO who could use some scripting/data science skills. They audit how the government spends their euros in healthcare, keeping them in check when corruption rears its head. (contact in profile)
Re: Ask HN: Best way to “donate” dev hours to charity?
#50Personally, I use my spare time towards organizing a group that supports and nurtures developer communities in my area [1]. My organization is itself a 501c3, and our charitable mission is to provide developers with opportunities to learn and network. We do this by organizing monthly technical meetings, networking events, career panels, and hackathons. All at no cost to our members (no fees, tickets, or dues). We als…
What measures to rehabilitate the scene have you found most effective?