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Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

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Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#1

Post by plam »

I can get everything in place to spin out a partnership project. What I lack is time and experience (haven't tried this before). So I'm asking for help to iron this out so as not to waste anyone's efforts. I would love to get some feedback on this project / model please.

Background: I'm a tech cofounder of a startup (unrelated). I've been talking to an international non-profit on the side as a pro bono service. We've come to the following problems.

Problems: 1) Nonprofits have lots of technical needs, things they want built, etc. But they have limited resources. 2) Developers can build things but typically have limited availability so cannot engage with longer term charity projects (about 3 months)

Observation: 1) Developers want to help. 2) Developers can offer other things than coding. 3) Who have time and want to build things? Student interns...

Solution: Pair up experienced developers with interns, to form small 2-3 person teams and dive into non-profits.

Benefits: Developer learn to take on CTO role and do good. Intern gets to solve real problems under guidance of mentor. Non-profit get to make use of technologies to solve their problems.

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#4

Post by plam »

tylermac1 wrote: post #2

Student interns also want to get paid. Is that going to be a part of this formula? Or is it just looking for free work in students?

that depends. to pay students I would need to source funding too. that is doable but does add another level of barrier to get things going. I'll probably start with finding unpaid to get a few batch going, gain momentum, then if all is well, we can start looking for funding.

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#5

Post by plam »

dnnrly wrote: post #3

Sounds reasonable on the face of it. Are you proposing to build a service to do this matching?

not yet, but probably eventually. I'll start with just doing it for a project first to test out the model. I have a nonprofit on board with needs. I have connections with developers. I can find an intern. I can get most of it in place but lack time and experience (haven't done this before). So I want your help to iron out the model as much as possible to not waste time.

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#7

Post by plam »

tylermac1 wrote: post #2

Student interns also want to get paid. Is that going to be a part of this formula? Or is it just looking for free work in students?

what student would get is a tech mentor and a chance to solve real problem with a good cause. wouldn't that be a competitive selling point vs. a paid internship with perhaps a few thousand dollars? Perhaps I'm being naive / optimistic?

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#8

Post by dirkc »

Hey plam - I think it is a good idea. I like the project based approach of getting mentors to help interns learn while working on useful projects.

There are many challenges: finding mentors, finding good projects, managing the projects, etc. But I think they can be addressed.

There are some other people that would be interested in your idea at P2PU. If you'd like, share your idea on thepeople.p2pu.org

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#9

Post by dirkc »

plam wrote: post #5
dnnrly wrote: post #3

Sounds reasonable on the face of it. Are you proposing to build a service to do this matching?

not yet, but probably eventually. I'll start with just doing it for a project first to test out the model. I have a nonprofit on board with needs. I have connections with developers. I can find an intern. I can get most of it in place but lack time and experience (haven't done this before). So I want your help to iron out the model as much as possible to not waste time.

You should have a look at https://www.catchafire.org/. They help match up interns and non-profits (for a fee that is).

Re: Ask HN: Charity to pair tech mentors with interns to dive into non-profits

#10

Post by s9ix »

Currently work at both a nonprofit and a startup, so this is fairly interesting.

I think for something like this to work, you'd have to get approval for a project and the scope/timeline before anyone is on-boarded. I'm fairly fortunate where I work, but a lot of times, getting buy-in can take long and be a rather painful process.

Also, do you have a scope of what type of things can be built? It would be beneficial to work out of a common Github/etc. so that future projects can build off of previous, and updates can be rolled out this way. For example, I know an organization I used to work with wanted a simple reception app - schedule an appointment, and it sends out reminders via text and/or email on the timing, and then it can also be used to check in. This would be simple using Twilio/Tropo and could be super easy to save in a state for other orgs to plug in and start using.

Great idea by the way - excited to see where this goes :)

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