[Nfbk] CharityHack offering digital assistance to local nonprofits at weekend-long event

[Kevin Pearl]

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CharityHack offering digital assistance to local nonprofits at weekend-long event
Posted by Melissa Chipman


If you’re a designer, developer or creative, you’ve likely been approached by someone in the nonprofit sphere for a little pro bono help on a project. And you’re happy to help. You want to help. You wish you could help more often.

But more than likely, unless you’ve achieved the elusive, perhaps mythical, “perfect life-work balance,” you’re already working just about as hard as you can on numerous projects.

Cue CharityHack, the brainchild of Social Pilotdesigner and developer Chris Davis. It’s a weekend-long hackathon to solve problems for nonprofits. The first CharityHack will take place at Velocity Indiana the weekend before Derby.

The plan is to attract tech-types — designers, developers and various kinds of creatives — to the event and match them with pre-vetted nonprofit problems that can be solved over the course of a weekend. The organizers already have around 20 people on board, and they are currently accepting applications from nonprofits.

The website describes the event:

We’ll begin our weekend with a brainstorming period, during which our charities will work closely with their teams to brainstorm and plan the overarching blueprint of their project. The race begins! From Friday night to Sunday evening’s closing ceremony, the charities and creatives will fiercely “hack” together their new projects, working quickly to iterate awesome new solutions.

The idea is simple…constraints force inspiration. When the timeline is drastically shortened, we push ourselves harder to create amazing stuff using the resources that are available.

“The way people consume and share information has changed dramatically over a short period of time,” says Nick Huhn, digital media expert withAvocado Digital, and one of the organizers of the event. Many nonprofits are not aware of some of the newer resources available, like Google for Non-Profits, which offers nonprofits a whole suite of free apps and is easy to set up, says Huhn.

Many nonprofits are locked into proprietary software or communications systems that their boards set in place years ago. CharityHackers can help “move the nonprofits forward,” says Campbell Boyer, a consultant and entrepreneur who’s on the organizing team. “Nonprofits are putting out fires constantly.”

Aaron Bacon of MoDuet web design, the last of the four event organizers, talks about nonprofits that struggle with their budgets but routinely have $10,000 in direct mail drops. CharityHackers could help a nonprofit develop digital communication like newsletters and a social media presence. “The project can be as simple as setting up a domain name for the nonprofit to helping them create an online fundraiser,” says Bacon.

The organizers will be vetting nonprofits and the projects before the event and will bring only the projects that are reasonably achievable in a weekend or less to the hackers. They’re in the process of collecting applications now. So if you have a nonprofit with a tech need, apply online. Boyer says they will try to find a way to advise every nonprofit that applies — even if the project doesn’t meet the criteria for the hackathon. “We’ll at least help get them an action plan.”

Nonprofit representatives will be required to attend at least some portion of the event, and they must have a representative “on call” at all times to answer CharityHackers’ questions.

The CharityHack website lists the possible projects CharityHackers can undertake:

1. Web design
2. Mobile interface design
3. WordPress development
4. Backend design / development
5. Print design
6. Advertisement planning
7. Advertisement design
8. Social media assets
9. Social media marketing consulting
10. Online marketing consulting
11. Digital marketing planning for 2014
12. Copywriting
13. Video work
14. Video editing
15. Sound editing

CharityHack has already lined up three sponsors:Louisville Digital Association, Blue Sky Network and Velocity. They’re hoping to keep the event free for hackers, so they are actively seeking sponsorship both for cash donations and for services, especially meals and refreshments. They’ve also put out a call to well-funded nonprofits to volunteer or sponsor.

The goal is for CharityHack not to stop at the end of the event on Sunday but to develop a plan forward for the nonprofits and the hackers for a continuing relationship. The organizers also hope this event will be replicable, allowing them to develop a model that can be used at least once a year and can scale to other cities.

The event is a little like Startup Weekend, but Hahn says, “It’s not a weekend of customer discovery; it’s a weekend of executing.” And unlike Startup Weekend, it’s not a competition; it’s a collaboration.

If you’re interested in participating or sponsoring CharityHack, you can sign up on the website. If you work with a nonprofit and have digital projects that CharityHack can help with, make sure you apply soon — only a limited number of projects can be tackled during the weekend.

Charity Hack is April 25 – 27 at Velocity.

March 13, 2014Leave a reply
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