Ask YC: Where to find coders for non-profits?

[will_phipps]

I am trying to get a non-profit off the ground, with the aim of raising money for starving people in less developed countries. I need a few tech. people willing to work a few hours a week to help me get it off the ground.

Anyone here interested in helping or have any ideas on where I might find suitable volunteers?

Ping my email in my profile if you'd prefer to get in touch direct.

Thanks!

[joshstrange]

I can't tell you how much I wish there existed a site that allowed for programmers to work for non-profits easily. There are often times when I have downtime but I am too burnt out to work on my own projects and I just want a change of pace. I feel like most non-profits could greatly benefit from developers and designers helping them either with their web presence or to help with efficiency.

Recently I helped a national Fraternity, not my own, with tracking and recording tweets using a certain hashtag over the span of 40 days. Their method prior to me was copy + pasting the tweets that they liked from twitter (Using twitter search) in a word document. Using open source tools like phirehose I was able to help them record and track 5K+ tweets and export the data into something they could use. Helping out with this was very rewarding and I had a ton of fun. I wish their were more opportunities like this. The problem was I had to contact them, they had no idea that there were people even out their that could do that let alone do it for free.

I hope that in a few days I see a "Show HN: Weekend project- NonProfitCoding.com" (The domain is open, I just don't have the time to work on something like that right now) on the front page because I would defiantly join.

[zackzackzack]

Maybe try to make it happen yourself first.

Technical people will probably think most of what you are trying to do is easy: "That's just wordpress with some ecommerce plugins and a customized wootheme."

If you can get to the point where technical people realize that you need technical people to make your project happen, instead of "Why is this guy so dumb he can't even install wordpress", then you will have a much better chance of attracting help.

Worse comes to worse, you figure out your idea isn't that special or complicated yet and that you don't actually need any outside help to make it happen yourself.

[wallflower]

Try a startup weekend event. Pitch your idea with passion. Random Hacks of Kindness was held recently. http://rhok.org

All the rules for attracting talent to a VC-funded startup apply. If you are not technical, become the Pied Piper. If you are technical, learn to lead, to take charge.

The short answer is your potential team members are out there. And it is your job to find them. Talk about this with everyone you meet, the idea. Make it less broad, more targeted.

[leeHS]

So that said, what specifically is your idea? Imagine it's up and running right now. How does it work? How do you raise money? How are you getting it to the starving people? How are you ensuring it is being used effectively? Congrats for wanting to take this on. I tip my cap in your general direction!

[will_phipps]

In the UK we have a few major financial comparison sites - gocompare, comparethemarkets, moneysupermarket, confused.com to name a few. So, I would like to establish a similar entity, who's profits are directed to charities focussed on feeding hungry kids!

[dholowiski]

Interesting idea. Seperate from the code and design, have you thought about the financial logistical details (getting and distributing money) as well as the 'deal making' requirements of getting such a project up and running?