Volunteer hackathon connects techies, nonprofits
By Nellie Bowles, San Francisco Chronicle
Chong-Kee Tan knew his idea for a nonprofit would grow if he
had an app. But he could never afford the necessary fleet of programmers, who
would cost thousands of dollars.
One day, he heard through a friend that a group of hackers
that gathered regularly at a private mansion by Alamo Square was hosting an
event in June for nonprofits.
When Tan showed up, he found a full developing team's
members asking how they could help.
"I couldn't believe it," said Tan, the 55-year-old
co-founder of Bay Bucks, a community currency startup. "Generally,
hackathons are about winning competitions to make a name for yourself, with a
lot of silly ideas. This was curated and smart. And I couldn't believe how fast
they worked."
Hosted by an organization called ReAllocate, these
low-profile volunteer hackathons, which bring together tech-savvy people to use
their skills after hours, have been helping small nonprofits since June. Run by
four entrepreneurs, ReAllocate has set up weekend-long do-good hackathons where
data scientists, designers and back-end engineers can work with nonprofits.
Last Saturday, they hosted an all-day event for engineers to
meet with nonprofit founders, followed by speakers, guest chefs and a dance
party. In a few weeks, they're growing beyond in-person intensives by launching
a website to connect skilled volunteers with worthy projects.
"Skill-based volunteering, you can be much more
efficient, much more purposeful," said ReAllocate executive director Kyle
Stewart. "If you have somebody with an amazing set of technical skills and
they're serving soup in a soup kitchen, it may not be the best use of their
time."
Addressing income gap
As the income gap grows, especially in San Francisco,
programmers, who are often characterized as apolitical, are rising up to
address the issue directly - the name ReAllocate implies an active plan for
redistribution. And while building apps may not have immediate tangible
effects, these new techno-volunteers think harnessing and sharing their
high-level skills can help others rise from poverty.
ReAllocate's role will be to play matchmaker between the
engineers and nonprofits.
"Nonprofits can post their projects and then we'll help
them connect with our network of technical talent, entrepreneurs and
storytellers," said Stewart, who estimates that ReAllocate has tens of
thousands of volunteers in its network. ReAllocate's engineers are already
loading up the website with tools for other techies to use on projects. And
they'll work in teams - for Tan's startup, Bay Bucks, he had a user interface
designer, an iOS expert and a platform independent developer sitting around a
table working simultaneously.
Not just code
"It won't always be about writing code from
scratch," Stewart said.
The hackathon last Saturday ended with series of speakers
and a dance party at the Alamo Square house, a mansion whose inhabitants call
it the Embassy. Speakers included Lawrence Grodeska, the nonprofit director of
Change.org, and Nolan Love, whose startup, PollVault, connects voters with
advice from trusted organizations - both of whom spoke about the need for more
effective volunteering systems for programmers.
The chef and "food hacker" Tim West made spring
rolls, mango salsa and cabbage bowls. A DJ played in one of the living rooms,
and, at a Vine video booth, attendees could answer the question: "How can
you ReAllocate?"
Community space
One project that has already come from ReAllocate is
Freespace, a temporary community center in a massive old warehouse on the edge
of the Tenderloin. The space hosts events (like community dinners, after-school
tutoring and free yoga classes) that draw techies and low-income locals
together.
The organizers are planning to launch temporary Freespaces
globally in tandem with the World Cup in 2014.
"In our very noncommittal generation - and especially
in San Francisco - how do we create community?" Ilana Lipsett, one of the
leaders of Freespace, asked at the Embassy hackathon. "And that's where
the idea of temporary comes in. Temporary shows what's possible."
Since the hackathon in June, Bay Bucks has been steadily
growing, Tan said. He plans to go back to another ReAllocate event to get some
kinks worked out. He believes that tech volunteers may help close the wealth
gap.
"When you work on the technology, you're working on the
source of the problem, on the structural issues," he said. "You're
not just alleviating those suffering of poverty. It's not just a Band-Aid.
You're looking to stop poverty from happening."
Nellie Bowles is a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. Her
Gold Rush features look at how tech is impacting city life. E-mail: nbowles@sfchronicle.com
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