Ask HN: Pro Bono for developers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Pro Bono for developers?

7 pointsCoreSet5 comments

Along with lawyers, developers have a similarly specialized and in-demand skill set. One whose price sadly puts it out of reach for many people and organizations who need digital services.

Does anyone here engage in side-work for a nonprofit or charity, at a free or discounted rate? Does your company promote or have any hand supporting these contributions?

I expect the number of formal programs is low, so another question.

Would you support a program at your company that encouraged doing technical work for approved organizations? Could you see yourself donating time in that way?

Or is open source the developer's Pro Bono?

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IMO, you do many organizations a disserve if you do custom programming for them. They won't know what they want, it'll take longer to build than you expect and they won't be able to maintain it.

Instead, provide consulting on how to use off-the-shelf software or existing commercial services to achieve their business goals. That way, when you part ways, they have a shot at actually being able to continue using whatever you introduced to the org.

If you want to scratch the developer itch, do open source. Filing tickets, improving documentation, or actually contributing patches.

I'm at Trello. We have this:

http://flatironschool.com/fogcreek/

Outside of that -- I personally do some pro-bono tech work for a non-profit that I am on the board of.

Hey, I'm part of Hack4Impact[1], a club at Penn that works with and develops for nonprofits. Each semester we split into teams, and each team works on a project with a nonprofit. Some of our past projects are showcased on our site [2]. I'd be happy to answer any questions about the group.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/Hack4Impact [2] http://hack4impact.org

http://www.codeforamerica.org

As a freelancer, I discount my rate 50% for 501(c)(3) organizations, and for open-source projects.

I've never offered pro-bono work, but I suppose I'd be open to the idea for the right cause.

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