Charities need help with their IT systems and they need YOU! In ONE weekend, you can make a difference by using your IT skills to solve a problem which is impacting what these charities do best.

Some of the potential activities you could be doing may include:

• modernising a charity's website
• provide guidance around an existing technology platform which a charity could benefit from
• optimising an existing IT system
• adding new functionality to an website/application
• developing a proof of concept for a charity to trial to support a funding application

The end result of these activiities will make a huge difference to a charity.

So why take part?

This is an opportunity for you to:

• use your skills for good cause and make a difference,
• network with like-minded people
• test or try out new skills
• get outside of your comfort zone

We'll give you one weekend to make this world a better place. It’s as simple as that. Oh and don't forget to bring your laptops!!!

Projects:

• Community Connections need help to create a dynamic online Incident Reporting form for use by their distributed workforce.
• Mana Rescue (Trash Palace) need help to determine which cloud services best meets their needs. They also have an access database that requires some improvements.
• UN Youth need help to implement an online voting system for their members.
  
• Wellington Night Shelter need a system to help manage their accomodation offerings and availability

Agenda:

Friday

5:30pm-7.30pm: Charities pitch their problem. Volunteers will form teams by picking which project they wish to work on. These teams will work together with a representitive of the charity over the weekend.

Saturday

9:00am: Teams start working to solve their choosen charities problems. Mentors will support the teams and help to provide guidance for a solution that could be implemented within the weekend.

12:00pm: Team updates followed by a networking lunch and exchange of ideas.

5:00pm: End of the first working day. Food and beers, then go home, take a shower - that's the best place to form new ideas!

Sunday

9:00am: Let's start the second day!

12:00pm: Further team updates followed by a networking lunch

4:00pm: Stop! Presentation of the improvements to a jury panel. We seek the biggest sustainable impact.

5:30pm: Food and beers for the brave.

There will be an ample supply of coffee and tea available throughout the weekend. Also it would be useful to bring your own water bottles to save on using plastic cups.

Feedback from our last event:

From the charities

"Naomi, Florent and William went beyond the call of duty as they spent the weekend hunched over their laptops tweaking our website to make it look – and perform – better. Thanks for helping to bring us into the 21st century, guys!"

– Ruth & Yvonne, Philanthropy New Zealand

"What a fantastic, tech-tastic weekend at the Charity Hackathon organised by Charity IT and sponsored by Assurity Consulting Limited. Thanks to everyone involved, but most importantly to Piyush, Jordan, Gordon, Barry, John and Stig. Those guys slogged over their laptops all weekend to get us a fantastic new database system for the Wellington Joint Outreach Team. This resource will be invaluable to us working with the street community."

– Andrew, Nance & Steve, Wellington Soup Kitchen

"The weekend is helpful for growing KCA’s operations. We are at the limit of our technology and it would be a struggle to get bigger. This weekend has given us the ability to grow much more. The volunteers have built a foundation - which we can use to build. If you’re not involved, you’re missing out because the weekend has enabled us to improve our capabilities. As a grass-roots organisation, the hackathon is useful because we don’t have access to these type of skills and expertise."

– Tracey, Kiwi Community Assistance

From the volunteers

"As a backend developer I would not have been able to help a charity on my own, this gave me the perfect way to contribute."

"A great time was had by all and, although they didn't know it, they were doing Agile in action - self managing teams, sitting with the customer, pairing on everything, short iterations, delivering working software with only the appropriate materials for handover."

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