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.<p>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?<p>I expect the number of formal programs is low, so another question.<p>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?<p>Or is open source the developer's Pro Bono?
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.<p>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.<p>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:<p><a href="http://flatironschool.com/fogcreek/" rel="nofollow">http://flatironschool.com/fogcreek/</a><p>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.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Hack4Impact" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/Hack4Impact</a>
[2] <a href="http://hack4impact.org" rel="nofollow">http://hack4impact.org</a>
As a freelancer, I discount my rate 50% for 501(c)(3) organizations, and for open-source projects.<p>I've never offered pro-bono work, but I suppose I'd be open to the idea for the right cause.