It was difficult for a veterans charity to track its volunteers. A rural organization that fights opioid addiction needed an easily accessible website. An organization delivering food had trouble with coordination. A group of University of Maryland Students, while polishing their programming skills and doing good for themselves, found the solution.
Hack4Impact-UMD Students are prepared for socially-conscious roles in the technology industry through the creation of software that helps nonprofits all over the nation.
Wren Poremba, Co-Executive director and computer science major, said that many nonprofits don’t always have the funds to hire their own team of techs to create a site for them. We offer our services free of charge so they can carry on with their missions without having to cut back funding.
The lack of funds is the biggest obstacle for non-profits who want to improve their online presence. Salesforce reports that nearly three quarters of non-profits consider digital transformation a “must” or “need to have.” However, only 12% of them score highly on Salesforce’s Nonprofits Digita Maturity index, which measures how effectively nonprofits utilize technology and data.
Hack4Impact was founded in 2020 at UMD as part of an organization that works with nonprofits to address the deficit. The group will work to determine what unique needs they have, such as a website or portal for managing volunteers, and dashboards to track employee assignments.
Most of the 100 undergraduates are from these countries. Computer science You can also find out more about the following: Information science Majors in this group are divided into five teams of product managers, designers and engineers. The project groups meet with nonprofit clients once a month throughout the entire process. This may last a semester.
Sheldon Padgett, director of Hack4Impact, a computer science major, said that the group is looking for groups who have made a significant impact on their communities and provides them with technological tools in order to achieve a higher level of efficiency.
Now that [nonprofits] Poremba explained that by having these websites to help them organize, the people can devote more time to completing their mission.
Hack4Impact, for example, enhanced the online reporting system for Team River Runner. This charity helps veterans and their family members track their projects, and determine where to concentrate resources.
Joe Mornini, Team River Runner’s Executive Director said that the mission of his organization was to bring health and healing for our country’s soldiers. This statement came in a written testimonial. The Hack4Impact members assigned to our project have been incredibly supportive, and they are focused on helping with our mission.
Hack4Impact raised $5,500 in the past year. The funding came from various sources. College of Information Studies Corporate sponsorships include Workday, Geico AARP Uber CodePath Bloomberg. The group has helped more than 20 non-profits since its founding four years ago.
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