[Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events

[Mike McKinney]

Here are some examples of this idea being done elsewhere:
http://codeforgood.com/
http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=CRPFStatic&d1=crpf&d2=crpf_rules_structure

(i'm sure there are more...)

I like the topcoder idea... maybe picking a "client" (charity org.) and
making an open call for participants.  low entry fee, teams allowed, prize
for winning could be something along the lines of the auction idea or the
simple gratification of being recognized (lots of small shops out there
might like to get their name in "lights")  could pick the winner and
spotlight them at a conference... etc. etc.

hack nights also seem very promising given the demographic of the
community...

just my $.02,
Mike

On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/13/07, Todd Olivas <todd at topstorm.org> wrote:
> > I like the idea of doing small projects for clients and donating the
> > money.  If the company knows up front that the money is going to
> > charity, they may be willing to match some of the funds.  This way, the
> > charity gets a bigger donation, and the company gets a tax break on the
> > extra funds.  For this to work, we may have to limit ourselves to tax
> > exempt charities.   I assume most charities have this, so it is probably
> > not much of an issue.
> >
>
> Yea, we should only consider (at least in the US) 501(c)3 tax-exempt
> organizations or the equivalent.  I'd say that's pretty much the first
> line of filtering.
>
> I like the idea of a hack night and of doing client work for charities
> a bit, though I'm afraid the quality or follow-through client might
> suffer if we're not careful.  Since we wouldn't be working directly
> for the charity it might be harder to remain, well, charitable when
> dealing with a commercial client.  I'm not sure charity-driven
> software development is a sound way to run a commercial business.
>
> I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
> experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
> up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
> "give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
> doesn't get tiresome.
>
>
> Chad
>
> > Todd
> >
> >
> > Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > > Hello everyone,
> > > I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> > > at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> > > one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
> > >
> > > I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> > > ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> > > course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> > > that no one has tried yet...
> > >
> > > One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> > > assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> > > donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> > > hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> > > over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> > > product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> > > proceeds to charity.
> > >
> > > One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> > > auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> > > something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> > > pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> > > done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
> > >
> > > Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> > > myself and other conference organizers to use.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot,
> > > Jeremy
> > >
> > >
> >
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