One thing that's really cool about being a software developer (and I promise I'll relate this to the article in a sec...) is that you can practice your craft by yourself, with freely-available tools, and then point at something cool that you have done. This is advice that I give to software developers seeking jobs -- spend some time on your job search, but also spend some time contributing to open source projects or creating cool things of your own, which you can then point to as a demonstration of your craft.
This seems like a great opportunity for those in other professions to do the same. Laid off from your Industrial Systems Engineering job and looking for work? Help a homeless shelter optimize their processes. Accountant? Donate some time to a local thrift store to help get their books in order.
I think this could really hit the mutual-benefit sweet spot: it helps you get a job, and it helps an organization trying to benefit the community as well.
I've actually tried to do stuff like this before. Offers of skilled assistance from individuals seem to be refused or ignored. You're welcome to fill some soup bowls, though!
You can't really just walk in and say "I wanna optimize your shit yo!".
The way I would approach it would be to attend a board meeting or email the Managing Director of the charity directly. Folks at the retail level of soup kitchens are really busy and deal with difficult people all day long. I think if you use a top-down sales technique to donate your experience you'll fare better. Yes, I believe you do, in fact, need to sell your donated time. Less sales really, and more positioning.
Source: I'm a marketer and I've failed at helping non-profits by starting too low on the totem pole. Conversely, I've also succeeded by starting at the top.
I was on the board of a small non-profit. Volunteers with time, enthusiasm and smart ideas are great, but they come and they go. They get bored, they get jobs, they move on. The staff then gets stuck trying to support and maintain the special project that ultimately they can't.
It's hard to say no to someone offering their time and expertise, but unless it is focused as part of a larger, on-going plan, it may do more for the volunteer than the organization.
I didn't physically "walk in" anywhere. I was attempting to communicate with administrators.
I'm not going to go around begging to be charitable, nor immerse myself in organizational politics that I don't put up with when I'm getting paid for it. I can't even begin to express how ridiculous such an idea sounds to me. At this point I'm happy to stay home and relax.
It sounds very like being a serious contributor to open source actually. Its not for everybody, but its not ridiculous to think that there might be causes/groups that you wish to succeed, you think you can help them, and you have to convince them that you can. You don't let just anyone waltz in and patch the Linux kernel.
Actually, they do exactly that. The process to become a contributor to the Linux kernel is to send a patch to a public mailing list. The patch is evaluated on its own merits. There's no interview process, no convincing anyone that you can help. You just do it.
And what happens when that obscure part of code you contributed to the Linux kernel starts breaking the kernel build because you don't maintain it anymore (and nobody wants to)? Linus throws it under the bus (rightly so).
In the charity work that would translate to you offering your expertise to build something and when you don't have time or don't feel like the software/thing you contributed is cutting edge anymore.. then you quit. The nonprofit's "Linus" now has to decide what to do with your not-so-shiny system now that nobody knows how to maintain it and, to make it worse, a nonprofit is not a project like the Linux kernel with thousands of contributors, so it might be the system you contributed is now really critical and they can't throw it under the bus like Linus would do.
So that's one side of why nonprofits sometimes say no and you have to prove your way, not only to show your are capable (most volunteers really are) but that you are reliable and committed.
Of course each nonprofit will be in a different situation so even though they might perceive you as not reliable enough, they still think they might be able with you being gone one day so they say OK.
The politics side of business you don't like.. it doesn't exist because someone decide to call that thing a "company" or a "corporation".. it exists because the beings creating them are humans. It just so happens nonprofits are also run by humans.
While technically true, I personally feel that the various obscure formatting/selecting reviewers/don't piss off Linus rules [1] are pretty synonymous with 'you have to approach a non-profit in the right way and convince them to even look at your suggestion that you can help them'.
Part of the challenge are the mindsets within a food bank.
The first is that the food bank's mission is philanthropic, so any suggestion that "you should consider operating like a well-run restaurant to be more efficient" is usually dismissed.
Secondly, most food banks are under-resourced, so they're always "stuck in the weeds" by just trying to get everyone served, and that prevents them from taking a step back and thinking about how to make things better.
The third is simply human nature, people who have been doing things for a long time are resistant to change and perceive advice from outsiders as a threat. This is usually illustrated quite well in those "restaurant makeover" types of shows, when the celebrity chef and/or restaurant consultants try to talk sense into the struggling restauranteurs.
Well you have to understand the structure of those organizations. They might not know anything about IT and have someone they don't know offering to "fix it", they might think you are there to remove virus from their PCs. Lots of org wouldn't know the benefits of getting a proper IT management system before they see it. Sometimes you have to get started volunteering at that organization, see what they really need, and then propose to develop some IT projects that would help them fix real world problems that they have. Before they see what problem you could solve, you are just a volunteer that doesn't fit with their core activities and they wouldn't know what to do with you. Anyway, there are so many NGO out there that even if you get refused somewhere, find another one, there's no shortage.
Do you know if this is because they don't know how to handle that, or because it would step on people's toes (giving volunteers power over presumably-paid staff), or because they're afraid of legal issues (suppose the volunteer bookkeeper gets something wrong), or some other reason?
No, I don't. Mostly I was outright ignored, where it was active refusal it wasn't exactly a detailed explanation, just some polite version of "Thanks, but we're not interested.". I'm not particularly motivated to press matters when someone refuses help.
I think it's because they don't have any way to vet your credentials. You say you're an efficiency expert and offer to re-work the food bank's delivery process, what if you're incompetent and make things worse? They don't have the time or resources to fix people's fuck ups. The food bank has a pretty solid level of confidence in your ability to pack boxes though.
How would they accomplish anything, then? At its simplest, somebody has to deal with the money, how do they vet that person?
In theory, all the ways an employer vets someone are open to them. Review a resumé, contact references, ask other people who might know the reputation.
If this is really what's stopping them, then it might be time for someone more motivated than I to set up a non-profit to deal specifically with this sort of problem for other non-profits.
In the area where I live and work, there's a charity called Activate Good (http://www.activategood.org/) which is designed to place willing volunteers with nonprofits who need help. It's really quite cool for those of us who want to arrange for teams of people to do community service but don't have a lot of time to research worthy causes. All I have to do is tell them about how many people will be there, and they'll find something for us to help with.
They also look for specific jobs (like marketing, copywriting, IT help, etc).
I'd venture that it's because almost everyone is happy to tell other people how they can do their jobs better (yes even for free), but very few (and all those people think they are among those few) actually understand the constraints under which the existing enterprise operates.
In Australia, there is am organisation called Good Company (http://www.goodcompany.com.au/) which coordinates charity organisations requiring assistance with professional people willing to donate skills.
I'm sure there must be similar organisations around the world - they are probably your best bet if you're looking to contribute your talents/time to assist a charity/non-profit.
It would also probably help you feel more confident when interviewing for jobs. You know you have valuable skills that can make a difference to an organization
This is one of those little gems that you sometimes find in HN. It is not a world changing idea but it can really make a difference in people that are struggling to find a job.
It would be very interesting to see a list of things that people have built or done just to learn and show up their work in different professions.
This is right on point, what we should do is ask them to make videos of what and how they did, and get them to other soup kitchens, why help only one when they could easily help hundreds with a few youtube videos. I would even be interested in watching them
This seems like a great opportunity for those in other professions to do the same. Laid off from your Industrial Systems Engineering job and looking for work? Help a homeless shelter optimize their processes. Accountant? Donate some time to a local thrift store to help get their books in order.
I think this could really hit the mutual-benefit sweet spot: it helps you get a job, and it helps an organization trying to benefit the community as well.