Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Sasha Pasulka
On November 5, dotORG Weekend will be make its debut righthere in Seattle. Founded by Erik Azar and based on the Startup Weekend model,dotORG Weekend will bring together the best techie minds in Seattle to focustheir efforts toward aiding non-profits.
With the standard Startup Weekend concept, members of thetech community come together for a weekend and rally around pitches forbrand-new tech startups, working around the clock to build a (usually)for-profit product.
dotORG Weekend is a little bit different – before theweekend begins, a panel will choose a group of non-profits that could reallybenefit from the aid of devs, lawyers, social media experts and grant-writers.The projects and their scope will be established beforehand, but volunteers canstill choose the project they’d most like to work on.
While the devs, designers and UX geniuses chip away at asoftware product, social media pros and marketers will help the non-profitsstrengthen their online presence, lawyers will review contracts and assist withobtaining a 501(c)3 status, and grant writers will build compelling andfundable problem statements for grant requests. Also, I assume there will bepizza.
Personally I love this concept, and not just because it’sabout harnessing the tech power here in Seattle for good. I also love thatdotORG Weekend can make use of all the other tech-industry talent we have here:the non-dev techies.
I’ve attended a Startup Weekend, and I loved it; I learnedmore than I ever dreamt possible in one weekend, I made friends I couldn’t livewithout today, and it opened up enormous opportunities for me. I’d go so far asto say that Startup Weekend changed my life.
And I didn’t write a single line of code.
But whenever I pitch the idea to non-dev friends, theresponse is typically: “Well, I don’t write code, so I don’t really know whatI’d do there all weekend.”
Trust me, at any Startup Weekend, someone will put you towork doing something, and you’lllearn a ton from the experience. But at dotORG Weekend, the entire techcommunity can easily find a role. It’s all about using our expertise – inwhatever area – to help a non-profit. It’s such a rare and awesome opportunityto harness the breadth of all of our minds, all of our individual strengths,and focus it on doing something good in the world.
I’m personally very excited about the concept, and I can’twait to see what comes of it. I know the plans are for it to grow to othercities in the U.S. and internationally, just as Startup Weekend has, and Icertainly hope it sees that kind of success.
You can learn more about dotORG Weekend (or register to participate!)at their website, http://www.dotorgweekend.org/. For regular updates, follow them onTwitter @dotorgweekend.
