Building a better social good sector through Filanthropy

A 24-hour charity hackathon from Filament.

My wife always reminds (chides) me that I’m a bit ridiculous when the Summer Solstice has passed and I start to feel like the summer season is already over — I literally count the minutes of daylight as they get shorter and shorter. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, for me, the Fall is like the Winter of my seasons. I affectionately call Winter ‘The worst’. But, having said all that my opinion on Fall is about to change because something truly great is going to happen on November 5th, 2015.

The Filament team will be donating our time and expertise, for 24 hours, to help a Canadian non-profit do more social good. It’s our first annual charity hackathon and we’re calling it Filanthropy — see what we did there? By 11 am on November 6th, a charity, through tight collaboration with us, will have something tangible (and digital) to help them reach their campaign goals.

Sure, it’s ambitious but we think that with a talented team at our disposal, collaborating with a passionate organization, we’ll be in a great position to design and build a new site or landing page, add new features to a fundraising platform, or even streamline a volunteers database. Whatever it is that an organization needs help with, we’re up for it. Why? Because non-profit organizations do so much good but may not have the funds available to work with a team like ours. Also, because online giving and mobile giving is trending upwards year over year (8.9% according to Blackbaud charitable giving report). We’re literally putting our money where our mouth is to help non-profits capture more donors online and enable them to further their goals through the work we do. By doing what we do best, we can help them be better at what they do best.

Donations are a huge source of revenue for non-profits and that revenue is directed, in most cases, where it should be — the programs and campaigns for which they advocate. There’s not a lot left over to hire experts in user experience, design, development, and engineering. We want to change that, even for a day. Hire us. No charge.

Matt, my partner here at Filament, has a great saying — not sure where he got it, but it’s a great source of motivation that we use here, in the office. “The best way to complain about something is to build something”. We’ve seen too many organizations struggle with online donations because the online donation mechanisms are riddled with roadblocks and frustrations for donors. Or, their corporate website doesn’t articulate any sort of brand story to captivate and compel their audience to volunteer or donate. It’s a little more than upsetting. So, rather than complaining about it, we’re doing something.

If you’re a Canadian charity and you need help with anything online, the entire Filament team eagerly invites you to submit your project on Filanthropy. The Application deadline is October 26th. For this year, we look forward to selecting one organization and making something great.

If you want to get involved as a sponsor and join our amazing friends, please feel free to send us an email. We’ll gladly accept all the help we can get.

Please feel free to spread the word to non-profits in your network. follow @filamentlab for updates or visit the Filanthropy.co website