My First Nonprofit Centered Hackathon, DeisHacks
Hi everyone! My name is Mansi Saini, and I will be a rising freshman as a computer science major. I found out about hackathons from a tiny link in a newsletter during the pandemic, and I thought it would be something fun to try out. I had no idea then that I would be learning so many technologies. Since December of 2020, I have attended my fair share of hackathons, many of which were TechTogether ones. Thus far, I have won seven hackathon prizes, connected with hundreds of amazing hackers, organizers, and mentors, and attended many workshops. I will most certainly be hacking in university too, so hope to see you there :).
A couple of weeks ago, I attended DeisHacks, hosted by Brandeis University and sponsored by TechTogether, and had a fantastic time! Coming into the event, I knew that we were going to hack for social good, but I never expected to work directly with a non-profit organization, which was a unique experience. I was pleasantly surprised that there were even Q&A sessions for hackers to talk with the non-profits and brainstorm ideas. Everyone in the DeisHacks community was very welcoming and passionate about creating something for a good cause.
At the end of the weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone’s innovative solutions to assist all the non-profit organizations. In addition to technical skills, DeisHacks was different from past hackathons that I have attended. In most hackathons, participants create a technical web, hardware, or machine learning hack. At DeisHacks, I had the opportunity to explore the intersection of business and marketing with computer science.
Which non-profit organization did you hack for? What was that like?
My team and I created a hack for Waltham Rotary Club because we were inspired by their mission. Seeing their need to create a more youth-focused platform, we revamped their website, created a detailed social media plan, and added more features for them like a virtual food drive.
We started by outlining the main components of the website, developing wireframes with the organization’s color scheme in mind, and determining sections of our website that could become responsive. Since some of us were in different time zones, we figured out ways to coordinate Zoom meetings in between lunches and dinners, so we could continue working round-the-clock.
Even though we were virtual, I think the key to our team being successful was that we had good communication and gave updates consistently. This was especially helpful when we somehow deleted about 2-3 hours’ worth of work in our repository. I don’t even remember how it happened, but what I do know was that we were all working together to figure out the issue by experimenting and trying radical ideas that sometimes surprisingly worked.
What about team formation for this hackathon?
Because I have connected with many hackers through my involvement in TechTogether, I came into DeisHacks with a few of my TechTogether Atlanta teammates and their friends. Looking back, it’s interesting how close my DeisHacks team has become, having never met each other in person since we are from all over. During the hackathon, I had a lot of fun working with my team on the frontend and backend sides of our project. I enjoyed learning from my experienced teammates about different databases and APIs while working together to implement them.
What skills did you learn at DeisHacks?
After setting up a virtual food drive that could be linked with Waltham Rotary Club’s local food bank in the future, we realized that we would need a payment system for users. As a front-end developer, I learned about and integrated Square’s Checkout and Payment APIs into the virtual food drive. In addition to the food drive, our team wanted to develop sign-up forms for club events to simplify the process for members. To do so, I learned and utilized the Formspree API to connect the event sign-up forms to a database where the organizers can instantly see who is attending the event.
On the business side, I learned the importance of having a business portfolio as a non-profit organization and how to read business documentation. Waltham Rotary Club, along with the other non-profits, included an executive summary, mission statement, and other guiding information in their portfolio. This became very helpful during the development process because we could ensure that our hack was tailored to their needs.
What are your takeaways from DeisHacks? Do you plan on attending future hackathons? If so, which ones?
Overall, learning to work with a non-profit organization and seeing the final implementation of my team’s work in the past 36 hours was a gratifying experience. Through DeisHacks, I learned how to hack for an organization virtually and gained a stronger understanding of the work that goes into creating a non-profit organization. I believe the most important lesson that I learned from DeisHacks is to never stop learning and be creative. As far as future hackathons, I hope to continue participating in TechTogether hackathons and those on my university campus in between my studies. Thank you again to the organizers and sponsors for DeisHacks for hosting such a wonderful event.
💡 Want to learn more about DeisHacks? Check out their website and sign up to get notified when applications open back up.
