Tag: net impact

Millennials and CSR: An Infographic

This infographic was created as a supplement to my dissertation proposal defense last weekend.  It provides a high level overview of the significance of corporate social responsibility in the recruitment and engagement of millennial employees.

This infographic was created as a supplement to my dissertation proposal defense last weekend.  It provides a high level overview of the significance of corporate social responsibility in the recruitment and engagement of millennial employees.

Millennials and CSR

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GIVE Pgh: My Experience Building a PWA

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As a tech for good fellow with Net Impact, I was tasked with creating an impact project that would reach at least 250 people. The impact project I created is a progressive web app (PWA) called GIVE Pgh. The purpose of this app is for simpler charitable giving to non-profit organizations in the Pittsburgh area. The app will feature a new non-profit organization each month allowing users to donate through the JustGiving donation platform. This app aims to showcase the lesser known charity organizations in the Pittsburgh area that get overlooked.

The GIVE Pgh app aims to address the lack of support for smaller and lesser known charitable organizations in Pittsburgh. According to the 501c3 registry from the IRS, there are over 4,000 tax exempt or non-profit entities in the area. However, there are only a handful that get continuous recognition from the larger fundraisers throughout the region.

The GIVE Pgh app uses the JustGiving donation platform to provide simple and secure charitable giving. The simple donation integration API was used to achieve this. The app was developed with the GoodBarber app builder. The entire process was spent developing and designing the application. In addition, time was spent working with the JustGiving development team to get all the branding and necessary information for the app.

The GIVE Pgh app was published on April 29th, 2018. I have tested the app, but would like it to be tested by potential end users. The app has been downloaded by people in my personal network and I am awaiting feedback. I plan to take all feedback received and make adjustments to the app if necessary.

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With the help of the feedback from users, the GIVE Pgh app will give smaller charitable organizations the opportunity to have their missions spread across a different demographic. This exposure will help raise funds to continue to carry out the visions of these organizations.

The GIVE Pgh app will be sustained past this fellowship by becoming a non-profit organization. Currently I fund this project out of pocket as a progressive web app. However, I would like to upgrade the app from a PWA to a native application that would be available in the Google Play store for Android and the Apple App Store. I understand this is not an easy feat, however, I plan to file tax exempt status for GIVE Pgh and collaborate with interested people to grow this impact project.

There was a lot to learn during this process around patience, expectations, and the complexity of app building. Building an app, even if it is a progressive web app, is time consuming and takes both financial and technical wherewithal.

Continue reading “GIVE Pgh: My Experience Building a PWA”

#NI17 Path to Purpose

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 25th annual Net Impact conference in Atlanta, GA.  For those unfamiliar with Net Impact, it is an organization that was started by MBA students with the goal of bringing impact and  purpose mainstream. Currently there are over 300 chapters across the country with tens of thousands of members.

This year’s theme was Path to Purpose which aimed to help attendees explore what it means to them to build a career with purpose.  The event began with several boot ca20171101_124409mp sessions around  design thinking, racial equity,  and advancing in an impact career.  There was also a symposium  on leading with the triple bottom line.  Following was the 2017 cohort Fellowship kickoff, which I took part in as a Tech for Good fellow.

Of  the two keynotes given during the conference, my favorite was actually on climate change.  The speakers were Paul Hawken, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, and  Derreck Kayongo, CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.  Derreck gave an inspiring, and at times funny, speech about his childhood in Uganda, to coming to the U.S. and seeing how much hotels waste soap.  He noted that the over 800 million bars of soap are thrown  out by hotels annually, leading to compromised decomposition of waste that actually affects climate change.

My experience at20171101_124510 the conference was very informative and inspiring.  Given that I am part of the Tech for Good fellowship, the sessions I attended were obviously geared  toward  technology.  For me,  the most interesting sessions were Leveraging Tech as a Force for Good and How Tech is Changing Philanthropy.  Side note, I  am pretty disappointed in missing the Founders Who Paved their Own Way session on startups and corporate impact since that is something I  am working on.

One of the requirements for the fellowship is to create an impact project locally and document the process and the outcomes.  I will be using this blog to track some of the progress on my impact project, as well as my progress of starting a Net Impact chapter on Point Park’s campus. I have a really good idea for the impact proposal that will benefit Pittsburgh non-profit organizations, so keep a lookout for future posts.