Inspiration
Nonprofits and volunteer-based organizations struggle from limited financial and personnel resources. Furthermore, inability to evangelize their mission and promote awareness of opportunities hinders their progress and impact. When we also consider the perspective of community members, the apparent lack of information and unfortunate poor communication provide a high barrier for entry to potential volunteers.
What it does
"dino" (dee-no) would provide non-profit organizations a central platform to share volunteering opportunities, and community members can find opportunities specific to causes they’re passionate about that also fit to their schedules and location. Furthermore, for-profit companies can receive tax-breaks and positive PR through Volunteer Grant Matching for employee’s service.
How we built it
"dino" consists of two primary components: a webapp and mobile platform (Android AND iOS!). For our initial prototype, we wanted to focus on the "Main Success Scenario" in which:
- A nonprofit posts new opportunity using the webapp (labeled as "Events" in app)
- Volunteers find said opportunities using our search/browsing page on the mobile app
- Volunteers register for events and Nonprofits can view attendees.
Our MVP consisted of subsequent infographic views and activities surrounding this main success scenario. We used Python and Flask to create a webapp and Flutter for cross-platform mobile development. Google Cloud and Firebase (specifically Cloud Firestore) provided our backend infrastructure and data management. We developed UI mockups using Figma to help focus our design process and cater towards typical user expectations.
Challenges we ran into
Our largest hurdle - beyond the time crunch - was web app development and firebase integration. Our team had a visionary idea and audacious passion to pursue it, but we also had a lack of prior experience in web-app development using flask. This challenge did not dissuade our commitment to learning and problem-solving. Despite a total of 3 hours of sleep throughout Hack GT, we persisted in self-study and countless tutorials. In the end, we produced beautiful designs and solid UI mock ups. While the full end-to-end integration is perhaps a future goal, the knowledge gained from this weekend is certainly a win.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're incredibly proud of our exciting and promising idea which we believe can have significant benefits to local communities. We're also proud of our mobile app which is compatible for both iOS and Android and is fully integrated with Firebase data!
What we learned
We learned much about Python and Flask development, creating Web Apps, HTML/CSS, Flutter, and many more. We also learned the importance of "keeping the blood pumping." The sedentary nature of our passion in coding can be lead to decayed productivity. However, occasional breaks to kick around a hacky sack gave us the energy and comradery needed to persevere and hope.
What's next for dino
dino has incredible potential and we are brimming with ideas. Beyond perfecting our initial prototype with the webapp, we plan to make accounts and usability for "Non-profit coordinators" and "Volunteers" in both the mobile and web apps. We also hope to include a third stakeholder in corporate entities who would be interested in monitoring and approving corporate volunteer grant matching through a simple, efficient, and reliable platform. We're especially excited by the prospect of reaching out to local and global volunteering organizations to gain those initial customers for our service.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.