My goal as a developer has always been to produce products that have a positive, lasting impact on the user experience. Having spent a good part of my career in the non-profit sector, I understand the added challenges of meeting this goal. Tight (non-existent) budgets and little access to enterprise resources play a big part as barriers to working in this field from a technological perspective. Luckily there are a number of organizations whose goal is to support nearly every facet of this industry to ensure their success. One of these organizations, Netsquared is promoting the DonateNow Mashup Challenge, sponsored by The Case Foundation. This is a contest which challenges you to create the most innovative solution which supports the online donation process using the Network for Good API. Come up with the winning idea and you've earned yourself $10,000.
The DonateNow Mashup Challenge asks you to come up with a solution which uses the Network for Good API and enhances the online donation experience. There are actually two categories to this contest with a $10,000 winner to be chosen from each category at the N2Y3 Conference:
- Build a mashup using the Network for Good API to enhance the donor experience.
- Build a mashup using the Network for Good API to improve a non-profit's ability to fundraise.
Why Mash Up Network for Good with AOL?
You may be asking yourself why you're seeing this contest promoted on AOL's Developer Network. Besides the fact that this is an excellent idea to get folks involved and aware of these challenges, it's a very natural fit into the suite of service offerings from AOL. A while back I wrote about Why AOL is Web 2.0 where I basically present the case that AOL has always been and continues to be a leader of the social networking movement. AOL has created products and now tools and services for developers to aid in the development of user-driven applications. The donation process is likely to be the beginning of a long term relationship between the organization and the donor. Both parties will want the relationship to persist which requires a good set of communication tools. This is where AOL's technology such as instant messaging, blogs, and e-mail come in. While these are just a few suggestions, there are a number of other APIs you could use to further enhance the online donation processing experience. Get involved and get creative! Here are some key dates and information to get started:
- May 19, 2008 5:00pm pacific time - Contest submissions close.
- May 27-28 2008 - Winners announced
- June 30, 2008 - Last day with access to the API, deadline completion for the mashup.
- DonateNow Mashup Challenge FAQ