About This Session

In Des Moines, Iowa a group of tech professionals created a 48-hour charity hackathon that connected nonprofit organizations with more than 80 employees from 15 different enterprise and startup companies to solve the tech problems of the nonprofits.

The result: nine nonprofits had their biggest technical needs solved in 2 days with more than $100,000 of in-kind services fueling the change.

The employees learned new skills, built relationships with great nonprofits and created game changing results for organizations that are always in go-mode.

This experience created a new model for how nonprofits and curious minds can collaborate to spark change in any community and create a craving for doing good, not just doing.

This same model can be applied to your community and your company.

In this session we’ll highlight the steps we took to create this unique experience, how we got buy in from Fortune 500s and startups across the community and the lasting impact it left on an entire community after just 48 hours.

What You’ll Take Away

1. Spark a change bigger than any one organization by creating a nonprofit hackathon in your community
2. Learn how to satisfy employee cravings for creativity and new challenges by connecting them with local nonprofits
3. Rally numerous companies at once inside a community create a link between nonprofits, enterprises, startups and community leaders

About Jodi

Jodi Jones is an assistant director of IT at the Principal Financial Group where she leads software development teams with a focus on improving delivery using agile techniques. She is a change enthusiast with a passion to make her organization and community a great place to work for technology professionals. She has co-organized innovative events such as internal hackathons, community charity hackathons and local Agile conferences.

About Max

Max Farrell is co-founder of Create Reason, a firm focused on inspiring entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship inside companies to drive employee engagement and internal innovation. Max is also a facilitator for Startup Weekend events across the United States. In his spare time, Max is a sound hip-hop artist and avid sportsman.