Last weekend saw more than 120 developers rise to the challenge of creating new software that will make charitable donations via a mobile or the web quicker and easier than ever before at the Charity Hack 2012 Weekend. The event supported by PayPal and eBay took place at PayPal’s Richmond offices.
Groups of developers came together and winning group “Oh Charity!” took top prize with a widget which allows charities to sponsor hashtags on Twitter. The idea is that it allows causes and charities of any size to raise awareness through a simple web interface, which is already in beta development.
Judged by senior figures from Comic Relief, Cancer Research UK, JustGiving, PayPal and MissionFish UK, the Charity Hack Weekend is in its second year. It pits developers against the clock to create solutions to enable e-giving, for example encouraging charitable donations via mobile gaming platforms or via social networks. This year’s winning team won tickets to ‘LeWeb’ in Paris, Europe’s leading conference for the technology development community and there were a number of other prizes for runners-up.
Second prize went to a Raspberry Pi powered system that provides free WiFi internet access to customers who make a small donation to charity, and the third to a virtual pub quiz for charity through telephone conferencing. In addition, JustGiving recognised a fundraising app which allows runners to communicate directly with their supporters and sponsors while completing a charity fun run.
Following the event, eBay, PayPal and its partners will provide mentoring and support for groups who wish to bring their solutions to market.
