If you have programming or design skills, you can use that talent to help improve communities by working on projects for city governments.


Code for America has been around for several years, building open source software aimed to improve government services—apps like a public school finder for parents in Boston and a streamlined small business permit applications site for entrepreneurs in Santa Cruz.

The non-profit provides a way for citizens to get more involved in their government. If you have an hour, you can use the Civic Tech Issue Finder to find open projects or if you have a free night, you can head to the Brigade, regular hack nights in specific cities. Code for America also has a year-long fellowship (but applications have closed for 2016), which is like the Peace Corps for geeks.


Unlike previously mentioned Free Code Camp, which teaches you how to code and helps nonprofits, Code for America is for experienced technologists, but if that’s you, it’s worth a look if you’re interested in “civic hacking.”

Code for America

