Thank you very much for this sequence! I’ve been thinking about the tech agency model for EA and was even contemplating writing a post about it but I’m glad you did a much better job than I would have been able to.
Software developers: how appealing do you find the idea of working at a low bono vs donor-funded agency vs in-house at an EA org vs sticking with non-EA work?
I’ve worked as a developer in my own small agency and at a client for 10 years and started volunteering on two web development projects for EAs this year plus a bit of mentoring for a startup charity. From this experience a would very much welcome an agency approach. For me the biggest upsides would be:
Having other developers to talk about projects
Having others to do code reviews (and vice-versa)
Having partners that can cover for me if I get sick or am on vacation (especially around DevOps issues)
Having people who both are EA-aligned and value high quality software development
I would love put my volunteer work under this model and could see the agency mixing different funding cases:
Doing work for (lower-end) market-rates for established EA orgs
If an org is good at getting funds that may be easier than fundraising for a new org
Just having EA-aligned people in it (with experience in working for non-profits) might be enough of an incentive for the org
For this case it would still be motivating for a developer to choose this path instead of a slightly higher paying company and stick around for longer
In addition to development this could also include recruiting, training and mentorship for developers working at orgs (also giving them a team to talk about tech issues)
Also I see consulting and business analysis as promising areas. Often companies are fast to request a software solution when the problem starts at the processes and coordination level. I expect EA orgs could have similar issues.
Donor-funded work on specific projects like
EA-wide infrastructure (resources several orgs would use but no single one would want to finance)
Mentoring of tech people in the community
Training for (non-tech) product owners in orgs on writing user stories etc.
Workshops and retreats for the EA tech community (including tech people from orgs)
Low-Bono work
for EA charity startups that are still in the trial phase. This could also be seen as an investment as the org will be able to pay market rates if it gets funding.
for experimental projects to fill a funding gap
for anything developers think they’d donate to any way (although this is the weakest case for me)
Volunteer work
I’m over 40 and for my point in life doing an additional 10-20 hours per week as a volunteer seems best suited for me now. I expect there are more people in similar situations, especially among older EAs.
Also one model I like that wasn’t mentioned is that of a cooperative of freelancers. I’ve been doing some work with one in Munich and for developers that want to stay independent while also sharing responsibility in a project seems like a good combination. The coop that I know chooses their clients based on their values and also does pro-bono work on the side and donates all their profits. They seem pretty happy with that.
How much difference would it make if you were involved in the prioritisation process at a donor-funded org with a remit to find the highest value tech projects?
I’d be personally happy to work for any cause areas, although I’d want to make sure that the project I’m working on has impact and is not a “nice to have”. But the more the client pays the less I would want to interfere, so I could imagine some orgs paying market-rate for lower-value projects.
Thank you very much for this sequence! I’ve been thinking about the tech agency model for EA and was even contemplating writing a post about it but I’m glad you did a much better job than I would have been able to.
I’ve worked as a developer in my own small agency and at a client for 10 years and started volunteering on two web development projects for EAs this year plus a bit of mentoring for a startup charity. From this experience a would very much welcome an agency approach. For me the biggest upsides would be:
Having other developers to talk about projects
Having others to do code reviews (and vice-versa)
Having partners that can cover for me if I get sick or am on vacation (especially around DevOps issues)
Having people who both are EA-aligned and value high quality software development
I would love put my volunteer work under this model and could see the agency mixing different funding cases:
Doing work for (lower-end) market-rates for established EA orgs
If an org is good at getting funds that may be easier than fundraising for a new org
Just having EA-aligned people in it (with experience in working for non-profits) might be enough of an incentive for the org
For this case it would still be motivating for a developer to choose this path instead of a slightly higher paying company and stick around for longer
In addition to development this could also include recruiting, training and mentorship for developers working at orgs (also giving them a team to talk about tech issues)
Also I see consulting and business analysis as promising areas. Often companies are fast to request a software solution when the problem starts at the processes and coordination level. I expect EA orgs could have similar issues.
Donor-funded work on specific projects like
EA-wide infrastructure (resources several orgs would use but no single one would want to finance)
Mentoring of tech people in the community
Training for (non-tech) product owners in orgs on writing user stories etc.
Workshops and retreats for the EA tech community (including tech people from orgs)
Low-Bono work
for EA charity startups that are still in the trial phase. This could also be seen as an investment as the org will be able to pay market rates if it gets funding.
for experimental projects to fill a funding gap
for anything developers think they’d donate to any way (although this is the weakest case for me)
Volunteer work
I’m over 40 and for my point in life doing an additional 10-20 hours per week as a volunteer seems best suited for me now. I expect there are more people in similar situations, especially among older EAs.
Also one model I like that wasn’t mentioned is that of a cooperative of freelancers. I’ve been doing some work with one in Munich and for developers that want to stay independent while also sharing responsibility in a project seems like a good combination. The coop that I know chooses their clients based on their values and also does pro-bono work on the side and donates all their profits. They seem pretty happy with that.
I’d be personally happy to work for any cause areas, although I’d want to make sure that the project I’m working on has impact and is not a “nice to have”. But the more the client pays the less I would want to interfere, so I could imagine some orgs paying market-rate for lower-value projects.