Develop for Good - December 2025

Winter update

Dec 29, 2025

Hello friends! 🛷

From sleighing the season to slaying our mission—here’s what we’ve been up to this winter.

Donate $100 by January 9 & receive an exclusive gift 🎁

We take our swag seriously (ask any volunteer). As a thank-you for donations of $100 or more, you’ll receive a limited-edition, Develop for Good–engraved collapsible water bottle. This BPA free silicone bottle features a stainless steel lid, holds 18 oz, and collapses from 9.2” to just 5.4”—perfect for travel, daily use, and slipping into small bags!

Donate here & receive exclusive gift

Donations must be made through the campaign link above by Friday, January 9, 2026 to receive your limited edition thank-you gift.

Summer 2026 batch application update ☀️

Nonprofits: Early Bird deadline on January 15, 2026

Partner with talented underserved & underrepresented college students and industry mentors to bring your nonprofit's digital vision to life. Our 16-week program runs May–August 2026.

🦜 Early bird: Apply by January 15, 2026 for 30% off: ~800 hours of work for just $700
✨ Final deadline: March 26, 2026

Nonprofits apply here

Students and mentors: applications open early January 2026

Winter 2026 batch kicks off ❄️

Following the review of 1,200+ volunteer applications, we matched admitted students and mentors with nonprofit tech projects and kicked off our Winter 2026 project batch on October 27, 2025. We’ll be working closely with these students, mentors, and nonprofit partners through February 21, 2026.

Students

This project batch brings together 235 college students and recent graduates. The following universities are most highly represented in our admitted student volunteer pool:

The following statistics showcase the incredible diversity of this high-caliber student cohort:

Mentors

This winter, we’re working with 76 industry professionals serving as Team Mentors, 1:1 Mentors, and Project Scoping Power Hours Mentors alongside our college students. The following companies are just a sample of the impressive firms represented in our accepted mentor cohort:

Nonprofits

At the start of the program, we kicked off 26 tech projects for nonprofit partners, highlighted below. From Full Circle, an innovative platform preserving cultural heritage and strengthening connections across the African Diaspora, to PainUSA, which supports high-quality data collection on real-world pain experiences, our incredible nonprofit partners span multiple impact areas and are using technology to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

Nonprofit tech project highlight 🌟

Aspire Education: Transforming a tutoring nonprofit’s website for impact and sustainability

Aspire Education is a Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to providing high-quality tutoring and mentorship to students, with a focus on underserved communities. The Develop for Good student team developed a streamlined site map optimized for user flows and navigation, redesigned and fully implemented 14 core pages, and cleaned and optimized Aspire’s backend for easier long-term content management. Read the project case study here.

Develop for Good student team for the Aspire Education project

The brilliant team

Product Manager: Dana Bahng (University of Pennsylvania ‘26)
Technical Manager: Nubia Correa (Stanford University ‘26)
Designers: Mahmuda Khanom (Hunter College ‘21), Tania Sacoto (Queens College ‘24), May Nicole Cagulada (University of California, Los Angeles ‘27)
Engineers: Anh Nguyen (Gettysburg College ‘27), Jahnae Reese (San Jose State ‘22), Ryan Tan (Stanford University ‘26)
Product Lead: Wasif Khan (Georgia Institute of Technology ‘27)
Team Mentor: Damilola Adelekan (Lead Product Manager, Remedial Health)

What their nonprofit client had to say:

“Aspire has benefited tremendously from our work with the Develop for Good team this summer. We knew we needed a new website to better showcase our work and impact, but as a small nonprofit pulled in multiple directions without technical expertise, we didn’t know where to begin.
The DfG team thoughtfully evaluated our needs and proposed a brand new website interface and design, which the team of designers and engineers built from scratch. We found the team to be highly receptive to feedback and open to collaboration, especially as we went back and forth many times over various design choices, color schemes, and copy text.
Ultimately, we are thrilled with the final product! Having a professional, user-friendly website that we can showcase to our partners, funders, and volunteers will be critical to furthering Aspire’s mission of providing transformational educational mentorship for underserved communities from throughout the Bay Area.”
- Kathleen Mautner, Executive Director of Aspire Education

Volunteer spotlights: 1 year post-program 💡

One year post-program, an incredible 98% of our Summer 2024 students shared that they’ve leveraged their Develop for Good project experience professionally—on resumes and LinkedIn profiles, in interviews, and across applications. Hear from two alumnae on how this real-world experience has impacted them:

“Participating in Develop for Good was a turning point in my academic and career journey. I initially thought I might only minor in Computer Science, but the hands-on experience of collaborating on meaningful projects showed me how powerful technology can be when applied to real-world challenges. The mentorship, teamwork, and social impact focus not only strengthened my technical skills but also inspired me to pursue Computer Science as a full major and continue building solutions that make a difference. Develop for Good gave me confidence in my abilities, clarity in my path, and a network of peers equally passionate about using tech for good.”
- Wanjiru (Marta) Njuguna, Connecticut College ‘25, Summer 2024 student

“I absolutely loved my time at DFG. It set me up for success throughout my career in college. It was a unique and solid experience I was able to include on my resume and I had multiple interviewers point it out specifically and inquire about the program/experience. I honestly think it really helped me land multiple internship offers my sophomore year. I also love the the people who run this organization, it's structured so well and the support system is amazing, responsive, and always eager to improve in any way possible.”
- Sanjana Gopalswamy, UNC Chapel Hill ‘27, Summer 2024 student

LA Tech Week with Bloomberg

Thank you Bloomberg for inviting Develop for Good to speak at LA Tech Week!

Bloomberg News Managing Editor Mark Gurman joined our Executive Director Mary Zhu for a conversation on AI for social good, exploring how nonprofits are leveraging AI to build capacity and drive impact.

A heartfelt thank you to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Malia Simonds and Sabrina Briefel for inviting Develop for Good to share the stage with visionary philanthropic leaders across the Golden Coast 💛

Don’t forget to donate $100+ by January 9 & receive an exclusive gift 🎁

Our program wouldn’t exist without the philanthropic support of our community. Every dollar you contribute is dedicated to continuously improving and expanding Develop for Good’s program for nonprofits and college tech students.