Develop for Good - March 2025
Spring update
Hello friends ☀️
What in carnation, it’s already spring! We hope 2025 has been a sun-sational year for you so far :)
🚨 Sum25 application deadlines coming up 🚨
Develop for Good’s upcoming Summer 2025 project batch runs from May 5 - August 23, 2025 with the tentative timeline:
Thu, Mar 27, 2025: Nonprofit Project Proposal due
Thu, Apr 3: Student Application & Mentor Application due
Sun, Apr 20 - Sat, May 3: Offer letter period for Students & Mentors - new offer letters sent out every 2 days with a 48-hour response deadline.
Mon, May 5: Project batch kicks off with Orientation & Onboarding Week
Sun, May 11: Project Scoping Phase begins
Sun, Jun 8: Project Development Phase begins
Sun, Aug 10: Project Documentation & Handover Phase begins
Thu, Aug 21: Demo Day
Sat, Aug 23: Last day of project batch
📣 Please share widely with prospective college students, industry professionals, and nonprofits!
Win25 project batch recap 🧢
Between Oct 28, 2024 - Feb 22, 2025 this winter, Develop for Good leaders Amanda Lo and Stephanie D. McKenzie engaged 450+ incredible individuals across our 16-week program.
Students
We supported 306 college students and recent grads as they built software for nonprofits. Check out some stats about our diverse, high-caliber university talent:
Kudos to ColorStack founder Jehron Petty and Black Sisters in STEM founder Nyamekye Wilson for supporting our student recruiting efforts!
Mentors
This winter, we engaged 151 industry mentors as Team Mentors, 1:1 Mentors, and Demo Day Mentors. The corporations below are just some of the companies represented by the professional volunteers who contributed:
Special thank you to Bloomberg’s Vanessa Luna and Malia Simonds, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Alex Porter-Walsh, and Cisco’s Kirtee Yadav and Julie Rose for helping us recruit such an enthusiastic and compassionate crew of mentors!
Nonprofits
We kicked off this summer by launching an incredible portfolio of 33 nonprofit tech projects.
From the Asian Women Coaching Collective, which is building towards a world where everyone can discover, embrace, and integrate cultural identities and wisdom in fulfilling their life's purpose, to The Stone Dry Company, which is proving sobriety is awesome through the power of community, the organizations above pave the way for the nonprofit sector in leveraging emerging tech for social good.
Nonprofit tech project highlight 🌟
trubel&co: a website empowering high school youth to enact social change with technology
trubel&co is a tech-justice nonprofit that recruits, trains, and mobilizes the next generation to tackle social and environmental challenges using data, design, and technology. Develop for Good’s student team aimed to improve trubel&co’s website for better navigation and accessibility, making it easier for students to find information and for donors to be encouraged to contribute. Read the full case study here.
What their nonprofit partner had to say:
“I'm so glad our team learned about Develop for Good! It has been really enjoyable to work alongside such a willing team -- everyone we've worked with has had a great attitude and has been really easy to work with. They've been receptive to feedback, have brought their insights and ideas to the table, and have drastically improved our website's usability and appearance. I'd highly recommend DFG to other nonprofits looking to build capacity!”
- Nick Okafor, Executive Director of trubel&co
The brilliant team:
Product Manager: Esther Kim (USC ‘27)
Design Manager: Danielle Sarkisian (UCLA ‘23)
Designers:
Roshni Paleja (Rutgers, ASU ‘26)
Jazmin Vega Rodriguez (Sheridan ‘24)
Priya Venkatesan (UC Berkeley ‘27)
Justin Park (Babson ‘27)
Neath Heng (Northeastern)
Team Mentor: Lu Silverstein (Product Manager at Google)
Volunteer spotlights: Win25 stories💡
“Coming into Develop for Good, I had many expectations, and I’m happy to say they were met. Not only did I get to work alongside a great variety of people whom I learned from, but I also met many others and gained a deeper appreciation for what it means to be a designer. With the guidance of our managers and client, this experience has been truly valuable and one I’ll always treasure.”
- Adriana Hermoza, UT Austin ‘24, Win25 student Designer
“Been a mentor twice now, and the excitement/drive from the students to learn keeps it going. The DFG team is super responsive and has laid out a great structure that the students and the mentors follow through, which benefits both greatly throughout the cohort. I recommend it to anyone who's planning to join as a mentor or as a student!”
- Aditya Nair, Product Design Operations at Mapt, Win25 Team and 1:1 Mentor
Thank you, CHANEL 💖
CHANEL CEO Leena Nair met with Develop for Good founder Mary Zhu to discuss our mission to bridge the digital divide for underrepresented college students. As the first and only woman of color to lead a luxury major brand, Leena resonated deeply with the nearly 2,000 female college students Develop for Good has supported on real-world software projects for nonprofits. Check out Leena’s Linkedin post about their conversation!
Our greatest thanks goes to the CHANEL Open Innovation team Gregory Baratte Waidlich, Danielle Zhu, Kristijana St. Clair, Giselle Graham, and Maxine Smith and the StartX team Tota Zoura, Darsh Singh Mann, and Kyle Wong for forging this special connection. Develop for Good is excited to continue empowering women and girls around the world by fostering their tech superpowers for impact. Happy Women’s History Month! 🩷🖤
New funder: Roddenberry Foundation 🖖
We’re excited to work with the Roddenberry Foundation as our newest funding partner! Named after Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, the foundation is committed to advancing Gene’s faith in humanity by finding and supporting remarkable organizations that can disrupt existing dynamics, challenge old patterns of thought, and discover new ways to help us move towards a better future.
We owe our gratitude to Roddenberry Foundation CEO Lior Ipp, COO Meg Busse, and Program Manager Jessie Beebe for their belief in and deep support of our mission. Shoutout to accesSOS founder Gabriella Wong for referring us!
Develop for Good on Forbes 30 Under 30 📸
Develop for Good founder Mary Zhu was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 - North America 2025 list!
Thank you to Fast Forward’s Kevin Barenblat, a16z CLF’s Judene Small, StartX’s Kyle Wong, and Bloomberg’s Vanessa Luna for nominating Develop for Good for this honor!
Join us in unlocking digital potential 💌
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.
📲 Follow us on Linkedin & Instagram for live updates on our work!