Develop for Good - September 2025
Autumn update
Hello friends!
As our upcoming winter project batch approaches, we’re here to give you pumpkin to talk about 🎃
⏰ Win26 application deadlines coming up ⏰
Develop for Good’s upcoming Winter 2026 project batch runs from October 27, 2025 - February 21, 2026 with the tentative timeline:
Thu, Sep 25, 2025: Student Application & Mentor Application due
Fri, Oct 3: Nonprofit Project Proposal due
Tue, Oct 14 - Sat, Oct 24: Offer letter period for Students & Mentors - new offer letters sent out every 2 days with a 48-hour response deadline.
Mon, Oct 27: Project batch kicks off with Orientation & Onboarding Week
Sun, Nov 2: Project Scoping Phase begins
Sun, Nov 30: Project Development Phase begins
Sun, Feb 8, 2026: Project Documentation & Handover Phase begins
Thu, Feb 19: Demo Day
Sat, Feb 21: Last day of project batch
📣 Please share this newsletter widely with college students, industry professionals, and nonprofits in your network!
Announcing our new Board Directors 👑
Christina Ward is a seasoned leader with 20 years of experience across finance, workforce development, public affairs, and tech, currently leading Global Transparency Reporting at YouTube, where she oversees ~50 public reports and cross-regional communications. She previously led public-private innovation initiatives at Luminary Labs, secured over $30M in contracts, and worked closely with the U.S. Department of Education to expand tech career pathways for underserved communities. Christina holds degrees from Stanford, Oxford (as a Churchill Scholar), and Wharton.
Susan Epstein is an AI policy expert with 25+ years of experience across Meta, Apple’s Advanced Technology Group, SRI International’s AI Lab, and Cooley LLP. At Meta, Susan advised on AI, corporate governance, and civil rights.
She spent 16 years as an elected board member and three-time Board President of a California public school district, and served on the Biden-Harris transition team focused on environmental incentives for greener schools. A Stanford Symbolic Systems and University of Chicago Law School graduate, she now teaches at Chicago Law.
Special thanks to Jere King and Clare O’Brien of Stanford Women on Boards for their role in forging the initial connections with our newest Board Directors!
Sum25 project batch recap 🧢
Between May 5 - August 23, 2025 this summer, we engaged 410+ incredible individuals across our 16-week program.
Students
We supported 231 college students and recent grads as they designed built software for nonprofits. Check out some stats about our diverse, high-caliber university talent:
Mentors
This summer, we engaged 159 industry mentors as Team Mentors, 1:1 Mentors, PRD Power Hours 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 Malia Simonds and Nadia Bisram, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Melissa Abbett, and Cisco’s Kirtee Yadav for helping us recruit our industry professional mentors!
Nonprofits
We kicked off this summer by launching an incredible portfolio of 21 nonprofit tech projects.
From Culturally Relevant Science, which is creating innovative, affordable, and inclusive K-12 STEM curriculum for all students, especially those from underrepresented communities, to Spread the Vote, which is helping the citizens and residents of the United States obtain the IDs they need to attain jobs, housing, health care, voting, and more, the nonprofits above are leading the charge for the impact sector in activating technology for good.
Nonprofit tech project highlight 🌟
America SCORES: Developing an innovative poet-athlete experience on the web
America SCORES Bay Area is a nonprofit that inspires youth to lead healthy lives, engage academically, and build confidence and character through free after-school and summer programs. The team of Develop for Good students achieved a full site reorganization—including improved navigation, streamlined training resources, and a dedicated gallery to explore a migrated Radio Poets archive. Read the full case study here.
What their nonprofit partner had to say:
“The project with [Develop for Good] DFG exceeded my expectations. I was hoping for some help migrating content from one site to another, which they did in expert fashion, but they also ended up helping me transform our entire website. The team identified improvements to the content, design, and navigation, they provided excellent advice when needed, and they encouraged and incorporated my input every step of the way. Thank you.”
- Yuri Morales & Pete Swearengen, CPO & CTO at America Scores Bay Area
The brilliant team:
Product Manager: Nils Forstall (Stanford ‘25)
Technical Manager: Jiewen Huang (SUNY Buffalo ‘24)
Developers:
Pronob Sarker (Gettysburg ‘26)
Johnson Shou (Brown ‘27)
Designers:
Eileen Calub (Northwestern ‘26)
Jennifer Huang (NYU ‘28)
Mary Zhao (Toronto ‘26)
Team Mentor: Faran Jessani (Sr. Developer at Chicago Trading Company)
1:1 Mentor: Gaurav Ahlawat (Sr. Software Engineer at LinkedIn)
Volunteer spotlights 💡
“This past summer with Develop for Good was honestly a transformative experience. I learned so much about designing an end-to-end experience from all stages of development, and I gained a lot of real-world skills navigating how to speak with clients, user research, business objectives, and anything in between. Plus, just yesterday I got an interview for a product design role at one of my dream companies (CNN) from working with Develop for Good, which I never in a million years thought would be possible!”
- Mia Dowdell, UCLA ‘27, Sum25 student volunteer
“Through this Develop for Good program and through interviewing and mentoring students, I have consistently been impressed with the level of passion, skill, and creativity that they have demonstrated. Teaching is always a great way to learn, and it encourages me for the future of technological advancement.”
- Matthew Boulanger, Staff Software Engineer at ServiceNow, Sum25 mentor volunteer
Backing tech for good with Bloomberg and Fast Forward ⏩
Big thanks to Bloomberg and Fast Forward for spotlighting our work!
As Bloomberg Corporate Philanthropy’s Malia Simonds shared,
“Through ongoing mentorship, strategic guidance, and collaborations like our work with Develop for Good…we’re helping tech nonprofit founders scale their solutions and create lasting social change.”
Over the past 5 years, Develop for Good has mobilized 3,700+ student and industry mentors to build tech for 250+ nonprofits. This kind of impact takes a village, and we’re incredibly grateful to the 250+ Bloomberg volunteers who’ve helped make it happen! Read the full article here.
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!