1. Complete your application
Be as thorough as possible to help us understand your experience and why you want to volunteer with us.
2. Get matched
Using human scoring and algorithmic matching, we'll evaluate your compatibility with our project teams.
3. Join a project team
Accept the offer letter we send you to join a team of talented and passionate students on a nonprofit project!
Having at least some prior exposure to skills in your desired field of work below will set you up for success at Develop for Good.
Design. User research and discovery skills include user personas, competitive analysis, and user journey maps and flows. User interface design skills include information architecture, design systems, and visual design. Product validation and testing skills include usability testing and basic analytics.
Engineering. Website implementation may include Content Management System development with platforms like Webflow, custom frontend engineering using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, third-party service and tool integrations, and SEO data analytics.
Management. Technical product specification writing, KPI and OKR setting, product roadmap development, project organization tools, product documentation, and leadership experience.
Additional skills needed for all areas of work. Demonstration of resilience and passion.
We welcome applications from university students or recent graduates with less than 2 years of any general full-time work experience. This includes students who are currently enrolled in or have graduated recently from Bachelor’s Degree, joint Bachelor/Master’s Degree, Master’s Degree, and PhD Degree programs, as well as bootcamp programs. We also welcome students who are on temporary leaves of absence from their universities (i.e. gap quarter/semester/year), in addition to international students.
We're really passionate about helping college students and recent graduates who are just getting started with launching their careers, as they usually have little to no personal income and need to rely on free opportunities like ours. We ask folks with more than 2 years of general full-time work experience to consider signing up as an industry mentor instead; please refer to our Mentors page for more information!
Don't get us started on the chicken-and-egg problem with needing experience to get experience. We recognize that every pro developer or designer has once been in the position of seeking project experiences to refine their skills. Everyone starts somewhere. We see our opportunities as learning opportunities, and encourage anyone interested in tech, design, and creating social impact to apply. Our team members come from a range of backgrounds, class years, and majors.
Every student volunteer applicant is carefully evaluated by our management team. First, all candidates are scored across Technical, Passion, Resilience (and Leadership for manager applicants) categories. We generally expect students to have received at least classroom education and personal or group project experience in the type of product they want to work on. Across the categories, all candidates are assigned the average of scores given by two independent reviewers for fairness.
After this evaluation, scored candidates are fed into our in-house matching algorithm. Our proprietary algorithm ensures that the most talented, passionate, and high-potential students are matched to projects that fit their technical skill sets and social impact interests.
Each project team is composed of 1 Design or Technical Manager, 1 Product Manager, and 4-6 Engineers or Designers. Additionally, each team may coached by up to 1 Team Mentor (an industry professional who will advise your team throughout the program). In your student volunteer application, you can opt into potentially receiving additional, personalized support from a 1:1 Mentor, who will meet with you individually to guide you on your own contributions to the project. All potential mentor support is subject to mentor availability during your batch.
Students who don't initially get matched can opt into being added to our waitlist. If a spot on a project team opens up during the current batch, we'll reach out to the best suited candidate with an offer letter to join the team. All students accepted from the waitlist, regardless of when they join, will be given full credit as a contributing team member.
Yes. In terms of accessibility, all projects are virtual and can be worked on from anywhere in the world! Depending on your team, you may have to account for time zone differences when collaborating.
International students on an F-1/OPT Visa should be free to engage in volunteer work at Develop for Good, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If you have any additional concerns, we encourage you to reach out to your university’s center for international affairs.
Develop for Good is a challenging but rewarding experience. We push students to search for creative solutions in ambiguous environments where solutions may not be obvious. Sometimes, as often happens in industry, projects are blocked due to unexpected factors or circumstances that arise. To succeed, students must be radically proactive and become strong independent contributors, as well as collaborative team players. Although our internal resources, leadership, and mentors will be there to provide support, students like you are the ones who must hold themselves and each other accountable to delivering the product and ultimately making the magic happen.
And trust us; the challenge is well worth it. Develop for Good alumni have told us about leveraging their project experience to stand out in interviews and secure offers from some of the most competitive opportunities in the industry. If you're someone who enjoys rolling up their sleeves and exercising grit, this experience will be meaningful for you.
Technical project experience. Hone your skills in product, design, and engineering with a multi-month tech project.
Make real impact. Our nonprofit projects have reached millions of real lives across countries all over the world.
Industry professional mentorship. Get personalized feedback on your contributions from mentors dedicated to supporting you.
A case study for your resume. Update your portfolio with proof of your impressive work.
A recommendation letter. Receive a stellar referral from Develop for Good staff or a satisfied client if they're willing.
Soft skill development. Stand out in your next behavioral interview by sharing stories of challenges you overcame to build a solution for a real-world client.
An intercollegiate network. Befriend talented fellow students from colleges everywhere.
Develop for Good swag. Step aside, Balenciaga. Making sure our volunteers feel appreciated is very important to us!
After prospective nonprofit clients submit proposals, our Product Leads manually screen them to ensure that projects utilize technologies students are familiar with and that there are no budgetary, legal, or ethical concerns. Clients are charged a $1,000 flat fee to participate in our program (all of which is invested back into volunteer swag as well as sustaining Develop for Good as a nonprofit itself!).
The project scoping phase begins in the first month. During this time, you and your project team will work with your nonprofit client to mutually decide on a tangible technical deliverable to be completed by the end of the program. There is a possibility the deliverable may not be exactly what the client initially described in their proposal, whether it's because your team identifies a more optimal solution, or because your team determines only a phase of the larger product can be feasibly completed in the given time frame. Once a mutual agreement is met, a new Product Requirements Document is approved by all participants before the project development phase begins.
There is a possibility that your client might not align with the progress of your team project. If so, clients are given the option to withdraw from the program at any time for a pro-rated refund. If this happens, we'll offer to put you on the student waitlist for the chance to be re-matched to another nonprofit project in the current batch.
We require a minimum time commitment of 5-10 hours/week for 16 weeks. Each week will involve a mandatory 1.5 hour weekly meeting with your team, nonprofit client, and Team Mentor (if applicable). Weekly team meetings occur between Sunday - Tuesday. Student applicants are able to indicate which days/times they're available on the student volunteer application.
Students who are matched with 1:1 Mentors will meet for an additional 30 minutes every week. 1:1 meetings occur between Thursday - Saturday. Mentee applicants are able to indicate which days/times they're available on the student volunteer application.
Additional ad-hoc sync-ups may be scheduled by the team on an as-needed basis. Outside of meetings, the rest of the time is dedicated to completing technical work asynchronously.
We also expect students to acknowledge or confirm receipt of messages on a timely basis (within 48 business hours). The success of the project depends heavily on everyone's ability to respond quickly and communicate clearly and effectively.
Although we understand that students may be juggling an internship or coursework throughout this period, we expect students to consider their Develop for Good role as a top priority. Our opportunities are extremely competitive, and we rigorously enforce commitment standards. We have replaced students who do not meet program expectations in the past. If you are interested but are unsure of whether you have the bandwidth in the upcoming batch, please consider applying for a future batch!
Yes! At Develop for Good, we believe strongly in equality of opportunity. The Develop for Good Fellows program is an initiative that was formed to remove financial barriers faced by underserved and underrepresented U.S. college students who otherwise would be unable to participate in our student volunteer opportunities. We’re dedicated to making our hands-on project experiences accessible to all.
We typically post a standalone Fellows application in our channels partway through the active project batch. Although we cannot guarantee that every eligible student will receive a grant due to our funding limitations, selected recipients are notified and administered a $500 unrestricted grant shortly after the conclusion of the ongoing cohort.
At Demo Day, Develop for Good invites industry professionals from top tech companies to conduct mock interviews where student teams will be evaluated on their ability to articulate their work. Our goal is to simulate a "past experience" interview where candidates talk through a project they've worked on to help the interviewer better understand their thought process and decision making. We've designed this experience to prepare students for the next professional interview they mention their DFG project in.
Demo Day is also an excellent opportunity to network and follow-up with industry experts. After Demo Day, we help students easily connect with mentors they engage with.
Student volunteers who successfully complete a project with a nonprofit receive a special invitation for a promotion to Product Lead. Product Leads oversee portfolios of active nonprofit projects and act as high-level advisors to teams of new students by transferring knowledge based on their prior firsthand experience at Develop for Good.
