Our First ImpactNPO Event

Last weekend we had the first (ever) impactNPO event. According to our website:

impactNPO runs fun, high-energy and impact weekend events at which a team of local volunteer IT professionals and graphic designers help local Non-profit Organisations (NPOs).

This allows the IT professionals to give back to their local community and it allows budget challenged NPOs to get system improvements for free. impactNPO provides a focus for good and helps deliver positive outcomes for all.

It was challenging but immensely rewarding. With this being our first event, we had some tough hurdles in front of us. We had to earn our credibility. The other four co-founders and I sent out numerous emails, made heaps of phone calls and met up with a lot of people in hopes of securing sponsorship and finding suitable NPOs (non-profit organisations). It was hard work. We also put in a lot of work into finding volunteers who could help make this weekend happen. After all – there’s no point organising such an event, if the volunteers don’t show up.

Volunteers helped four NPOs last weekend, Child Poverty Action Group, Sustainable Coastlines, Heart Kids NZ and impactNPO We were very excited to hear that everyone was happy with how it went.

We definitely hope to make this an ongoing thing and inspire others to organise impactNPO events in their area. On a personal level, I found this very fulfilling. I loved seeing people be brought together by a common interest to help a NPO. I also loved seeing how much the NPO reps appreciated the hard work of the volunteers. It was amazing to see how much the volunteers achieved in one weekend. I was so proud of them.

Tomorrow we will have the retrospective to learn what we did well and what we need to improve on.