Do you dream of using technology to change the world? I mean, really changing the world, not making some people more rich! That’s what we do at Tech Matters. We’re part of Benetech, Silicon Valley’s leading technology for social good nonprofit, and we need your help.

When we heard that internships were collapsing all over for students, we decided to create some new internship opportunities. Now, these aren’t finely crafted assignments created as recruitment bait for some giant company (as much fun as those can be). We want help doing the real work of applying technology to serious social problems. Work that we’d be doing if you weren’t here (well, virtually here) tackling it. Right now, we have two big systems change projects.

First, we’re creating a shared tech platform for the global child helpline movement (think 911 for kids). Children are suffering even more right now because of the pandemic, and with your help the people on the front lines serving kids will have tools that make them more powerful addressing these urgent needs. We’re in the middle of an agile development process and we can accelerate getting the platform into production use around the world with more software developers.

Second, we’re partnered with some of the biggest conservation and aid groups on the planet to create a platform for climate adaptation and finance. And, the software isn’t for the BINGOs (Big International Non-Governmental Organizations) like Rainforest Alliance, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and UNDP: they are committed to us building it for local leaders on the ground. Leaders in that river basin, or that province/state/county, make the decisions that will drive the more sustainable economies of the next decade and beyond. Not just decisions about conservation, but about agriculture, forests, fishing, water and livelihoods. We are just starting to build out prototypes and integrate other open source projects with our platform.