Each summer, 20 Cleveland area non-profits receive a gift from Cleveland GiveCamp. Hundreds of Cleveland’s brightest techies swarm together like Lake Erie mayflies each summer, squeezing one work week into a weekend. Since its inception, Cleveland GiveCamp has donated nearly $4 million of free development work to more than 250 regional non-profits. Its tribe of volunteer software developers, designers, content developers, and database administrators converge at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport and LeanDog’s boat (yes, their office is a boat!), which is moored adjacent to the airport. Participants are encouraged to pitch tents and camp all weekend. Some glamp and stay in downtown hotels. They all give back and make NEO aka Northeast Ohio better.
Prior to working in global high tech marketing, I spent 10 years marketing and branding non-profits. Trust me when I say know how tight non-profits’ budgets can be. For the last six years, I’ve been both a recipient (Community Greenhouse Partners) and a volunteer providing website content and as a member of the Social Media team. The annual event is dear to my heart and one my summer highlights.
Andy Craze played an instrumental role spearheading CLE GiveCamp in 2010. More than 100 volunteers, 21 nonprofits and nearly $250,000 worth of work was donated during the course of GiveCamp’s inaugural weekend. NEO can thank Andy for much of this credit. Each subsequent year Cleveland GiveCamp grows larger, improving NEO’s non-profit footprint.
He lost his battle with cancer not too long ago and we all miss him like crazy. At the close of the weekend, we honored him by announcing the Craze eCool Awards. Andy’s partner Jane Winik and friend Bob Coppedge, CEO of Simplex-IT coordinate the award, now in its second year. Last year I helped write the content for one of the two winners, Empowering Youth Exploring Justice. Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates (NOVA) was the co-winner. This year the winners circle expanded to three: Akron Blind Center, University Settlement, and Womankind Cleveland, OH.
The gift is reciprocal. The weekend provides an opportunity for the tech community to connect with each other, the nonprofit community, and collaborate with others outside their direct work environments. Skills sharpen. Networks expand. Friends are made. Both communities are strengthened. And like the butterfly effect, the region improves and shines a bit brighter year after year.
The Cleveland GiveCamp event is part of a national GiveCamp initiative thought up by a Microsoft executive in 2007. There are nearly 30 GiveCamps throughout the country benefiting hundreds of non-profits every year. Nominations are considered by the steering committee months prior. Check out the list of this year’s Cleveland GiveCamp participants and apply for 2018’s event.
Props to Katrina Blatt @KATinCLE for this photo. She’s a new volunteer to Cleveland GiveCamp, joining @PhotoAlBell visually documenting our event.
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