We’re now starting to do QA for nonprofits and socialmarkets
STILL not at liberty to talk about how the site is being architected but I can safely say that we’re slowly coming out of coding and into QA (quality assurance). It’s really fun watching your specs turn into code which then turns into a usable web site.
The question here is whether or not we’re going to make our launch date on spec (without descoping, otherwise known as the art of throwing out non-essential “features”). It’s quite possible considering the heavy descoping we did just to fit the site into this timeframe but we’ll see (says the ex-tech lead within me). If we descope, that’s fine but I can promise one thing. We’re not going to lose the essential parts that makes socialmarkets what it is.
And what are those things? Our uniqueness comes from the fact that we add transparency to a process that often has none. We ask nonprofits to report their outcomes to donors. It seems like a simple task but very few nonprofits are transparent in that way. You want to test it? Try it. Donate $50 to any nonprofit you see out there. Six months later, ask them what happened to your $50. You’d be surprised at the various answers you’d get. They really won’t be able to tell you what happened to your $50. And they won’t tell you if the project or the case that your $50 went to was a failure or not.
Believe it or not, failure in the nonprofit sector is not something your average fundraiser likes to talk about. It seems… well, unseemly. It’s as if the nonprofit was not a good steward of your money. What they don’t like to tell donors is that their work is hard and not always rewarding. Let’s get real, folks. If a nonprofit is working with certain kinds of clients, their efforts, despite best intentions and great workers, may fail. That’s OK. It happens. Considering the obstacles in a client’s life, you as a donor and they as a nonprofit may be just happy to have given them some help. And hopefully, the next time around, the nonprofit will try to help that same kind of client a different way until they find a way that works best. Sounds like QA testing for a software program? I hope so.
So that’s where we are both with the nonprofit sector and the software application-to-be that is socialmarkets. We’re in testing mode — constantly. And with the hope that our next attempt may be the one that finally changes everything for socialmarkets, the nonprofit sector and even, our clients.
