How many organizations need primarily computer work, though? All of the orgs I work with need either to buy specific items, or people with specific trade skills, not more software.
People on HN like to say "Software is eating the world" but when I look at my city, none of the biggest problems I see are going to be solved by more software.
Your software skills only have "a market rate of a couple hundred bucks an hour" because companies like Amazon and Facebook and Google are paying that. You're in a bubble. Small companies and non-profits aren't paying that. Mega-corporations can pay that only because they have massive scale. If one software developer can produce value for a million users, that person is worth a ton of money to the company. The non-profit in your backyard does not share that attribute. Your FAANG salary is not in any way relevant to them.
Finally, every programmer knows there's no such thing as resolving all maintenance "in a few hours". Software maintenance is a never-ending task. Take something that wasn't computerized, and computerize it, and now you've simplified one task for that volunteer org, while creating a new recurring cost for them. (You've taken a visible cost that anyone can help with, and turned it into an invisible cost that requires an expensive specialist.) I've seen countless cases where an org said "We got this new software (for cheap/free) that will help us!", and then 2 months later they're trying to get support, and the person who set it up is long gone.
Please, just give money, and let the organization decide how to use it. They aren't stupid. They know how to hire software people, when that is their most pressing need. Usually it isn't.
People on HN like to say "Software is eating the world" but when I look at my city, none of the biggest problems I see are going to be solved by more software.
Your software skills only have "a market rate of a couple hundred bucks an hour" because companies like Amazon and Facebook and Google are paying that. You're in a bubble. Small companies and non-profits aren't paying that. Mega-corporations can pay that only because they have massive scale. If one software developer can produce value for a million users, that person is worth a ton of money to the company. The non-profit in your backyard does not share that attribute. Your FAANG salary is not in any way relevant to them.
Finally, every programmer knows there's no such thing as resolving all maintenance "in a few hours". Software maintenance is a never-ending task. Take something that wasn't computerized, and computerize it, and now you've simplified one task for that volunteer org, while creating a new recurring cost for them. (You've taken a visible cost that anyone can help with, and turned it into an invisible cost that requires an expensive specialist.) I've seen countless cases where an org said "We got this new software (for cheap/free) that will help us!", and then 2 months later they're trying to get support, and the person who set it up is long gone.
Please, just give money, and let the organization decide how to use it. They aren't stupid. They know how to hire software people, when that is their most pressing need. Usually it isn't.