Community and Code: Inside dsmHack's Annual Hackathon

Have you ever thought about how some of the organizations making the biggest impact to the community have the smallest budgets and are held together by the generosity of everyday people? dsmHack is well aware of this and organizes an annual hackathon event to support these organizations.

What is dsmHack?

dsmHack is an nonprofit with the goal of ensuring that technology is never a barrier to doing good. Over the last 11 years, they have hosted a hackathon which has allowed them to support 90+ nonprofits with the help of 750+ volunteers. The efforts of these volunteers have provided more than 1.8 million dollars of charitable services that have benefited so many around Greater Des Moines (DSM).

The Hackathon

The dsmHack event itself is a jam-packed 48 hours of planning, coding, networking, innovating, designing and giving back to the community. Nonprofits from around DSM bring their needs for technological solutions to the dsmHack board, which then takes those pitches and curates a number of different projects for hackers to work on. To kick off the 48 hours, nonprofits present their problems, and volunteers get the chance to ask questions and learn more about the solutions they are looking for. Teams then self-form and get to hacking as soon as everyone takes their seats! For each nonprofit, there is at least one representative onsite during the event to aid in answering any questions the team has. Throughout the day, hackers are provided with amazing perks like three full meals, snacks, beverages, professional massages, games and entertainment (via the hip hop dancers at DSM Breakerz this year)!

2025 Hackathon Nonprofit Participants

• Blast Back to School
• C4giving: Community Commodity Computer Coaching
• Camp Fire Heart of Iowa
• CULTIVATE: Local Food Connections
• DSM Breakerz
• Hope to Shine
• TAKE: The Ankeny Klothing Exchange

Blast Back to School

I got the chance to work with a talented team of developers to provide a great hack for the people over at Blast Back to School. Blast Back to School (BBTS) is a nonprofit based out of Story County that runs a school supply drive to provide families with free school supplies for the upcoming school year. They work with many volunteers and churches, as well as collect donations from the community and local businesses to keep their operation running. Their budget for technology, like many local nonprofits, is small or nonexistent, so they came to utilize the talents of the volunteers that participated in this year's dsmHack event!

Kate Hanson, a community volunteer on the Blast Back to School planning committee, told me, "The dsmHack offered Blast Back to School the opportunity to make our registration process smoother for the families in need we are trying to reach, and make it easier for our already overworked school representative volunteers to manage information given by those families. Because of the volunteers at dsmHack, the ease of registration will eliminate one more hurdle that prevents families from getting the help they need in preparing their children for the next school year." BBTS also wanted to allow parents to seamlessly register multiple children without having to reenter information, something that had been a tedious process for parents in the past.

For me, this was a great chance to take the skills I have learned over the past two years at Wellmark as a Technology Associate and use them outside of work. I played the role of business analyst to help create the game plan for the hackathon and worked to fill in any gaps I could help with to get the team to reach our goals after only two days! It is important for teams to create fully fleshed-out solutions so that nonprofits can begin using them immediately after the hackathon and without needing a full-time developer going forward. After 48 hours, our hackathon team had delivered a working registration form for parents to use that also allowed better data outputs for the BBTS team to track their participant numbers for the different school districts they serve!

Get Involved Next Year

This hackathon is organized by dsmHack every year, and they are always looking for more volunteers. The hackathon event is a great chance to use your technological talents to give back to the community, as well as meet other individuals with the same interests and values as yourself! All skill sets are needed to make the hackathon run smoothly, so I would encourage anyone willing to help to volunteer at next year’s event!

Improving the Greater Des Moines (DSM) community through volunteering and community service is a priority for many. Thanks to community engagement opportunities and leadership connecting local businesses to causes that provide services to improve the region, DSM continues to be a place that provides support for those who live, work and play here.

Looking for opportunities as a young professional in Greater Des Moines (DSM)? The DSM Fellowship Program is the preeminent professional development initiative attracting, developing and retaining a diverse community of top-tier graduates to the region. You can also connect with other young professionals and emerging leaders through Young Professionals Connection (YPC) events and committees.