Web Application Developer - Technical Support/Maintenance #018

The ImpactKits Project is developing ImpactKits Care Partners, a community benefits program designed to extend support beyond the initial delivery of a care kit. Through the program, approved community members may receive discounts or other benefits from participating local businesses and community organizations.

The initial Care Partners system is being developed as a lightweight web application. Members will be able to access available benefits and receive temporary verification for eligible offers, while participating businesses will be able to verify eligibility and record redemptions through a simple web interface. ImpactKits administrators will manage member and business approvals, benefits, accounts, and program activity.

About the role

We are looking for a technically capable volunteer to help maintain and improve the Care Partners application after its initial MVP development.

This is a hands-on technical role for someone who enjoys troubleshooting, maintaining existing applications, and gradually improving systems as real users begin using them.

You will work with the Care Partners product/vision lead and the other volunteers working on the project. The role will involve both routine maintenance and development work as the program evolves.

Responsibilities

You may be responsible for:

• Troubleshooting bugs and technical issues reported by members, businesses, administrators, or the project team.
• Maintaining the application's frontend, backend, and database components.
• Reviewing error reports and diagnosing the underlying causes of problems.
• Making approved updates and improvements to existing functionality.
• Supporting account, authentication, permissions, and access-control functionality.
• Maintaining member, business, benefit, and redemption functionality.
• Assisting with application deployments and updates.
• Reviewing application performance and identifying technical problems.
• Helping maintain basic application security and privacy protections.
• Monitoring the limitations and availability of the free services used by the project.
• Helping migrate or modify components if a free service is discontinued or changes its terms.
• Implementing smaller approved features and improvements.
• Working with the UX/UI & Product volunteer to translate design improvements into working functionality.
• Communicating technical risks, limitations, and recommendations to the Care Partners project lead.
• Maintaining basic technical documentation so future volunteers can understand the system.
• Helping test changes before they are released to users.

Qualifications

We are particularly interested in applicants with experience in:

• Full-stack web development
• Frontend or backend development
• Database management
• Debugging and troubleshooting
• Authentication and authorization
• Web application security
• Git/version control
• Responsive web applications
• APIs and web services
• Application deployment

You do not need experience with every technology used by the project. More important is the ability to understand an existing application, troubleshoot problems independently, and learn unfamiliar technologies when necessary.

Experience working with nonprofit, community, student-led, or volunteer technology projects is a plus.

What we're looking for

The ideal volunteer is:

• Comfortable working independently.
• Able to communicate technical information clearly to nontechnical team members.
• Willing to work within significant resource constraints.
• Comfortable maintaining someone else's code rather than only building from scratch.
• Thoughtful about security and user privacy.
• Able to distinguish between urgent problems and improvements that can wait.
• Reliable and able to maintain a consistent weekly commitment.
• Interested in building technology that has a practical community purpose.

Technology constraints

ImpactKits currently has no dedicated technology budget for this project. The Care Partners system is intended to operate using free, open-source, nonprofit-accessible, or otherwise no-cost resources wherever possible.

This means volunteers should be comfortable finding practical solutions without assuming that ImpactKits can purchase software, hosting, APIs, plugins, or infrastructure.

The project is intentionally designed to avoid unnecessary complexity. We are not currently planning native mobile applications, POS integrations, payment processing, or other expensive infrastructure.

Collaboration

The Care Partners product/vision lead will provide the program requirements and direction for the product. The technical volunteers will be responsible for determining how those requirements can realistically be implemented.

The project works directly with the ImpactKits Executive Leadership Team for organizational decisions, approvals, and major changes. There is not a separate engineering management department for this project, so volunteers should be comfortable taking ownership of their responsibilities and communicating proactively when decisions or additional direction are needed.

Time commitment

6-10 hours per week.

This is intended to be a long-term volunteer position. We understand that volunteers have school, work, and other commitments, but we ask that applicants only apply if they can maintain a reasonably consistent commitment.

What you will gain

This role provides an opportunity to:

• Work on a real nonprofit web application.
• Maintain technology used by an emerging community program.
• Gain experience working with a multi-user application.
• Work alongside other volunteer developers and product contributors.
• Build practical experience with technical problem-solving, maintenance, and product development.
• Contribute directly to a student-led community initiative.

How to apply

Please include examples of websites, applications, repositories, or other technical projects you have worked on. If possible, explain what parts of those projects you personally contributed to.

We especially encourage applicants who can demonstrate experience maintaining or improving an existing application rather than only creating new projects from scratch.

About The ImpactKits Project

The ImpactKits Project is a student-led community initiative focused on making compassion actionable. We work with students, businesses, schools, and community organizations to collect supplies and assemble care kits for individuals and families experiencing hardship.

As our organization grows, so will our volunteer network. Our goal is to build a remote team made up of people who may live in different cities, countries, and time zones but share a desire to make a difference.

If you enjoy bringing people together, creating communities, thinking creatively, making people feel valued, and creating experiences that people genuinely enjoy, we’d love to have you join us.

The ImpactKits Project is committed to equal opportunity and providing an inclusive volunteer environment. We do not discriminate based on protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. View our Equal Opportunity, Non-Discrimination, & Reasonable Accommodation Policy.