SoftServe, a premier IT consulting and digital services provider, for the fifth year in a row has been promoting technological volunteering among its associates. To bring its experts together, the company launched the OpenTech corporate pro bono program in 2019. Today, in celebration of the program’s anniversary, the company is announcing Open Call 2025. SoftServe is looking for five impactful initiatives, offering to develop pro bono technological solutions for them.
Who can submit a project
International or local non-governmental organizations, charitable foundations, social enterprises, media organizations, and local or state government bodies from six countries – Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Colombia, and Mexico, are eligible for participation in the challenge. Initiatives will be evaluated based on factors including project scale, relevance to current societal needs, overall impact on communities or the environment, and OpenTech’s capacity to provide the required technological expertise.
“We bring IT experts together so that they can support their communities and address social challenges. Over the five years, OpenTech has engaged 1310 of our volunteers in 6 countries, successfully delivering 53 projects,” comments Dmytro Ivanov, Chief Technologist in the EMEA region at SoftServe, co-author of the program, and member of the Open Call 2025 jury. “We want to celebrate the program’s anniversary by continuing to do what we do best – create technological solutions that will accelerate positive change in society. That is why we are announcing Open Call 2025 to select five projects from the top initiatives chosen by the jury, in addition to the projects already planned for 2025.”
Directions of initiatives
Initiatives in the following areas are eligible for the Open Call 2025:
- Enhancing education;
- Environmental responsibility;
- Supporting healthcare;
- Innovations and smart city initiatives;
- Empowering communities;
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion;
- Helping people in need;
- Veteran Support Programs (Ukraine)
The importance of the initiative
“Over the past five years, our volunteers across six countries have been supporting their communities by strengthening healthcare systems, transforming education, protecting the environment, and helping those in need through innovative technological solutions,” adds Mariia Kucherenko, Director of Corporate Reputation & CSR at SoftServe. “Starting from Ukraine in 2019, OpenTech has grown from a local initiative to a global one. In Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, and Colombia, we have established partnerships with local and international initiatives and continue to look for new ones to power impactful initiatives”.
The deadline for applications is October 15, 2024. You can submit your application by following this link, after having read all the terms and conditions of the Open Call 2025 on the website. The winners will be announced by the end of this year, and work on the selected projects will begin in 2025.
Among the projects already implemented by OpenTech volunteers are the parenting app “Bebo” (UNICEF Geneva), a webpage for “Znaimo” initiative to support the national nutrition reform at schools in Ukraine (initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska). Other projects in progress include a digital platform for Paso Pacifico Foundation, a Central American organization that works toward preserving biodiversity in the region, and a platform for forest restoration in Ukraine for WWF.
