Member Spotlight: Girish

Hear insights from the Director of Nonprofit Partnerships

Meet Girish the highest tenured individual here at BOG, and working as Director of Nonprofit Partnership for more than four semesters. As a long time BOG member, Girish shares what he does as the “face” of BOG, what common misconceptions people have about the role, and most importantly, why BOG is one of the most organized, productive, and social clubs at Tech.

The nonprofit selection process relies on not only Girish, but the efforts of his team. He correlates the number of nonprofits that establish communication directly with the number of Nonprofit coordinators on his team. So, the more cold emails, responses, and interviews are facilitated, the more partnerships can potentially be established. This comes with a caveat of code quality and assurance of deliverables that meet BOG standards. Girish commends BOG’s reputation of creating quality applications for nonprofits and suggests that to maintain this standard, BOG continues to be selective in the developers it hires (training them beforehand if needed), and limits the number of nonprofits it onboards at the beginning of the semester.

Nonprofit Checklist:

✓ Mission, Impact, Spread align with BOG

✓ Track record of being reputable

✓ Shows consistent communication with BOG

✓ Willingness to adapt and work with BOG

✓ Feasibility of Nonprofit proposal

✓ Optional, but encourage: proximity to GT

Nonprofit Coordinators have the first say in deciding if a nonprofit aligns with that checklist, and have the final say in deciding which ones are presented at the semester’s end PRB. During the review board, the rest of the executive members can vote on the nonprofits that will move onto the next stage of the process.

Contrary to popular belief, BOG doesn’t accept all nonprofits that offer a proposal. With increased demand, rather than hire more developers, BOG focuses on choosing the nonprofits that most closely match the above checklist. It’s a job that lies in the hands of the nonprofit coordinators, who, contrary to popular belief, do not talk to lots of nonprofits throughout the semester. Instead, they focus their efforts in drafting proposals for just one or two. In this, they get the flexibility and autonomy to craft the potential project approaches however they deem fit.

“BOG is heading in the right direction”, Girish tells me. In terms of bringing people together, creating an environment where students from all walks of life can contribute their unique skills to impactful projects. When asked what his favorite part of BOG is, he replies assuredly,

“The people. Everyone has their own story and their own interests, so it’s like a breath of fresh air when I talk with them through the various BOG events”.

Thank you Girish for your long lasting contribution to BOG!