Community

Let’s take a trip back to 1996. Bill Clinton was elected to his second term as president, and the Nintendo 64 was released in North America. People called the internet the World Wide Web and logged into AOL to check their email while tying up their phone line. There was not much else to do online, as Google, Twitter, and Facebook were not around yet (thanks Slate and Wikipedia for the time capsule info).

Continuing our long history of spending our swag budget for good, we planned to partner with the Baltimore Hunger Project (BHP) at The Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Baltimore later this month. BHP provides 698 non-perishable bundles of food every Friday to combat the weekend “hunger gap” felt by food-insecure children in Baltimore.

As more and more companies liberate themselves from finding talent in a single geographical  location, the traditional office party could become a thing of the past. While I have had my fair share of awkward moments at office parties, they can also be critical components of building and maintaining company culture. 

Despite the political theatre and resulting uncertainty 2019 has brought us, I am overcome with gratitude for the relationships fostered by Kalamuna’s existence, and proud of the impact we have made together.

It’s easy to love nonprofits. They bridge the gap that exists between government and business, where the needs of our most vulnerable citizens are often met. They do the things that business and government cannot, or will not do. They’re a critical part of the infrastructure that meets our most pressing challenges and provide a home where our better angels can take action. 

Kalamuna team members Kristin Sartain and Sean Quigley took a moment to consider how nonprofits have impacted them personally:

Accessibility is really important to the team at Kalamuna. We strive to ensure that every website we work on is as accessible as possible, and that what we design and implement can be used, understood, and appreciated by people of all abilities. But keeping up with all the tools, techniques, and best practices, not to mention the latest WCAG guidelines, can be challenging. Fortunately, there’s a conference that takes place every year where we can do just that.

Like many of you, we are appalled by the inhumane cruelty leveled against migrants and refugees, and are especially heartbroken by the state-sponsored abuses enacted against children. BADCamp gave us an opportunity to utilize our sponsorship booth to create space to talk about this humanitarian crisis. We invited attendees at our booth to help us allocate $1,000 between three nonprofits advancing legal aid, humanitarian aid, or policy change on this issue.

We were honored to have two members of our team present sessions at Drupal North this past June in the beautiful and vibrant city of Montreal, Canada.  Drupal North is an annual,  free, three-day conference focusing on Drupal-related topics and the community that drives the Drupal Project forward.

We were pleased to make new connections while also reconnecting with friends and peers. As always, it was also a privilege to be given the opportunity to share our expertise.

Theorizing the Web has brought people together in critical discussion of technology and the web and their role in society since 2011. To quote their about blurb:

As a digital agency, we believe it’s important to remember the world that exists beyond our JIRA boards. We feel a genuine responsibility to always try to do something that can be of service to the greater good; especially when the opportunity to give a damn is so constant and pervasive.