About missionStack
missionStack exists because the willingness to help is far more common than the ability to find where help is needed.
For years I had a few hours a week I genuinely wanted to give away, and no idea how to find the people who needed them. I knew the capacity was there. I could never find the connection. Every nonprofit I talked to had a real technology problem, and every professional I knew had time they would have donated if someone had simply told them where it would matter. missionStack is the thing I could not find.
I am Kurt Hamm, and I live and work in Columbia, South Carolina. I have spent more than twenty-five years in enterprise and government technology. I was Deputy Director and Chief Information Officer at the South Carolina Department of Revenue, where I led the agency's recovery from a major taxpayer data breach and the security overhaul that followed. I was Chief Administrative Officer at the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, responsible for IT, information security, HR, and procurement through pandemic surge operations. Before that I served as an intelligence analyst in the Army National Guard and deployed in Desert Storm.
I take fractional and short-term engagements through my consultancy, Aetheria Systems, because staying in production keeps my skills current and honest. I still charge for my knowledge. I also give some of it away, and I would rather spend my remaining working years helping organizations that cannot afford someone like me than bill every available hour. I suspect there are a great many people who feel the same way and have never been asked.
Matching is the hard part. It is the exact thing I could not solve on my own, and a form full of checkboxes does not solve it either. A checkbox cannot tell the difference between someone who has used a tool and someone who has run it in production under pressure, and it cannot tell the difference between a nonprofit that needs a report and one that needs its data cleaned up first. That is why missionStack requires a short guided interview on both sides, and why every recommendation explains itself instead of producing a number you are asked to trust.
I want this to start here. Columbia is where I live, where I have worked in state government and private consulting, and where I already know the organizations doing the work. Starting in one place means the first participants can meet each other, and it means I can personally answer for how this platform behaves. If it works here, it can move outward from here.
missionStack is open to South Carolina nonprofits. I admit a limited number of new organizations each week, because I support every one of them personally and I would rather answer you properly than sign you up quickly. Every organization is reviewed by a person, and that person is currently me. If you want to talk about it, write to [email protected].
My full professional history is public if you want to check it before trusting missionStack with your organization’s information.
Kurt Hamm — professional resume (PDF)
How missionStack handles your data, and what it does and does not verify about volunteers, is documented on the Trust and safety page.