As the president of Seattle GiveCamp, I’ve seen firsthand how technology can transform nonprofits. GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where developers, designers, and project managers donate their time to build technology solutions for nonprofits. I’ve volunteered for roughly 20 GiveCamps across America.
But this GiveCamp was personal for me to volunteer in. GiveCamp Memphis picked up Center Point Cemetery which is where generations of my family, dating back to my great-great-great-grandparents, are buried dating back to the 1800s. When I had the chance to volunteer at GiveCamp Memphis, I knew this project would be more than just another website build. It was an opportunity to create something meaningful for families like mine.
Building a Digital Future for Center Point Cemetery
The main project was building CenterPointCemetery.org, a website with two primary features:
- Plot Finder – A tool that allows visitors to search for burial locations, view headstone images, and access obituaries. If you check it out, search for Charlene. You can see her plot, headstone, and obituary. Then do a search for Holmes. (Yes, those are all my relatives…)
- Donation Page – A PayPal-integrated page that enables secure and seamless donations to support the cemetery’s upkeep.
Cleaning Up the Data
Before GiveCamp even started, I spent time cleaning the cemetery’s burial records—an effort I documented in this blog post. This data cleansing was crucial in ensuring that the Plot Finder worked correctly and provided accurate search results.
The data was spread across 65 different spreadsheets, each formatted differently and containing inconsistencies, duplicates, and missing information. I leveraged AI to develop a Node.js application to automate the process, standardizing the records and integrating them into a unified database.
This preparatory work ensured that by the time GiveCamp started, we had a reliable dataset ready for development, allowing the team to focus on building the features rather than fixing data issues on the fly.
The GiveCamp Team
I wasn’t alone in this effort. I had an incredible team of volunteers, including my Seattle GiveCamp technical lead, Ben Lobaugh, who participated remotely. Ben is a seasoned developer with deep expertise in WordPress, cloud solutions, and software architecture. His contributions were invaluable as he helped guide architectural decisions and troubleshoot technical challenges from afar, ensuring that our solutions were both scalable and sustainable. Having his mentorship available remotely provided an extra layer of support for our on-site team.
Ben also played a key role in developing the Plot Finder’s search capabilities, helping to optimize queries and ensure the search function performed efficiently on a large dataset. His insights into structuring the data and improving search performance significantly enhanced the user experience, making it easy for visitors to find burial records quickly and accurately.
On-site, we had four full-time developers and a designer:
Three of them—Isaiah, Arlina, and Michael—were either students or graduates of Memphis’s CodeCrew program, and Jack, who graduated four years ago with a Computer Science degree from the University of Memphis, has been working as a manager at Chick-fil-A. Charise, a talented designer, brought her creativity to the project by designing a brand-new logo that gave the site a professional and polished look. All five of them are highly skilled and absolutely hireable—I’d hire any of them in a heartbeat.
Task Distribution & Contributions
We split the work based on expertise and interest:
- Michael tackled PayPal integration, initially using a plugin, but pivoted to direct PayPal embedding when the plugin couldn’t handle recurring payments.
- Arlina worked on the History and About Us pages.
- Isaiah took on the WordPress theming, learning from scratch and implementing the new branding.
- Jack embedded interactive maps on the Plot Finder results pages and leaned in on how we navigate the website.
- Charise designed the new logo and branding elements for the cemetery’s website.
All four of my developers leaned in and helped each other. They also taught Donnie and Carla Nichols, our nonprofit organization representatives, how to edit the website. Donnie works at a company that does piping around large commercial projects, where he estimates bids. Carla is a personal banker. Neither of them is highly literate in computers; however, both of them learned a bunch from all of the volunteers and are now capable of maintaining their website. Watching that was amazing. It was a powerful reminder of how technology can empower people, even those without a technical background, to take ownership of their own digital tools.
A Brake Pad Lesson with Isaiah
On Saturday, Isaiah told me he might not be able to make it on Sunday because his brakes had started screeching, and he probably shouldn’t drive on them. I wasn’t about to let that stop him from finishing an awesome weekend of work, so I volunteered to buy him new brake pads and teach him how to change them. Thanks to Trey Albertson, a long-time GiveCamp Memphis volunteer, who had tools in his car that I could borrow, we got the job done. It’s not every GiveCamp where you teach someone WordPress theming and how to change brake pads in the same weekend!
Challenges and Lessons Learned
Like any project, we encountered challenges along the way. One of the biggest hurdles was ensuring the Plot Finder search function was both fast and accurate, given the large dataset we were working with. Thanks to Ben’s expertise, we optimized the queries and structured the data efficiently. Additionally, navigating PayPal’s restrictions on recurring payments required Michael to pivot and implement a direct integration.
Another challenge was time—GiveCamp is an intense weekend sprint, and balancing speed with quality was crucial. At this rate, next year we might need to add a session on changing tires alongside the coding workshops! The entire team leaned in to support each other, learning on the fly and adapting to roadblocks quickly.
Beyond the technical aspects, one of my biggest takeaways was the impact of mentorship and teamwork. Watching the volunteers not only build the website but also teach Donnie and Carla how to maintain it was inspiring.
Impact and Takeaways
By the end of the weekend, we had a fully functioning website that will help families find their loved ones and allow the cemetery to receive much-needed donations. This project was a testament to the power of community-driven development and the immense talent within the GiveCamp network.
This project reminded me just how much impact a small but dedicated team can have in a short amount of time. It’s not just about building technology—it’s about empowering people with tools they can actually use. And that’s what GiveCamp is all about. GiveCamp Memphis was an amazing experience, and I look forward to continuing to support this incredible event—though I’ll never let them forget their unfortunate naming choice!
If you’re looking for talented developers, consider reaching out to Isaiah, Arlina, Michael, Jack, or Charise. And if you want to get involved in making a difference through tech, consider joining the next GiveCamp near you! You can find more information at GiveCamp.org.