do_action is a charity hackathon that uses WordPress to uplift local communities.
What is do_action?
do_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Each do_action event includes participants from the local WordPress community coming together to plan and build brand new websites for a number of local organisations in one day.
The goal of do_action is to support these charitable organisations by giving them a fresh and dynamic online presence. This enables them to get on with the work that they already do so well without basic website management getting in the way of their productivity.
How do the hackathons work?
Each hackathon is organised by members of the local community. Once the non-profit organisations for the day have been chosen, then the sign up form for the event is activated and anyone can sign up to be involved in the event as a participant. Signing up involves selecting the organisation that you would like to work with and then selecting your role on the build team for their website. Each build team has a number of roles available for it, which can vary depending on the needs of the organisation. In general, the available roles are: Project Manager, Designer, Developer (x2), Social Media Manager, Content Manager and Quality Assurance Tester.
Each event will also offer training to the non-profit organisations on how to use WordPress effectively. This empowers them to be able to manage their own websites going forward.
Where does the name come from?
With do_action being a WordPress-focussed event, it made sense for the name to come from WordPress itself. do_action is a function that is used throughout WordPress core and the name of the function really fits with the goal of the events – to allow the non-profits to ramp up their own activity and really get down to business.
How can I get involved?
There are two ways to get involved in do_action – you can sign up to participate in an event in your area, or organise one your self. You will find the upcoming events listed on the homepage, or you can have a look through the Organiser’s Handbook to find out more about how to organise your own do_action event.
To find out a bit more about what do_action is and how it works, here’s a video from the inaugural 2014 do_action event in Cape Town:
To see how the event format has progressed over the years and hear more about the global impact that it has had, here’s a talk by Tess Coughlan-Allen at WordCamp Bristol 2019 about their event: