Our story

When COVID-19 struck in Spring 2020, life changed for everyone. Universities across the U.S. abruptly sent 14 million students home, all while campus activities, internships, and even full-time new grad offers were canceled. Despite their personal challenges, students sprang to action to support each other virtually as the pandemic worsened and instances of social and racial injustice ensued. These moments of selflessness revealed an intrinsic desire in college students to care for and help others.

At the same time, one-third of global nonprofits were projected to shut down due to a lack of digital access. This was especially alarming, as vulnerable communities and families needed the support of nonprofits more than ever during these tumultuous times.

Moved by the compassion of their fellow classmates, and spurred by the critical needs of both students looking for work and nonprofits seeking digital support, two college juniors at Stanford created Develop for Good. The organization connected and supported students as they developed technical products for nonprofits. As a result, it provided tech students with collaborative, real-world project experience while they simultaneously helped the people and causes they cared about most.

Today, Develop for Good powers social good through students from all colleges and backgrounds. We especially prioritize making our valuable, hands-on project experiences accessible to underrepresented students in tech to accelerate their careers. We strive to empower the next generation of diverse tech leaders to learn by doing good, all while furthering the digital transformation of the nonprofit sector. At our core, we hope to create a world where students, nonprofits, and corporations are dedicated to furthering technical education, generating social good, and helping one another unlock their fullest potential.

Leadership

Mary Zhu

Founder & Executive Director

Mary Zhu graduated from Stanford University in 2021, completing both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science in four years. Born to immigrant parents and raised in New Hampshire, Mary grew up receiving nonprofit support and is particularly passionate about giving back and serving the economically disadvantaged. Mary founded her first 501(c)3 nonprofit in high school by baking and decorating cakes for charity. She has long advocated for skills- and passion-based volunteerism, and spoke at TEDxStanford about “Rethinking volunteerism: donating your comparative advantage.”

Mary Zhu

Founder & Executive Director

Mary graduated from Stanford University, completing both her BS and MS in Computer Science in 4 years. She grew up receiving nonprofit aid and is dedicated to serving the economically disadvantaged. An advocate for skills-based volunteerism, she spoke at TEDxStanford about “Rethinking volunteerism: donating your comparative advantage.”

Amanda Lo

Program Director

Amanda is an interdisciplinary UX Designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and recent graduate from the University of California, San Diego. She has been a leader at Develop for Good since 2020 as a Product Manager, Product Lead, and Design Lead. She is passionate about designing for civic good and helping students break into tech.

Adriana Valencia

Design Lead

Adriana is a user experience designer, and holds a BFA in New Media from Toronto Metropolitan University. She is passionate about interaction design and has contributed as a designer to the success of three projects for nonprofits at Develop for Good. Her goal as a user experience designer is solving problems through creative story-telling.

Sunint Bindra

Finance Lead

Sunint is a Computer Science and Economics student at Dartmouth College. There, he's a Social Impact Scholar, athlete on the Taekwondo team, Captain of the Debate team, and part of a quantum computing lab. Sunint also loves to ski, help nonprofits with digital strategy, and is passionate about disability advocacy.

Victoria Ang

Legal Affairs Lead

Victoria has volunteered with Develop for Good since 2020 in a variety of roles including Product Manager and Product Lead, and now serves on the executive team. She is a recent graduate from Boston College, and a J.D. Candidate at the University of California, Hastings College of Law. In her free time, she enjoys cooking new recipes.

Mary Zhu

Founder, Executive Director

Amanda Lo

Design Lead

Victoria Ang

Legal Affairs Lead

Sunint Bindra

Finance Lead

Board of Directors

Erica McLain

U.S. Olympian, PM @ Google

Erica is a U.S. Track & Field Olympian and recent inductee into the Stanford Hall of Fame. She was the youngest triple jumper to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and is today a leader in Silicon Valley—a Product Manager at Google, alumnus of Facebook and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and a graduate from both Stanford University and UC Berkeley Haas. She’s broken barriers, set records, and inspires students everywhere to succeed on all playing fields.

Craig Young

Young Foundation, Inspiring Service

Craig is a serial entrepreneur and venture philanthropist. By the mid-1990s, Craig was the leading outside software supplier to SDRC and Apple’s software subsidiary, Claris. He founded the Craig S. Young Family Foundation in 1995, and sold his most lucrative business to SDRC in 1998. He now leads Inspiring Service, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire and empower people and organizations to engage in volunteering that improves and strengthens their community.

Amay Aggarwal

Founder @ DfG, APM @ Uber

Amay co-founded Develop for Good as a junior at Stanford, where he earned his Master's degree in Computer Science and Bachelor's degree in Management Science & Engineering. Amay is passionate about using AI/ML to aid developing communities. Having lived in India, Singapore, the UK, New Zealand, China, and currently the US, Amay enjoys traveling and is fluent in several languages. He is now an Associate Product Manager at Uber.