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  enter zip and interest.

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  lebron loading screen

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  nonprofits

🌟 Inspiration

On the way to Seaside in an Uber car, our retired driver was curious to hear about why we were awake in the early midnight. Upon learning about the Hackathon, he wanted to know more, including what we were building. We weren't sure yet, as our original real estate ideas with Melissa API were already mostly implemented by Zillow. We wanted to know what he would've loved to see us build and asked him about what he wished was easier. He responded with, "I wish I could've done more work for my own community outside of my own work. Seeing the world today, I wish I gave more when I had the chance." 💭

He was old, and it was clear that he had a love for his community 🫶 and wanted to give back, like many of us in these times of increasing global crisis 🌍 and an even greater time for global unity 🤝.

🛠️ What it does

Unity Nonprofits is built off of our own hosted API on Postman, provided by nGrok, and processed by FastAPI fetching data from Melissa, which allows any user to input their zip code 📍 and receive the closest nonprofits near them that suit their interests. They are able to save their favorites ❤️ and instantly receive the basic information necessary to begin.

🏗️ How we built it

• Melissa's nonprofit API is private, so we decided to build our own, accurate, and reliable version.
• We started by ingesting Melissa's databases through their database website.
• From there, the information wasn't enough, so we also scraped information from Melissa's nonprofit search returns. The core scraping logic uses Playwright with AgentQL for reliable element selection.
• This is done through an API, hosted and HTTP-encrypted by nGrok, which fetches from and back to FastAPI. This allows anyone to utilize our API.
• Then, the data is run through Perplexity to provide the most up-to-date and relevant information on the most relevant nonprofits given the user's interests.

In addition, we're proudly supporting the new generation of kids who want to volunteer 🧒 by looping random LeBron James top plays 🏀 while our API fetches the necessary information. This keeps our users engaged at all times 🔁 and correlates voluntary action with many's role models.

🛑 Challenges we ran into

• The main challenge was creating and structuring the output of the API, as well as improving its speed and flexibility without the use of a paid cloud software hosting.
• We also had to find the right balance ⚖️ between front-end wishes and back-end possibilities.
• Breaking down large LeBron James clips' data 🏀 to be quickly processed upon entering the loading page.

🎉 Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Creating a usable, transformable API that simplifies community work and increases knowledge of nonprofits.
• Designing and integrating a clean frontend framework in TypeScript with a backend server to create a user-friendly experience.

📚 What we learned

• Sometimes, when something doesn't exist, it's better to make it than to leave a beneficial idea sitting.
• We explored many different development frameworks and understood the pros and cons of each, ultimately choosing one suitable for our needs.
• Gained a deeper understanding of the complexities of Git when working in multiple branches and developed intuition for Git collaboration.

🚀 What's next for Unity Nonprofits

• Looking ahead, we plan to add a database for user authentication, so everyone can search, save, and unite their communities.
• Refine the API to be more efficient and hosted on a better platform for other people to use in their projects.
• We also plan to create a platform where users can post opportunities for community work, write blogs, and publish reviews of their experiences.
• Connect and establish more events 🌎 for voluntary, nonprofit work everywhere, because the world needs to be united today, more than ever. ❤️

Built With

• agentql
• fastapi
• javascript
• melissa
• next.js
• ngrok
• node.js
• openai
• perplexity
• python
• shadcn
• typescript
• uvicorn
• video