How Girls in Tech used Prezi Video to address social issues

Girls in Tech is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech, with over 60,000 members in chapters all around the world. The San Francisco chapter recently held their fourth annual 24-hour hackathon — Hacking for Humanity 2020. 

While the event went virtual this year, the participants were tasked with addressing a very real problem: the housing crisis in the Bay Area. Ten teams (consisting of 55 hackers) used Prezi Video to propose their creative solutions — here are a few of our favorites. 

Building empathy through social media

The winning pitch from the Girls in Tech hackathon came from Team JKDK with their social media campaign, “How I got here.” They proposed an interactive experience with a series of branching decisions, eventually resulting in a real-world story that aligns with the series of choices the user selected.

The campaign is meant to highlight how even a single decision can lead to homelessness, and help a younger generation develop a better understanding of the housing crisis. Team JKDK made it easy to share with others and donate, providing a strong template for other nonprofits to follow. Watch their pitch here: 

Educating people through workshops 

Team Dry Tortugas sought to help the homeless learn useful skills through workshops. They proposed a service called SkillsMatch to connect organizations with volunteers. The volunteers would create a workshop or sign up for an existing one, and organizations would host the workshops. 

The workshops can cover anything and everything, from wellness-related topics like art and yoga to practical skills like voting registration and financial literacy. Watch their Prezi video for an overview and demo: 

Gamifying social responsibility 

90% of millennials donated to a social cause in the last year, but most didn’t donate to organizations addressing homelessness. Team Social Hackers found that this was due to millennials not knowing the extent or severity of the issue and not knowing how to actually help. 

To better educate younger people about the housing crisis, they created a mobile game called Nurture Neighbor. The game features challenges that cover education, volunteering, and donations. As users complete tasks, they earn points and level up — first from a seed to a sproutling, and then to a flower. Being inactive will cause the flower to wilt, encouraging people to keep doing challenges and become more active in social change to keep their flower thriving. See the app in action here: 

With the help of Prezi Video, the Girls in Tech teams were able to convey their ideas in a compelling, engaging way — even when they were all remote. If you have your own idea to pitch, create a Prezi video and tag it with #Presenting for a chance to be featured on our Video Gallery.