Looking for something to do this weekend? Looking to help within the Hoboken community? Charity Quest can help! It’s an app and website that provides volunteer opportunities for local communities within New Jersey and New York.
To kickstart your volunteering journey, the app features Quests, which include volunteer events, donation requests, applications, blood drives, and fundraisers. Quests are available from organizations such as Hoboken Family Alliance, Monroe Gardens, and Computers 4 People. To become more involved, users can also create Guilds or groups of volunteers who attend events together and track the Guild’s charitable stats. Furthermore, various volunteer contests, from Ghost Town Guardians to Clash of Clubs, have been held. These were created to decrease volunteer shortages, especially during the summer. In fact, during Clash of Clubs, the Sigma Nu fraternity won first place with a total of 27 volunteer hours.
Charity Quest’s CEO, Frank DiCola, was a Stevens alumnus who created the app because he recognized a need for a convenient directory of local charities within Hoboken and how local charities needed a constant stream of new volunteers. The project began during the pandemic in June 2020, with the Hoboken Community Center Pantry as the first organization. The Hoboken Shelter joined later in the fall. Currently, it has increased to 50 different local charities and 12,000 volunteers. Since its inception, there have been many updates, including an important back-end update for charities. The update allowed them to post their quests and manage volunteers. It represented a shift towards expansion and for Charity Quest to operate as more than a listing service.
Many Stevens students have helped Charity Quest, including two Senior Design teams. The first is a Computer Science team that is working on tools to help charities raise funds within the platform. Another team from the School of Business is researching ways for schools and businesses to get more out of the network.
The app is planned to be expanded to other parts of New Jersey including Passaic County, Bergen County, and Union County. In 2025, a Kickstarter campaign will be launched to fund more game features,such as allowing volunteers to compete to see which is the best town. Anyone interested in joining the launch team can email frank@charityquest.io.
DiCola encourages everyone to download Charity Quest and browse the community map. He notes how many are shocked by the number of local charities in Hoboken alone and how charities love involvement from Stevens. Volunteers can keep up with Charity Quest’s newsletter and Instagram. DiCola also expresses strong gratitude to the students and alumni of the Stevens community who have contributed to the success of the app.
