OP here, actually floored by the rapidity and variety of responses. Thanks HN.
I'll take this opportunity to float an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a long time.
The premise is to:
1) (this is almost certainly the easy part) build out a platform that is like a two-way khan academy - teacher and student, with at least the teacher having a tablet and a stylus that function well, sharing a digital blackboard, with a video chat optional -- where a student of something in a relatively privileged situation teaches a student of the same thing in a relatively less privileged situation -- where the sessions are stored and rewindable, both video and blackboard input.
2) the hard part; selling it as something to invest in and driving it to a point of having an endowment behind it, like Harvard's endowment, that allows the service to pay for moderation of student-teachers something like $12.00 USD an hour to teach, while subsidizing well-chosen students to have to pay something like $2 an hour to learn
it's been an idea for a passion project for a while
You need to develop this for a market that will pay you for it. Then you 'fork' your code for your favourite causes.
In the world of retail many companies have to train sales staff in third party dealerships, this can be with lots of site visits and with those staff doing some away day thing. The reason for this sales training is so products can be demonstrated and those sales converted by knowledgeable staff.
So you find your market in this type of a business and solve the challenges. There will be plenty in keeping company staff trained and on-board, with a long-term relationship with them selling stuff they get training updates about. You tailor your solution to different verticals and when you have a base product that can be tailored to your customers you then do your project version as that 'base product'.
So maybe do this the hard way, put in some time being that person that does company training materials, build out whatever is needed for doing that much, much better, pioneer it with the company that you work for, and on their clock, put in a lot of work needed to build out the backend and support needed for your big idea, then leave to polish it off knowing you have a commercial version out there and proven to be good (hopefully!).
Whilst you are doing this you might also want to help or support those around you on a friendly basis rather than as part of an organisation. Just being a friend to an elderly neighbour, having time for them and being willing to help them get their teevee plugged in correctly is pretty good. You can also be there for others that have problems of the mind or of the body that you are glad you are not afflicted by. Through maintaining friendships and looking out for a few vulnerable souls from different walks of life to yourself you can learn immense things about the human condition. You can also change people's lives with money and learn the nuances of that. There are no tax deductions or medals for making charity something you do informally, the whole world is not going to care if you walk the old guy's dog for him every morning.
You may want to explore this with the folks at freecodecamp. I feel it aligns a lot with what they are doing. I wanted to suggest you to check their initiative to build apps for NGOs as part of the process of graduating from FCC (maybe bypass the learning part and directly contribute?) but this may be even better.
I'll take this opportunity to float an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a long time.
The premise is to:
1) (this is almost certainly the easy part) build out a platform that is like a two-way khan academy - teacher and student, with at least the teacher having a tablet and a stylus that function well, sharing a digital blackboard, with a video chat optional -- where a student of something in a relatively privileged situation teaches a student of the same thing in a relatively less privileged situation -- where the sessions are stored and rewindable, both video and blackboard input.
2) the hard part; selling it as something to invest in and driving it to a point of having an endowment behind it, like Harvard's endowment, that allows the service to pay for moderation of student-teachers something like $12.00 USD an hour to teach, while subsidizing well-chosen students to have to pay something like $2 an hour to learn
it's been an idea for a passion project for a while