"We even have 14-year-old children in our programme who cannot read," said Patrick Oragwu, co-ordinator of Oasis, a not-for profit project establishing libraries in government funded schools to encourage reading.
It will also create jobs, with African trained staff managing and delivering for-profit projects, in turn producing a more long-term solution to bolstering the economy.
The company is involved in both nonprofit and for-profit projects and is one of the largest developers of affordable housing in New York City.
"Volunteering needs to become an everyday activity, like brushing your teeth," says Myrto Papathanou, founder of Volunteer4Greece, which connects people with not-for-profit projects.
Mr. Hubbard said members would be allowed to opt out of any for-profit projects -- a choice that Mr. Vondran appreciates.
The school offers 200 hours of students' time to work on not-for-profit projects run by small community groups, or to larger companies looking at sustainability or social responsibility issues.
"At nights and on weekends we'd been working on what our for-profit projects could be at the end of the Gates grant," Mr. Reiling, the company's vice president for development, told me.
The company's first three for-profit projects sold out within 24 hours in January and raised $300,000 from more than 500 investors who will earn a 4.5percentt return.
There are other for-profit projects that are trying to help people tap into large public data sets.
The projects are placed into one of three tracks: Blockchain for-profit projects, open source and social impact.
Ever the analyst, he made a detailed list of his activities, calculating that 70% of his days were going to for-profit projects and only 30% to charity.
