StepUp

Inspiration

Our team wanted to make it easy for organizations to get volunteers. It originally came from the idea that an organization is short staffed for an event and they need a few more people to help out. Our platform would allow them to get volunteers in a short time with our availability based matching system.

What it does

StepUp is a volunteer board that connects organizations and volunteers through smart scheduling and real time notifications.

• Volunteers can set their availability (days and time slots)
• Organizations can create/edit and publish events
• The system automatically notifies volunteers whose availability matches the event time and the current followers of an organization
• Users can discover events manually, register, and follow organizations to get updates

This makes volunteering frictionless, timely, and impactful for both sides.

How we built it

We built StepUp using React + Vite for a fast, modern frontend and SupaBase for backend services including authentication, data storage, and event management.

Our stack allowed us to prototype and deploy quickly while maintaining a clean, scalable system.

Tools and frameworks:

• React/Vite (Frontend)
• Supabase (Database, Auth, Storage)
• Bootstrap (UI Styling)
• GitHub (Version Control)

Our workflow followed short sprints with Git branching for each feature which helped us to stay organized and not have too many merge conflicts.

Challenges we ran into

• Auth supabase trigger setup to insert into our own profile table
• Setting up notification functions/triggers in supabase
• Working remotely with partners and different schedules (work,school,life)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a fully functional dual role platform in under a week
• Designed an intuitive, modern interface that mirrors real world applications
• Created a notification based event matching system that feels seamless
• Worked effectively as a 5 person cross functional team with clear task ownership

What we learned

• How to integrate Supabase deeply for auth, storage, and dynamic data handling
• How to plan and execute features fast under hackathon constraints
• The effective communication between frontend and backend syncing daily is key to success

What's next for StepUp

• Add geo-based event recommendations and maps
• Enable email and SMS notifications for upcoming events
• Expand to a mobile friendly progressive web application for on the go volunteering.

StepUp's mission is to make volunteering as easy as signing up for a meetup. Connecting people who care with causes that matter.

Built With

• react
• supabase
• visual-studio-code
• vite