About
Countless teens want to help their community.
Most don’t know where to start or who to ask, or don’t have the money to do it. thirdauthor is a free, student-led organization that connects them with local professionals who suggest small projects, and helps fund those projects through sponsors and donations.
Our mission
Our mission is to help any teen make small, meaningful impacts on the communities around them. We connect teens with local professionals and organizations in their area, like YMCAs and other nonprofits, restaurants, local researchers and restoration groups, who suggest small projects teens can start at home or in their town. Sponsors and donations pay for the supplies, so underserved teens who don’t have the resources or money can still do it. No connections needed.
Why we started
A lot of teens want to help their community but either don’t know where to start or who to ask, or don’t have the resources or money to do it. The people who know what a town needs are usually right there, like the people who run the local YMCA, food bank or community garden, restaurant owners, and researchers at a nearby college. Most teens just never get to talk to them.
It’s for any teen from 13 to 18, anywhere, and it’s free. You don’t need connections, money or a university nearby. You don’t need to start out smart either. Hard work is enough.
What we’re doing
Connecting you with local professionals
We connect teens with local professionals and organizations in their area, the people who know what their community needs.
Project ideas from people near you
They suggest small projects you can start at home or in your town, like a park clean up, a community garden or a food drive.
Funding projects
Sponsors and donations pay for supplies for teens’ projects and starter kits for new chapters, so teens who don’t have the money can still do it.
Interviews
We interview local professionals about what their communities need and how a teen can start helping. Each one is a 30-minute recorded call, posted on the site and on Instagram.
Chapters
Students can start a chapter at their school or in their community and do this together. It’s free. All you need is an adult sponsor and 2 to 5 founding members.
Local opportunities
With a free account, you can find volunteering, research programs, youth councils, clubs and teen jobs near you, sorted by state and region.
Promises and safety rules
What we promise, and what we don’t
We promise to help you find people near you who can point you to a project, and to help pay for supplies when we can. We never promise money for every project, a paper, an authorship or a recommendation letter.
Every student who finishes should leave with a finished project of their own that helped their community.
Safety rules
- A parent or guardian knows before any call with an adult professional.
- First meetings are video calls. Any in-person work follows the host organization’s own rules for minors.
- Students never put a home address or phone number in an email.
- Students state their real age and skills.
- The program is not open to anyone under 13.
Contact
Questions, a project idea, or want to help or sponsor? Email sean@thirdauthor.com.
Donate
A lot of underserved teens have an idea for helping their community but no money for the supplies. Donations and sponsors pay for supplies for teens’ community projects and starter kits for new chapters, and keep Third Author free for every student.
Donations go through HCB by Hack Club. Businesses can also sponsor us. See where donations go.
Donate
Privacy
You don’t need an account to read the site. The opportunities by state are only for students with a free account. If you make one, we keep your name, grade and email, your school if you add it, and which steps of the student path you’ve finished. Your password is stored scrambled, never as plain text.
The Start a chapter form asks for your name, email, grade, school or group and city, and, if you want, your phone number, your adult sponsor and a few words about you.
If you sign up for interview emails, we keep only your email address and which page you signed up on. We send it to Resend, the service that delivers the emails, and nowhere else. Every email has a link to unsubscribe, which deletes your address from the list.
If you donate, HCB handles the payment and shares your name, email, the amount and any note you add with us.
The sponsorship form on the Donate page asks for your organization, name and email, and, if you want, a phone number and a message. We only use it to talk with you about sponsoring.
Each interview article shows how many times it has been opened and liked. We only keep those totals, nothing about who opened or liked it. Your browser remembers which interviews you liked so the heart stays filled in.
We use this only to run the program and contact you about it. We never sell or share it. You can delete your account from the account page at any time, or email us to delete anything else.