We're McMaster students who build software for nonprofits, free of charge. Every term a full product team takes on one local organization and ships something they'll actually use.
Blueprint exists to make technology accessible and useful to the people who build communities and look after public welfare.
Blueprint is a multinational organization founded in 2013 at the University of California, Berkeley. McMaster joined the network in 2026 as the fifth Canadian chapter, after Waterloo, Toronto, Carleton and Simon Fraser, and follows the same five values every chapter shares.
See all Blueprint chapters
Every project follows the same three steps, so our partners always know what to expect.
We meet with the organization to understand their needs and agree on what we'll build.
Our team builds through the term and shares progress with the partner every two weeks.
The partner gets the code, accounts and documentation, plus a walkthrough. We're always happy to help after.
Written first by Cal Blueprint and carried by every chapter since. They show up in real decisions, not just on this page.
The partner's outcome outranks our preferences. Success is what changes for them after we leave, not how interesting the stack was.
We care about the people on the team as much as the causes. The friendships here outlast the projects, and that's the point.
Nothing is sacred, including our own process. If there's a better way to run a term or ship a feature, we'd rather find it than defend the old one.
Everyone teaches and everyone learns. You'll be handed work slightly beyond you, along with the people who will help you finish it.
Pro bono never means half-finished, and doing good work doesn't make us special. Anyone can do this, and we hope more people do.
Meet the students running McMaster Blueprint this year.