Lincoln Financial Group Connects Students to Community with codeLinc Event

Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) recently held its second annual codeLinc “hackathon”-style event in Greensboro, N.C. The nearly three dozen college and high school students from across North Carolina competing in the event had 24 hours to create apps that help a nonprofit organization in the Greensboro community better achieve its goals.

Through codeLinc, Lincoln is pairing its commitment to community involvement with its information technology resources to establish an event that connects the nonprofit community with technology solutions that help further their respective missions.

With the most recent event, Lincoln partnered with the Out of the Garden Project, a Greensboro-based nonprofit that provides food assistance for families primarily in Guilford County, N.C. Don Milholin, founder and executive director of the Out of the Garden Project, introduced the organization to the student participants, as well as the challenges it faces in effectively accomplishing their mission. The 10 teams of students had less than 24 hours to create working prototype applications to address one or more of those challenges.

“Our goal is to reduce food insecurity in the Piedmont Triad area, which ranks as the hungriest area in the United States, according to the most recent Gallup poll. There are certain technology issues that will help us better accomplish our mission, and they’re not issues that we’re equipped to address,” Milholin said.

Each student team worked with a coach from Lincoln’s own IT organization to develop their app. The coaches shared their experience and insights to help the students take their concepts and turn them into fully realized prototypes.

After working through the night, each team presented its app, and the top three apps were selected as the winners of the event. The “Wolfpack” team from Guilford Technical Community College took the top spot with an app that simplified a donor’s ability to easily make one-time or recurring donations via multiple payment methods, integrated with Google Calendar to simplify volunteer scheduling and communication, and alleviated many administrative tasks to allow the Out of the Garden Project to focus on serving more people in a more efficient manner. The second-place team came from North Carolina A&T State University, and the third-place team was from Atkins Academic & Technology High School in Winston-Salem.

In addition to winning a cash prize, each of the top three teams will work with Lincoln’s IT organization to turn their prototype apps into fully functional versions for the Out of the Garden Project to use.

“This event is very popular at Lincoln. Our IT team enjoys teaming up with the students to put their creativity and programming skills to use, while making a tangible impact in the community,” said Nancy Rogers, senior vice president for Corporate Social Responsibility for Lincoln Financial Group. “Nonprofits like the Out of the Garden Project address important community issues; if their impact can be broadened through technology, then it’s a natural fit for codeLinc. It allows us develop real solutions to real problems, while giving these very talented millennials exposure to Lincoln, introducing them to who we are and mobilizing them to get involved.”

About Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower Americans to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as to guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $214 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2015. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. To sign up for email alerts, please visit our Newsroom at http://newsroom.lfg.com.

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