Project Happy Inc

Project Happy’s powerful community platform was created to achieve the goal of helping young people become happier & more connected, and lifelong volunteers. Our platform makes it easy and appealing for local students to reconnect and get involved in our community.

We are excited to share this positive resource across New Hampshire. We (a team of 3 UNH seniors) have already built & launched the software product, set up our formal 501c3 nonprofit, and established partnerships with 5 NH Public high schools (including Pinkerton Academy, our state’s largest high school) as well as the University of New Hampshire (our state’s largest university). 

Project Happy’s solution onboards exciting local nonprofits, helps them make quick and easy organization profiles, and uploads their available volunteer opportunities with available days and time slots (often with weekly recurring opportunities). Working with high schools (and hopefully soon the Department of Education), our partner schools share and encourage their students to use Project Happy (independently or with friends, through community service based school clubs, and also via guidance counselor recommendations). In addition to connecting student volunteers to exciting opportunities and nonprofits aligned with what they care about, and allowing them to sign up directly on the platform, Project Happy automatically tracks and verifies student hours, making the annoying (as parents, students, & admin will tell you!) current pencil and paper or Google Sheets tracking obsolete. This is valuable for graduation, club requirements, and/or scholarships. 

Project Happy is led by three high-achieving seniors at the University of New Hampshire, as well as a highly-accomplished Board of state leaders; Jack Potvin, CEO, Nick Mokas, COO, and Gerry Donahue, CTO. In addition to being a UNH senior (and lifelong Derry resident + Pinkerton Graduate!), Jack works as an executive at Shtudy (Shtudy.co) which is a Manchester-based tech startup whose software helps top companies hire & retain engineers of Color. Gerry, who leads Project Happy’s product development, is also an AI/Machine Learning Researcher at the University of New Hampshire and has held a software engineering internship at Intel. Nick is from Bedford, NH, and accepted a job at PwC after graduation. Project Happy is a high priority and strong passion for all of us. Jack first had the idea for Project Happy 4 years ago, and has been working to research, build, and get this solution out into our state ever since. Nick joined two years ago, and Gerry after that. Now, we’re well-prepared and actively onboarding local schools, students, and nonprofits.