# Kaiser Khan — Code as a Kind of Giving

Why Kaiser Khan started Kode Nirlaba: free websites and apps for Indonesian foundations and NGOs, and project guidance for students.

Canonical: https://mrkaiserkhan.com/notes/code-as-a-kind-of-giving
Last updated: 2026-09-26

In brief

Kode Nirlaba is Kaiser Khan’s independent initiative helping Indonesian foundations, NGOs and community groups build websites, forms and simple apps. Students can ask for project guidance while doing their own work. Kaiser volunteers his time, so accepted projects pay no development fee; domains, hosting and other third-party costs are agreed before work begins.

## Where did the idea come from?

Indonesia is where World Aid Network began, on a trip I wrote about in [Jakarta, One Year On](/notes/jakarta-one-year-on). The lesson I took from it was that local kindness needs reinforcement, not replacement.

Money is one kind of reinforcement. Time and skill are another. Building and running websites is my day job, and many of the foundations, community groups and animal shelters doing important work run on WhatsApp threads, paper registers and spreadsheets copied from one laptop to another. [Kode Nirlaba](https://kodenirlaba.org/en/) (_nirlaba_ means non-profit in Indonesian) is how I give the second kind.

## What does Kode Nirlaba actually do?

It helps Indonesian foundations, NGOs and community groups build the tools their work needs: a website that explains what they do, a volunteer registration form and schedule, an organised record of donors and donations.

The starting point is never a technology. It is one task a team wants to make easier. If an existing tool already does the job, we say so rather than build something new. The service works in Bahasa Indonesia first, with English for international volunteers, because help should arrive in the language of the people using it.

Some needs are shared by many organisations at once, so the initiative also builds public resources. The first is [PanduanHewan](https://panduanhewan.org/id/), a free guide to Indonesia’s animals and the organisations protecting them; I wrote about why in [A Guide for Indonesia’s Animals](/notes/a-guide-for-indonesias-animals).

## Why help students too?

Students and campus groups can bring a learning project, a social-innovation idea or a KKN community-service placement, and talk through the problem, the design or the technical difficulty. The rule is simple: the work and the report stay theirs. Guidance, not ghostwriting.

Some of those students will run tomorrow’s foundations. The earlier they learn to build carefully, the better for everyone they will serve.

## What does free mean here?

Free is easy to promise and hard to do honestly, so the terms are published.

I volunteer my time and expertise, and accepted organisations pay no development fee. Kode Nirlaba does not ask for public donations, sell premium plans, give cash grants or hold anyone’s funds. But free development does not make every service free. Domain names, hosting and third-party tools can cost money, so who pays, who owns the accounts and how long support lasts are agreed before any work starts. Not every request can be accepted; we take on work we can support responsibly.

## How will I know it worked?

Not by the number of websites launched. Success is whether the thing is used: fewer forms filled in twice, a coordinator who can see at a glance who is volunteering on Saturday.

Results are published only when there is a basis for them and permission to share them. That is why the site shows examples of the help available rather than claims about finished projects, and it is the same instinct behind [The Quiet Ledger](/notes/the-quiet-ledger): let the work be the loudest thing in the room.

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## Where to read _next._

[**A Guide for Indonesia’s Animals**The first public resource built within Kode Nirlaba.↗](/notes/a-guide-for-indonesias-animals)[**Jakarta, One Year On**The Indonesia trip that became World Aid Network.↗](/notes/jakarta-one-year-on)[**A Score That Cannot Be Bought**Transparency for donors, closer to home in the UK.↗](/notes/a-score-that-cannot-be-bought)