From time to time, we will profile members of the Give Lively team, revealing more about who we are, what we do, and how we fit into a mix of dedicated and dynamic engineers, creatives, strategists, and advocates helping nonprofits do more with digital fundraising tools.

Like the focus of this week’s profile, the full Give Lively team is passionate about using tech for social good and providing a better fundraising experience to nonprofits and donors.

Max Anselmo

What do you do at Give Lively?

I work with a lot of awesome people! As a software engineer, I typically collaborate with product designers and managers to build new platform features and address any issues that our donors or nonprofits face. One of the recent features I worked on was improving how nonprofits set custom donation amounts for both one-time and monthly donations.

What does a day in your life at Give Lively look like?  

A day for me typically involves a morning filled with black coffee, focus time reviewing my fellow engineers’ code or working on my own tasks, all while getting some steps in on my walking pad. The latter half of my day is mainly spent in meetings or developing code in tandem with one of my teammates, where my cat Charlie likes to make an appearance walking across my keyboard.

What do you like to do outside of Give Lively?‍

In my free time, depending on the weather, I go on hikes to enjoy the beautiful Catskill Mountains and streams that surround me in upstate New York. If it’s not so nice out, I might play the drums or bass, usually along with The Marías, my current favorite band. I might also play some video games; lately that mostly means Deadlock, where I’ve climbed into the top 1,000 players in North America. I also enjoy going to the local drive-in movie theater (my favorite movie recently was Resident Evil).

What excites you about Give Lively?

I think the time we have is precious and I’m very thankful I get to spend mine making a positive impact on the world by making funding more accessible for great causes that need it most. It’s inspiring to have that goal and work alongside such an amazing group of people.

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