Civic Tech Organizations

Code for America, mySociety, OKFN, EFF, Public Lab — the non-profits that build, host, and fund civic tech.

The civic-tech ecosystem is held together by ~15 organizations. Knowing who they are tells you who's hiring, who funds what, and which projects have institutional backing. Pair with Civic Tech Overview, Volunteering & Getting Involved, OSS Foundations, and Civic Grant Funding.

US

★ ★ Code for America — non-profit, founded 2009 (Jen Pahlka). Best known for GetCalFresh (CalFresh / SNAP enrollment), Clear My Record (criminal-record clearance), and the Brigade Network (volunteer-chapter program). Permanent staff + brigades. Significantly downsized + repositioned over 2023–25 toward direct-service work; brigade activity has waned but chapters in some cities (NYC, SF, Chicago, DC) still meet.
★ United States Digital Service (USDS) — federal; embedded inside agencies; rescued healthcare.gov (2013), built USDA / VA / IRS digital services. Major staff disruption in 2025. Status in 2026 is reduced; many ex-USDS folks are at OSS / civic-tech non-profits now.
★ 18F — inside GSA; consultancy-shaped federal digital service. Builds USWDS, login.gov, cloud.gov. Also affected by 2025 reorganizations. Codebases on GitHub are FOSS and continue to be maintained.
★ New America / OTI (Open Technology Institute) — non-profit; civic-tech / digital-rights research; runs DPI (Digital Policy Initiative).
★ Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation (Georgetown) — civic-tech research + practitioner programs.
Aspen Tech Hub — programs around responsible-tech + civic-tech.
Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) — non-profit; supports election officials with tools and grants.

★ ★ mySociety — UK non-profit; the most consistently shipping civic-tech org in the world. Builds WhatDoTheyKnow (FOIA), TheyWorkForYou (parliament), FixMyStreet (311), WriteToThem (call-your-rep), Alaveteli, EveryPolitician, MapIt. Twenty-plus years of running. Donate.
★ ★ Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN / Open Knowledge International) — UK / international; built CKAN, OpenSpending, Frictionless Data, the Open Definition. Runs the Global Open Data Index. Less hands-on shipping than its peak years but still a major civic-data steward.
★ Government Digital Service (GDS) — UK gov; runs gov.uk, the GOV.UK Design System, GOV.UK Notify, GOV.UK Pay. The model many other countries copied.
★ Open State Foundation (Netherlands) — Dutch open-data + transparency.
Tactical Tech — Berlin; digital-rights / data-and-society research; runs the Glass Room.
AlgorithmWatch — Berlin; algorithmic-accountability investigations.

★ ★ Code for All — federation of civic-tech orgs across ~20 countries (Code for Mexico, Code for Pakistan, Code for Africa, Code for Australia, Code for Japan, Code for Italy, etc.). Shared resources, summits, mentoring.
★ Code for Africa — large, well-funded; investigative-data + media-development across sub-Saharan Africa.
★ OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) — see Investigative Journalism; builds Aleph, runs cross-border investigations, sustains followthemoney.
★ Open Government Partnership (OGP) — multilateral; ~75 member countries committed to open-government action plans. Convening rather than building.
★ Open Contracting Partnership — runs OCDS; see Budget Transparency.

★ ★ Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — US non-profit; the most-cited digital-rights org; Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere (now mostly default-HTTPS), Certbot (with Internet Security Research Group), Atlas of Surveillance, ongoing litigation. Donate.
★ ACLU — US; civil-liberties litigation, including digital-rights cases.
★ Free Software Foundation (FSF) — see OSS Foundations.
Mozilla Foundation — see OSS Foundations; also runs civic-tech-adjacent programs.
EDRi (European Digital Rights) — Brussels; EU-policy-focused digital-rights coalition.
Access Now — global; digital-rights helpline + policy.
Privacy International — UK; surveillance / data-protection litigation.
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) — US-policy think-tank.

★ Free Law Project — see Court Records; CourtListener / RECAP.
★ OpenStreetMap Foundation — see Mapping.
★ Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) — see Mapping.
★ Public Lab — non-profit; community environmental monitoring (DIY air-quality, water sampling); FOSS science instruments.
★ MuckRock News — see FOIA; also runs DocumentCloud.
★ Free Press / Free Press Action — media-policy advocacy.
VotingWorks — see Elections Data; FOSS voting machines.
DemocracyWorks (TurboVote) — see Elections Data.
Open States / Plural Policy — see Elections Data.

Code for America Jobs — civic-tech job board; lists CfA, partner non-profits, government openings.
Tech Jobs for Good — broader social-impact tech jobs.
Idealist.org — non-profit jobs generally.
18F's "How to apply" guide is a useful primer on USAJOBS-shaped federal applications even if 18F itself is reduced.
mySociety jobs are listed on their site; small but high-signal.

mySociety is the most operationally impressive civic-tech org in the world. Twenty-plus years; small team; high-leverage products that millions of people use.
Code for America's identity has shifted — less brigade-network, more direct-service-delivery. The brigade era was important; the direct-service era is delivering more measurable outcomes (CalFresh, expungement).
Post-2025 US federal turmoil has scattered USDS / 18F talent into the OSS / civic-tech non-profit world; expect a stronger non-profit civic-tech bench in 2026–28 as a consequence.
OCCRP, Free Law Project, and HOT are three orgs you should donate to if you want sustainable civic-tech infrastructure.
Code for All chapters outside the US are unevenly active but Code for Africa / Code for Pakistan / Code for Japan are particularly strong in 2026.

You want to volunteer: Volunteering & Getting Involved; start with a Code for America brigade or Code for All chapter.
You're hiring civic-tech talent: post on Code for America Jobs / Tech Jobs for Good.
You want to donate: mySociety, Free Law Project, OCCRP, OpenStreetMap Foundation, EFF, MuckRock are all high-leverage targets.
You're a journalist: OCCRP / GIJN / IRE for community + tools.
You're a researcher / academic: Beeck, OTI, AlgorithmWatch, Tactical Tech.
You're an organizer / advocate: EFF, ACLU, EDRi, Open Government Partnership.