2024 Annual Report

A note from our leaders

Since our start in 2021, Technologists for the Public Good has been focused on funneling and supporting tech workers in public service jobs. We’re dedicated to helping technologists use their talents for the greater good by making government a more hospitable place for top-notch tech talent and by helping our community imagine the career paths, jobs, and ways to make a difference. 

Since the start, our mission has been to power the people who are reimagining how the government serves the public using technology, data, and design. That’s because we know we have a huge role to play when it comes to confronting today’s problems and creating capacity to improve public services. This feels especially urgent today as public transportation, healthcare, education, veterans’ benefits, and environmental protections – along with our rights as workers – are being called into question. 

Just as we always have and always will, we support the workers who are creating tomorrow's tech solutions and innovations. Technology holds huge sway over all our lives today. Securing faster permits for new housing developments, making it easier for veterans to schedule medical appointments, helping states offer family leave to their workers: these are the issues TPG members are working on. These are the problems we’re here to solve!

Even in these scary and uncertain times, we find open doors and places where we can make progress. But to do better work, we need to build better infrastructure for tech workers. So think of TPG as your community clubhouse, your advocates with the big and little guys – a supportive place to hash out the challenges you’re working through in your career. We are so grateful and inspired to have each and every one of you onboard.

I hope you’ll enjoy these highlights of what’s happened in 2024 and what’s to come! 

Anicia Santos, Board President Reilly Martin, Executive Director

2024 Highlights

We moved from a free to a paid membership model. The reason is simple: We want to make sure that Technologists for the Public Good can be sustainable. 

That means all of us – individually and collectively – are investing in this community. Thank you to our 350 paid members who stepped up as early adopters. We are also incredibly grateful to all those who’ve donated so that we can make 100 memberships available free of charge to people who’ve been impacted by the federal mass terminations, funding freezes, and contract cancellations.

Membership-based organizations are, in the truest sense, responsible to their members. And when you have to pay dues, you’re invested on a different level too – beyond signing up for a chat channel or newsletter. Our promise is to be even more responsive and responsible to you. To make space for your voices. And we want to hear what’s on your mind!

TPG is one of very few nonprofit civic tech organizations that have revenue outside of grant funding. We're grateful that we're able to fund significant parts of our work from direct support from our community, particularly in a time when grants and government funding are uncertain at best.

A few things you get with your membership you might not know about:

• A calendar of all the conferences happening in 2025 across civic tech.

• Discounts on industry conferences, events, career coaching and more.

• Access to our Member Directory, where you can connect with leaders and peers across the field.

Who's Making Up The Community

Over the past two years, we've been able to expand and evolve thanks to private foundation funding. A key goal of our grant is to create sustainable funding for our organization.

As a result, in 2025, a portion of our budget comes from our members. As we continue to grow, membership fees will support more of TPG’s operations and benefits, but that won't cover it all.
To keep this going, we need your help.  

We’re growing. In July 2024, we brought on Mark Lerner as our Deputy Director.  

Mark is a community builder, organizer, strategist, and cheerleader in the public interest tech community, where he has focused on helping government deliver better public services, and supporting the technologists that do this work. Mark oversees all our programs, and is the main point of contact for our members. Prior to joining TPG, Mark worked in local and federal government, with nonprofits, academia, and in the private sector. Mark lives in Washington, D.C., but will never let go of his Los Angeles roots. Outside of work he's an avid board gamer, cook, and aspiring backpacker.

We also had four new Board members join us since mid-2024. 

All this added people power is helping us do more – like creating an advocacy platform for public interest technologists and expanding our mentorship program. 

Last year, we held more events in more locations than ever before. 

Our in-person convening for more than 85 designers in Portland, Oregon, definitely topped the list. Design for the Public focused on bringing together public interest designers to learn, collaborate, grow, and share thoughts and experiences about the state of the industry. 

We’ll hold two similar events in 2025 – the first in Minneapolis-St. Paul in May, and the second this fall in Raleigh-Durham for public interest technologists.

Throughout the year, we’ll also continue to offer professional development opportunities like resume-building workshops, developing conference proposals, and of course more chances to network. Our members are our top priority, and we pride ourselves on creating fun and casual environments to come together, share projects, get inspired, and find new collaborators.

We launched our first round of 1-on-1 mentor matchups in 2024, and our second in January 2025. Then this spring, we launched a mid-career mentoring program for people with 15+ years experience in the field. 

In January 2025, we matched 34 people early in their public interest technology careers with experts in the field. Our mentors come from impressive jobs such as Senior Advisor in Emerging Technology with the City of Boston, Chief Technology Officer for Allegheny County Department of Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security AI Corps, and a host of state and federal government agencies.

We know that having a supportive mentor transforms careers. Evidence shows that mentorship programs create new career opportunities, develop stronger leadership skills, and increase job satisfaction for mentors. Through the interviews we’ve been conducting, we’re hearing that mentoring also helps people overcome imposter syndrome, continue to chase their dreams, avoid burnout, stay inspired, and learn from one another.

We have lots of exciting things in store for 2025/26!

We’ve published our new advocacy platform and are making sure we speak to the moment. We’re creating new tools to support those whose lives have been upended by the federal cuts. We’re planning more opportunities for communities across the country to connect.

This work doesn’t happen without investments from you. Join us as a member, make a donation, sign up for our newsletter, and connect Reilly with companies and foundations willing to underwrite events or programs.

Past reports

2023

2022-2023