Team4Tech - An NGO Impact Accelerator

Globally, inequities in accessing quality education continue to limit lifelong opportunity. Research shows that learners (of all ages) must develop key employability skills (creativity, problem-solving, digital literacy, social-emotional) within foundational literacy instruction (references: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/spark-and-sustain-how-school-systems-can-improve-learning-at-scale; https://usprogram.gatesfoundation.org/who-we-are/education-to-workforce-framework; https://shorturl.at/CLM59). Having only technical skills is not sufficient in today's dynamic job market. Employers increasingly seek individuals with “soft” skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, which are crucial for adaptability and lifelong learning. 

Further exacerbating the digital divide is that by 2030, 90% of jobs worldwide will have a digital component (reference: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/future-of-work/) but forecasts show that nearly 1 billion youth will not have the digital skills to participate in the global workforce. (reference: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/reskilling-revolution-jobs-future-skills/) Access to technology alone is not enough to shift this reality. Research shows that technology-assisted learning delivered with teacher training programs have the largest positive effects on learning outcomes (reference: https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/scope-pub-using-technology-report.pdf). Investing in both is a powerful equalizer in ending extreme inequality and promoting access to opportunity.

Governments have reported that roughly 50% of all school-aged children rely on NGOs for informal learning (source: https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/non-state_actors.). Despite their commitments to leveraging technology in education and actively using technology to improve educational outcomes, NGOs operating in low-resource environments typically lack access to training that ensures they are using evidence-based practices in their efforts to advance quality education.

Team4Tech’s solution immerses NGO staff in training programs that enable the use of evidence-based practices and the effective use of technology to build employability skills (including core literacy and numeracy).

Team4Tech is a global impact accelerator co-designing solutions with education-focused NGOs to leverage digital technologies to advance education for employability. Our solution bridges the digital equity gap in education by scaling the evaluation and use of evidence-based practices in programs being provided by community-based education NGOs.

Since 2013 Team4Tech has supported 50+ NGO partners and directly impacted 130k+ learners. During COVID-19 we experienced a 10x increase in demand from NGOs requesting our accelerator services. We quickly pivoted our programming to virtual and dramatically scaled our reach to 700+ NGOs that report a direct impact on over 37M learners.

Our expanded accelerator programming is co-designed with community-based education NGOs operating in low-resource environments and includes:

• Access to a robust, global online Community of Practice to engage with free education and technology tools, workshops, certification courses, and resources;

• Access to facilitated, online and on-the-ground regional hubs (in Africa, Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, and the USA & Canada) for localized collaboration;

• Access to skilled volunteers and educational resource partners to deliver pro-bono capacity-building projects online and on the ground; and

• Access to funding, amplification, and coaching to further promote NGO sustainability.

Our growing community of practice serves as a bridge for NGOs to access evidence-based resources and practices that support long-term readiness for employability. Specifically, Team4Tech supports NGOs in building learning experiences advancing the development of these research-based employability skills:  

• Creativity

• Entrepreneurship

• Global Awareness

• Collaboration and Communication

• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

• Digital Literacy, Digital Fluency, and Digital Citizenship

• Lifelong Learning and Self-Direction

Oftentimes, when people think of education, colleges or traditional schools come to mind. However, roughly 30% of the world’s educators are employed by community-based NGOs that lack significant access to resources to build employability skills for their learners (UNESCO Report 2017). Therefore, Team4Tech co-designs solutions community-based education NGOs that share our vision of empowering learners in the most under-resourced communities. Together, we are unwavering in our commitment to advance quality education to break the bonds of intergenerational poverty. 

While our work with our NGO partners has a global reach, the transformative impact happens locally in communities facing deep educational and economic inequities. Through our Regional Hubs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America & the Caribbean, Team4Tech’s solution advances employability skills through technology solutions relevant to the local context. For example:

• 74% of Ugandans between the ages of 15-25 are unemployed. This opportunity gap disproportionately affects women and girls—many young women in Uganda drop out of school due to a lack of funds for tuition. Those who can complete schooling still operate at a disadvantage, since public schools rarely offer digital skills education to give learners access to future careers in technological jobs. Women and girls have historically not been encouraged to enter into the STEM fields. Through our Africa Hub, we accelerate the impact of the NGO Women in Technology Uganda (WiTU) to empower young women and girls in Kampala through hands-on technology training and career development. 

• In India, 97% of students are enrolled in primary schools but only 27% ultimately enroll in higher education and, of that percentage, just 50% of graduates are considered employable. Team4Tech’s Asia Regional Hub accelerates the impact of our partner Learning Links Foundation (LLF) to address this issue through access to skilled volunteers to integrate technology solutions for LLF staff to ensure that students have the skills and guidance to feel confident and prepared for their future.

• In many rural and isolated Indigenous communities in Mexico, a subsistence economy perpetuates poverty and gender inequality. Access to education for Indigenous women varies. In rural Hidalgo, where Team4Tech’s NGO partner PSYDEH operates, most people have limited or no access to phones or the internet. 86% of the population lives below the poverty line, and women typically make less than $50 per month. In such an inequitable environment, Indigenous women lack opportunities to lead in their communities, let alone work to address pervasive issues like inequality gaps. Team4Tech’s Latin America & Caribbean Regional Hub assists PSYDEH with expanding their portfolio to include more ICT solutions in their programs and improve connectivity to their hubs to enhance outreach which reaches more women partners in isolated rural areas. 

Our team believes deeply that throwing technology at the problem isn’t the solution. We know that it takes deep collaboration and co-design within communities to make headway in advancing equity in education and build skills for under-resourced learners. In doing so, we are giving them the keys to pursue a university education and/or high-quality knowledge sector jobs with confidence. 

Shortly after graduating from college, I (Julie Clugage) worked for two years at a rural secondary school in Guatemala where I witnessed the life-changing power of quality education to break the bonds of intergenerational poverty.  I established the first computer lab in the school and witnessed our students use their newfound technology skills to pursue university education and knowledge sector jobs.  

As I continued my career in international development and technology, I never stopped thinking about how I might do more to support education-focused NGOs with the technology resources and training that would help them build the skills that their learners needed to attain high quality employment.  I co-founded Team4Tech in 2013 to connect the financial and human capital of the global technology sector with the local expertise of innovative, community-based education NGOs, focused on accelerating education for employability. 

Over the past 11 years, we have built a global team of 20 educators, instructional designers, measurement and evaluation experts, program designers, and community-builders in Brazil, India, Kenya, Uganda, and the US who represent the communities we serve. These team members are focused on providing relevant, evidence-based resources to our NGO partners, to help them accelerate the development of employability skills in their learners. 

• Our Africa regional hub is led by Nyagaki Gichia, a WISE Fellow and former robotics teacher in Nairobi.  Her team of four is based across Kenya and Uganda. Nyagaki worked at the International School of Kenya, where she taught high school robotics, ran a maker space, and led student clubs and initiatives related to creative product design and plastic recycling. She has executed hackathons, design thinking workshops, and hardware research projects. She has spent the past decade advocating for STEM programs in schools in Kenya.

• Our South Asia regional hub is led by Goutham Kumar. Based in Chennai, Goutham is an alumnus of the Teach For India Fellowship Program where he worked as a community-based teacher. He served as the Alumni Impact Manager for the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and has worked in launching Communities of Practice for the alumni community of 400+. He has also been instrumental in setting up the recruitment strategy for the Teach For India Fellowship Program for the state. He is passionate about education and strongly believes that technology is a powerful tool towards educational equity.

• Our Latin America hub is led by Diego Nunes, a graduate of the Amani Instutitute, who founded a social enterprise focused on training and inclusion of under-resourced learners in the tech sector. He has held roles in the nonprofit sector aimed at increasing political innovation in Latin America. Diego has experience in product management, customer experience, project management and operations in various tech companies.

Our Board includes members from South Africa, Kenya, India, the UK, and throughout the US who have deep expertise in global education, technology solutions, finance, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and more.

In 2013, Lila Ibrahim and I co-founded Team4Tech. At launch, we pushed ourselves to imagine the impact we could achieve by supporting community-based education NGOs with technology grants and training in three to five-year-long partnerships, to implement technology solutions to accelerate impact in education. We did the math and came to an inspiring and daunting goal of benefiting 100,000 learners over 10 years. We surpassed this goal in June 2021 - two years ahead of schedule - propelling us to launch a five-year strategic vision (through 2027) to reach 800 NGOs that directly impact millions of learners. 

By 2024, we have already dramatically scaled our programming by:

• Growing our online Community of Practice to support 730+ NGOs that report a direct impact on 37M+ learners. We are surpassing our engagement, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application goals (65% or higher) as our recent report indicated that 93% of members report applying knowledge, resources, strategies, and tools to their work and 93% are learning and creating knowledge within the Community of Practice and making organizational improvements. One member reported, “The Community of Practice brings Team4Tech to an entirely new level, you are educating a citizenry not just helping people.”

• Launching regional hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin America & the Caribbean to deliver localized and contextualized support so that edtech resources can be used by community-based NGOs.  “Thanks to our partnership with Team4Tech, I have seen students - who had never used a computer before - successfully engage in designing and coding projects.” - Patrick Munguti, Director of Education & Technology Programs, Kenya Connect

• Engaging 1,600+ skilled volunteers from leading technology companies in hundreds of pro bono capacity-building projects and delivered $20M+ in technology grants and in-kind services. “Engaging in this opportunity has been a source of immense gratitude and pride. This experience has not only been fulfilling but has also served as a rich learning opportunity. Working on this project has undeniably enhanced my skill sets, particularly in areas such as teamwork, growth mindset, and communication.” — Employee Volunteer, Adobe

Examples of impactful strategic NGO partnerships include improving:

LEARNER ENGAGEMENT & LEARNER GROWTH

In Guatemala, fewer than 20% of Mayan women complete high school. MAIA Impact (MAIA) empowers Indigenous girls and women in Guatemala through a holistic educational model that combines 21st-century skills with culture, identity, socio-emotional learning, and family and community engagement. The MAIA Impact School is Central America’s first secondary school designed for Indigenous young women from rural communities, known as Girl Pioneers. After Girl Pioneers graduate, MAIA offers their Launch Year Program, providing vocational orientation, university preparation, workplace readiness training, and internship experiences. 

In 2023, Team4Tech volunteers from Barracuda Networks collaborated with MAIA to develop a digital safety curriculum, build a roadmap for a makerspace, and implement EdTech solutions. 

“Technology is key to entering university and obtaining formal employment: 70% of Girl Pioneers in Launch Year were accepted to university or received formal employment. Knowledge and access to the internet and workplace technology training ensures Indigenous girls have access to admissions information and the skills needed to land a job and earn at least minimum wage.” - Benjamin Farley, Operations and Grants Manager, MAIA

EDUCATOR GROWTH

In Rwanda, 99% of girls go to primary school, but less than 34% attend upper secondary school, and only 8% of high school graduates attend university. Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST) brings high-quality STEM education to secondary school girls, with 96% of GGAST students matriculating to universities around the globe. Since our partnership began in 2017, Team4Tech has deepened Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional development for GGAST teachers through $650,000+ in technology grants and pro bono consulting, including seven projects with skilled volunteers from technology companies including Intel, Cloudera, Cisco, DocuSign, Adobe, Autodesk, and NetApp. 

Team4Tech's support has enabled GGAST to partner with the Rwandan government to provide technology training to school leaders and teachers from all over the country. Over the last three years, GGAST has trained 500 lead teachers who have, in turn, trained 10,000 more teachers and impacted over 62,000 students. With Team4Tech’s funding in 2023, GGAST strengthened its internet and increased tech capacity in its computer lab. Team4Tech staff also joined GGAST on-site in July for a week of teacher training workshops on coding, making, and robotics. 

“Students and teachers have used technology to research, present their lessons/work, and access information via different platforms. This foundation has enabled us to go beyond GGAST and share our best practices with the rest of the teachers across the country.” — Théophile Habiyambere, Deputy Head of School & Director of Academics, GGAST

NGO SUSTAINABILITY & SCALE

Dost Education enables parents of any literacy level to support their child’s early education with tips for responsive caregiving. Using mobile technology, research-backed curriculum, machine learning, and behavioral science, they solve everyday parenting problems and nudge parents to nurture cognitive and socio-emotional development in their children. 

Team4Tech partnered with Dost from 2019-2022, co-designing solutions to improve outreach, content, and digital skills to help Dost scale their early learning programs to families across India.

Connecting Dost with 135 pro bono consultants from leading technology companies including Adobe, Deloitte, Billtrust, Genentech, Akamai, UNC Chapel Hill, JD Associates, and Visa on five pro-bono consulting projects, Team4Tech collaborated with Dost to accelerate impact in a myriad of ways, including: Updating and testing onboarding, digital marketing, and outreach processes for participating families; Creating engaging, relevant, and targeted phonecast content and improving accessibility and personalization features for caregivers; and Building Dost’s open source strategy and aligning on positioning in preparation for government partnerships. 

When our partnership began, Dost served 10,000 families in Delhi. Since then, Dost has scaled significantly—they are now working in 120 districts across nine states in India, reaching 300,000 families directly and 500,000 families through government partnerships.  After three years with Team4Tech, Dost graduated to become one of our NGO alumni mentors. Dost is now serving as a lighthouse of learning in the education ecosystem in India—affecting positive change for learners in their region.

“The partnership with Team4Tech has helped us build some crucial building blocks for Dost’s scale, especially around marketing and technology. This has helped Dost tap into new ways of reaching families in need and grow our impact to reach over 300,000 families. I deeply appreciate the care and flexibility the team brings to the work.” — Sindhuja Jeyabal, President and Co-Founder, Dost Education

While we are proud of our 11 years of collaborative impact with education NGOs, we know that to have a transformative impact with thousands more NGOs that directly impact hundreds of millions of learners globally, we must engage a community of social entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers available for partnership and collaboration opportunities. Specifically, we seek a community with expertise in:

• Using evidence-based practices that promote education to employability in global communities;

• The ever-evolving world of edtech tools (like AI) for uncovering biases and ethical use by community-based NGOs;

• Monitoring and evaluating SDG 4; 

• Ease of data collection for NGOs operating with limited access to the Internet and other resources;

• Public relations in global geographies to build visibility of our work via social media, campaigns, and speaking engagements to recruit community-based NGOs into our global online Community of Practice;

• Organizational capacity-building to uncover where we need to be more efficient in our practices; and

• Philanthropy and CSR to evaluate and enhance our revenue model.

Many NGOs are doing impactful work in education and many NGOs catalyze pro bono volunteers across all impact areas. Team4Tech is unique because our highly-scaffolded model engages diverse stakeholders—skilled volunteers, donors, NGOs, and corporate partners—and focuses them on a singular mission to use evidence-based practices to advance quality education that leads to under-resourced learners building employability skills.

Our approach is novel in four distinct ways:

The population we serve. We believe that education-focused NGOs are the most nimble lever for demonstrating and influencing educational innovation at the community level. Therefore, our work is focused on supporting NGO staff with capacity-building to help engage learners in purposeful learning through applied problem-solving and the use of technologies that result in building employability skills to access quality jobs. We support NGOs to build digital literacy for their staff, integrate edtech to accelerate core learning outcomes and build non-routine cognitive skills such as critical thinking and creative problem-solving for their learners through project-based education.

Our co-design approach to programming. We use human-centered design to co-design solutions with community-based education NGOs to ensure the technology solutions are contextualized within the local context and are relevant for advancing education to employability.

Our learning approach to partnerships. We do not view our partnerships with donors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers as transactional. Aligning with our value of inclusivity, we know that everyone can be a learner and everyone can be a teacher. Therefore, our partnerships are built on mutual trust and transparency. We also commit to long-term partnerships (3-5 years with NGOs), knowing that enduring change take time and deep collaboration.

Our values-first framework. We uphold five core values and live our commitments to equity by being: 

1) Inclusive by designing tools, systems, programs, partnerships, and engagement opportunities where everyone has the opportunity to be a learner and everyone has the opportunity to be a teacher. 

2) Empathetic by being open to collaboration, committed to enduring change, and humble in our partnerships, relationships, and engagements with stakeholders. 

3) Agile by using, practicing, implementing, and designing with a human-centered approach. We are nimble and responsive in designing tools, systems, programs, partnerships, and engagement opportunities. It is evident by our design-centered approach that we are continuously learning and making improvements that are data-informed. 

4) Intentional by driving every engagement towards impact. With every action we take we should be creating pathways that positively impact our partners. 

5) Responsible for earning trust, developing relationships, leveraging collaborative opportunities, following through on our promises, and gaining traction toward our own organizational goals.

Team4Tech’s logic model addresses the PROBLEM STATEMENT, “NGOs providing direct support to learners do not have access to the resources, human capital, learning opportunities, or models to ensure they are utilizing evidence-based practices in both pedagogy and use of technology within their programs to advance employability skills. Without those inputs, they are unable to support the longitudinal growth of employability skills for all learners.”

The RESOURCES we offer to community-based education NGOs include:

• Team4Tech infrastructure

• Funding

• A global online Community of Practice platform and engagement tools,

• Regional Hubs Leads (on the ground in Africa, Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, and the USA & Canada)

• Skilled program team

• Skilled volunteers and partners

• Library of evidence-based practices

• Assessment tool for monitoring student growth in skills that support employability

These resources are broken down into key INPUTS for community-based education NGOs to access, including:

• Facilitated regional hubs (online and on the ground) for localized collaboration;

• A robust, global online Community of Practice to engage with free education and technology tools, workshops, certification courses, and resources;

• Skilled volunteers and corporate and educational resource partners to deliver pro-bono capacity-building projects; and

• Funding, amplification, and coaching to further promote NGO sustainability.

The ACTIVITIES we co-design with NGOs to harness these resources include:

• Virtual networking events and speakers

• Online courses with the option to earn a no-cost certificate of completion

• Training and toolkits related to evidence-based practices

• Access to vetted technologies

• Local and regional events

• Funded cohorts focused on implementation

• Newsletters, posts, and other digital outreach

• Invitations to collaborate on funded projects

• Portfolio programming, grants, and graduate network

• Access to skilled volunteers

• Coaching and advising

• Amplification, networking, and advocacy

The DIRECT RESULTS of these activities are for NGOs to demonstrate:

• Improved knowledge and understanding of evidence-based practices.

• Improved incorporation of evidence-based practices by nonprofit programs. 

• Effective use of technology by nonprofit programs. 

• Improved programming for stakeholders to achieve systems change. 

• Improved use of evidence-based practices to achieve sustainability and scale of nonprofit programs.

• Improved opportunities for learners to develop skills that support employability.

• Improved access to learning resources to use directly with learners. 

The OUTCOMES we evaluate include:

• Demonstrated growth in NGO participation by target learners.

• Engagement by learners in programs that pedagogically promote the development of employability skills.

• Growth by learners in key employability skills.

• Demonstrated growth of educators in knowledge, understanding, and use of evidence-based practices that promote employability through learning experiences, and program design.

• Organizational growth in digital infrastructure, scale, and sustainability.  

The IMPACT we strive to achieve includes the sustained impact of NGOs that utilize evidence-based practices and the effective use of technology to deliver programs for learning in local contexts. Those organizations will, with increased knowledge, understanding, and technology access and infrastructure, support learners' attainment of employability skills. By accelerating the impact of education NGOs, our long-term goal is to enable millions of learners in under-resourced communities to have access to educational experiences that promote employability skills.

Through our accelerator programming, we aim to improve NGO educator effectiveness by supporting the understanding and use of evidence-based practices and program design that supports long-term employability for learners. In turn, NGO educators can improve both learner engagement and growth.

Educator Growth. As measured by: 1) Understanding and use of evidence-based practices; and 2) Program design that supports long-term employability skills for learners

Learner Engagement. As measured by: 1) Participation in NGO programs; 2) Engagement with NGO employability skills programming; and 3) Learner feedback on access and use of technology for learning.

Learner Growth. As measured by: 1) Access to evidence-based learning experiences; 2) Access to learning experiences that promote the development of employability skills; and 3) Progress in employability skill measures.

Organizational Sustainability and Scale. As measured by: 1) Improving digital infrastructure; 2) Developing sustainability plans for staff, educator, and volunteer training; and 3) Demonstrating scale and growth of programs.

Team4Tech utilizes a mixed-methods evaluation approach to comprehensively evaluate its NGO accelerator programming. This approach is designed to capture data as it relates to both direct and indirect impact, providing a multi-dimensional analysis of program outcomes. The evaluation framework focuses on the four pivotal elements of Team4Tech’s programming: regional hubs, skilled volunteers, Community of Practice, and coaching and amplification. Each of these elements has an evidence base that allows our organization to measure individual and collective contributions toward our intended outcomes. By integrating both qualitative and quantitative data sources, the evaluation not only measures tangible outcomes but also captures the nuanced, less tangible aspects of our organizational impact.

The evaluation and aligned measures allow Team4Tech to validate the effectiveness of our programs and identify areas for continuous improvement.

As an organization at the forefront of leveraging technology for enhancing educational outcomes, we have adeptly integrated the use of the Mighty Networks platform as the home for our Community of Practice (CoP). White-labeling the Mighty Networks Platform was a strategic move aimed at fostering a more interconnected, resource-rich environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing among our NGO partners. The platform's functionality aligns seamlessly with the key tenets of our successful CoP, including knowledge sharing, community engagement, and collaborative learning. We are currently leveraging customizable digital spaces within the platform to bring together volunteers, our strategic partners, regionally located NGOs, and educators interested in specific growth opportunities. 

In addition, we are using interactive forums to encourage discourse and exchange of ideas. Team4Tech has (in 18 months) hosted more than 50 learning events and workshops. The CoP provides a means for us to host, manage attendees, share resources, and archive every event that is hosted. Among the most important features are the platform's analytics tools that enable Team4Tech to track engagement and gather feedback. This data is critical for the continual refinement of the CoP, ensuring it remains aligned with the evolving needs of its members. With mobile accessibility in the platform we have been able to improve flexibility and reach of our CoP.

Our CoP also leverages AirTable and Zapier as an integrator to help us use data to make decisions and see just-in-time data to help inform our work. The integrations with Zapier allow us to pipe data, connect with newsletter and other engagement tools, and helps us to onboard NGO members in continually developing ways. We are also designing and beginning beta testing of chatbots in Zapier that could help with continual data collection with our strategic partners. We are also leveraging AirTable to help manage and facilitate our micro-volunteer opportunities that engage volunteers in smaller projects with CoP NGO members. 

Outside of our CoP our work with Ai-for-education.org is resulting in access to emergent AI tools, resources, and training that is accessible and directly relevant to our NGOs and the educators who support their programs. To date these AI tools include multi-modal chatbots, offline LLMs, translation of reading materials into indigenous languages. Over the past year we have had more than 200 members complete our introduction to AI course and we are continually developing training for NGOs to use generative AI. Most recently we have deployed TheTeacherAI that allows our members to access a tested chatbot that has demonstrated fewer hallucinations and fewer biased responses. Currently, we are exploring ways that machine learning can help to support our measurement and evaluation as an organization. 

Team4Tech also utilizes Salesforce, Campaign Monitor, Google Suite, Miro, and a suite of fundraising management tools. Our organization is continually streamlining and strengthening staff capacity to use technology for productivity and management tasks. 

Team4Tech has 16 full time staff, 2 part time staff, 8 contractors, and 250+ volunteers annually.

Team4Tech has been advancing quality education in partnership with community-based NGOs for 11 years.

In compliance with global data privacy laws, we do not collect and store data on staff, board, volunteers, NGO staff partners/served, or learners served. This includes data such as gender, race, disability/health, religion, ethnic identity, political opinions, and more. However, we are intentional in building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture and programming at Team4Tech, including our approach to:

Board Leadership. We recruit Board members who represent the communities we serve and who have expertise in organizational development and DEI. Currently, our 11 Board members represent the global and regional communities we serve including Brazil, India, Kenya, and South Africa. 

Staff Representation. We have on-the-ground staff in India, Brazil, and Kenya to deliver localized and contextualized support for NGO partners. 

Internal Practices. Team4Tech has articulated policies in our operations guide to promote equity, including a non-discrimination policy, an equal employment opportunity policy, policies against harassment and violence, and access for persons with disabilities policy. 

We engage in McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index Survey and an annual internal employee satisfaction survey to understand progress and outcomes in core areas of direction, leadership, work environment, innovation and learning, coordination and control, capabilities, motivation, and accountability. Team4Tech’s leadership team takes ownership of co-designing solutions with the full staff to achieve an 80% score or higher which is measured by stated organizational objectives and key results.

In 2024, we established a DEI Working Group led by non-leadership team staff to hire a DEI consultant and lay out a plan for incorporating DEI into organizational policies and practices.

Programming & Approach. We use human-centered design to co-design programs with our NGO partners. For more on our approach to our human-centered design approach, please review our white paper (https://shorturl.at/yOTY6) on co-design. We provide a platform for NGO partners to share stories, data, challenges, and more to build their visibility and access opportunities. For example, we develop videos of our NGO partners (at no cost to the NGO) and share them through our social media channels. We host storytelling events with NGO partners, invite them as awardees for our annual impact celebration, and as panelists for high-profile events such as Ecosystem Day for the Skoll World Forum.

We require that our NGO partners’ programming be equally accessible for girls and women and several of our partners focus exclusively on girls and women. 

Volunteers: To date, more than 1,600 volunteers from more than 35 corporate partners have supported our NGO partners with pro bono services to build organizational capacity. For each pro bono consulting project, our program directors guide a team of employee volunteers, using human-centered design, to learn about the NGO’s goals and develop technology solutions and training to support those goals as well as the needs of staff and learners within the local context. We offer leadership development training and cross-cultural connections with the NGOs they are supporting.

Team4Tech operates under a hybrid financial model that combines philanthropic contributions and corporate partnerships to drive its mission. Registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in the United States, its fiscal structure is designed to optimize resource allocation and maximize impact of our NGO accelerator programs.

In the fiscal year 2024, Team4Tech's revenue budget is set at $2,595,017, with a significant majority, approximately 69%, sourced from philanthropic avenues. This segment is further bifurcated into individual contributions and events, contributing $792,767, and foundational grants accounting for $989,250. The remaining 31% of the revenue is garnered from corporate project sponsorship, amounting to $813,000. Notably, Team4Tech is on track to exceed its revenue targets by $250,000 for this fiscal period.

Corporate entities play a pivotal role in Team4Tech's business model. These partners function as sponsors, underwriting the costs associated with skill-based volunteer initiatives. These pro bono projects, integral to capacity building, are executed in collaboration with approximately 40 strategic non-governmental organization (NGO) partners annually. 

Team4Tech has instituted an innovative engagement strategy for individual donors. These benefactors commit to a three-year funding period, each year providing $15,000 in technology grants. These grants are strategically earmarked for a strategic NGO partner, chosen by the donor, thereby fostering a sense of personal investment and impact. Notably, these grants are matched by the fundraising efforts of the NGO partners, effectively doubling the investment's value.

Our organization also benefits from additional philanthropic support, extending beyond mere financial assistance. This support emanates from both foundations and individual benefactors, underpinning a wide spectrum of activities, resources, and tools. These are co-developed in concert with members of the Community of Practice and facilitated through regional hubs on the ground. This collaborative approach ensures that the solutions and interventions are contextually relevant, sustainable, and aligned with the specific needs of the educational ecosystem.

Our current financial model not only ensures financial sustainability but also amplifies the impact of their initiatives, aligning perfectly with their overarching mission.

Before the launch of Team4Tech’s strategic plan in 2022, 80% of our revenue came from corporate partners that sponsored the cost of skilled-based volunteer projects, while the other 20% came primarily from friends and family (of staff) and an annual in-person gala to cover the cost of technology grants for our strategic NGO partners. 

As we expanded our accelerator programming and scaled our reach to include four regional hubs and an online Community of Practice, we invested in a full-time Chief Growth Officer to diversify our revenue model and strategy to motivate philanthropic donations from individuals and foundations. In two years, annual philanthropic revenue has grown from $600,000 to $1.8M+, representing 69% of our revenue. While our goal is to maintain a 50/50 split between philanthropic and business development revenue, increases in philanthropic revenue have enabled Team4Tech to weather economic downturns, most recently the macroeconomic climate within the technology sector, without compromising our north star of accelerating the impact of community-based education NGOs.

Significant philanthropic funding Team4Tech received in the past 12 months include:

• $750,000+ individual donor gifts and events
• $750,000 Hopper-Dean Foundation (multi-year matching grant to grow individual giving)
• $400,000 Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
• $125,000 RaspberryPi Foundation
• $100,000 Google Foundation
• $50,000   Gates Foundation (via Fab, Inc.)

Significant corporate project sponsorship Team4Tech received in the past 12 months include:

• $660,000 Salesforce
• $150,000 Cadence Design Systems
• $150,000 Zendesk
• $105,000 Adobe
• $105,000 Barracuda Networks
• $100,000 Guidewire
• $100,000 ServiceNow
• $90,000   Viasat

Per our strategic plan, Team4Tech’s goal is to become a $6M organization by 2027. (Fiscal year 2024 projections put us at $2.8M.) To do this our revenue-generating philosophy is aligned with our values as we believe everyone has a role to play. For example, while Team4Tech’s Growth Team leads on strategy and the execution of plans, they collaborate deeply with the Program Team to collect stories and data with our NGO partners, corporate partners, and volunteers, support the Board as door openers, engage with donors to be ambassadors, and collaborate with Operations Team to ensure we’re accurately tracking financial data according to policy and laws.