Tech Nonprofits, Accelerated Exclusively by Fast Forward

About Fast Forward

Tech is ubiquitous. Tech solutions for social problems are not. An emerging class of startups is building tech to solve these social problems. They are tech nonprofits. Fast Forward bridges the tech and nonprofit sectors to build capacity for tech nonprofits, so they can scale solutions to our world’s most urgent problems.

As the first and only organization focused exclusively on scaling startups that combine the best tech with sustainable nonprofit business models, Fast Forward’s mission is to accelerate impact.

Tech nonprofit

[tek non-prof-it]

Noun

A tech startup building software that has selected a nonprofit business model in order to scale impact, not profit.

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139M Lives
Impacted

Fast Forward’s portfolio of tech nonprofits improve the lives of millions globally. 86% of these organizations have a founder who has personal experience with the problem, 66% have a founder who is a woman, and 79% have a founder who is a person of color. They’ve raised $519M+ in follow on funding to accelerate their impact.

View Our 2022 Impact Report

Our Team

Kevin Barenblat

Kevin Barenblat

Co-Founder & President

Kevin Barenblat is a seasoned tech entrepreneur who believes nonprofits can leverage technology to accelerate their social impact. Prior to Fast Forward, Kevin founded Context Optional, a social marketing software company, and served as CEO through the company's acquisition by Efficient Frontier, and later, Adobe. Kevin holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Shannon Farley

Shannon Farley

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Shannon is an experienced social entrepreneur. She was the founding Executive Director of Spark, the world's largest network of Millennial philanthropists. Prior to joining Spark, Shannon co-founded The W. Haywood Burns Institute, a MacArthur Award-winning juvenile justice reform organization. Shannon holds a BA in American Studies from Georgetown University and an MS in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics.

Hillary Baker Draper

Anna Pickren

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Fundraising

Anna believes in the scalability of social impact when the powers of people, technology and a tenacious commitment to collaboration combine. Previously, Anna was part of the founding team at Hello Alice, a startup serving underrepresented entrepreneurs. She also helped launch several social impact startups including Yoobi, Brandless, and Cheeky. Anna graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in International Affairs and Spanish.

Nicole Dunn

Nicole Dunn

Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Driven by the impact of using creativity and technology to tackle our world's biggest challenges, Nicole seeks to uplift the work of social impact startups through meaningful storytelling. Before joining Fast Forward, Nicole was with GoFundMe where she helped campaign organizers maximize their fundraising success. Prior to that, she founded her own small startup. Nicole graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Environmental Studies.

Summer Kennedy

Summer Kennedy

Vice President, Programs

Summer is dedicated to helping tech nonprofits thrive by harnessing the power of community to advance social good. Before Fast Forward, Summer taught first grade with Teach for America as a Bay Area corps member. Summer received her BA in History from Brown University and her MA in Education Policy and Administration from Loyola Marymount University.

Kendall Arthur

Kendall Arthur

Director, Strategic Partnerships

Through collaboration with the entire tech for good ecosystem, Kendall seeks to drive tech nonprofits’ ability to scale their impact. She currently volunteers for the MiddCORE entrepreneurship program and prior to Fast Forward, worked in strategy at BroadBranch Advisors. Kendall graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in Psychology with minors in Global Health and Philosophy.

Summer Kennedy

Marcus Thompson

Associate Program Manager

Marcus understands the value a tech nonprofit brings to the communities they serve. Before starting at Fast Forward, he served as a California Climate Action Corps Fellow at the California Fire Safe Council on the Programs and Outreach team. Marcus graduated from Dickinson College with a BS in Environmental Science, where he explored his passion for the environment and sustainability.

Summer Kennedy

Lily Gu

Finance and Operations Manager

Lily is committed to using her accounting skills to help Fast Forward and tech nonprofits grow. Before joining Fast Forward, she was a corporate accountant for companies across tech, healthcare, and food service management. In her free time, Lily volunteers with Braid Mission to mentor foster youth. Lily graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Economics and Accounting.

Maddy Chung

Maddy Chung

Marketing Manager

Maddy wants to ensure technology is leveraged for good and believes storytelling, and the meaningful connections it can make, will help the world do so. Prior to Fast Forward, she interned with Salesforce’s Office of Equality and Girls Who Code, and has volunteered with a number of education and mentorship nonprofits. Maddy graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in American Culture Studies, and minors in Marketing and Anthropology.

Aston Motes

Aston Motes

Board Member

Aston was the first engineer at Dropbox, where he helped build out the website and the API. More recently, he works on music related projects like Merchbar, a mobile app for merch from your favorite artists. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors at /dev/color. Aston has a patent for a tagged content inference system and method. Aston holds a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.

Rekha Pai

Rekha Pai Kamath

Board Member

Rekha Pai Kamath is an angel investor and Managing Partner at Kamath Family Foundation, as well as Vice President at Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs. She has 20+ years of experience at companies such as Symantec Corp, Applied Materials, Sun Microsystems, and Procket Networks (acquired by Cisco). She holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

James Slavet

James Slavet

Board Member

James is a Partner at Greylock Partners. He invests in mission-driven entrepreneurs who combine technology and human touch to deliver amazing consumer services. James currently sits on the board of companies including GoFundMe, Redfin, Grand Rounds, Lyra Health, and Solv. James has been named several times to the Forbes Midas list, which recognizes top VC tech investors. He graduated from Brown University and Harvard Business School.

Ime Archibong

Ime Archibong

Board Member

Ime Archibong is the Head of New Product Experimentation at Meta, where he leads an internal constituency of entrepreneurs testing new standalone experiences. Ime currently sits on the board of Capital One. Ime holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Oliver Hurst-Hiller

Oliver Hurst-Hiller

Board Member

Oliver is the CTO and Head of Product at DonorsChoose.org. Prior to joining the organization in 2006, he managed product engineering projects for Microsoft's Bing search engine. Oliver joined Microsoft when the Windows division acquired EQuill, a venture-backed startup that he co-founded. Oliver is the Co-Chair of CTOs For Good and Co-Chair of the San Francisco CTO Club. He has a Computer Science degree from Brown University.

"Fast Forward is the vanguard of tech for good."

Jacquelline Fuller, President of Google.org