What's Good in Tech Issue 5, Monthly Highlights in Tech for Good

September 5, 2018 | What's Good in Tech

What’s Good in Tech, Issue 5

School’s back, so it’s time to get your study on in all things good tech. Don’t worry, we wrote the CliffsNotes for you. This month in What’s Good in Tech, voting with clicks, a playbook for averting ethical disasters, and your coffee cup might have sugar and machine learning. ☕

What the Best Nonprofits Know About Strategy

Kevin Barenblat

How do the best nonprofits turn nonprofit status into a strategic advantage? This month in Harvard Business Review, Fast Forward co-founder Kevin Barenblat shares the winning strategy we call “nonprofit judo.”

Nonprofit Judo >


Meet the Man With a Radical Plan for Blockchain Voting

Photo credit: Santiago Siri / WIRED

Ever the revolutionary, Santiago Siri of Democracy Earth Foundation (FFWD 16) envisions a “new kind of social media platform on which we spend ‘vote tokens’ that can do anything… It’s democracy by click.”

His revolutionary plan >


A Harvard Grad and Attorney Built the TurboTax for Bankruptcy

Rohan Pavuluri

Upsolve is making filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy free and accessible for low-income Americans who need a path to financial rehabilitation.

Why they built this product >


9 Best Startup Accelerators For Nonprofits And Social Entrepreneurs

Photo credit: Donorbox

And the best accelerators are…?? DonorBox curated a list of the best accelerators for nonprofits and social enterprises.

The Top 9 >


Empower Work is the Workplace Confidante You Didn’t Know You Had

Photo credit: Empower Work

Workplace challenges have been making big headlines, but these aren’t just breaking news. Challenges at work are universal. Now we have Empower Work, a free & anonymous way to deal with them.

More on Empower Work >


First-Generation Students Have a Four Times Higher Drop Out Rate – This App Is Changing That

Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca

Can an app change outcomes for 1st generation students? This DREAMer believes so.

This founder’s dream >


How Smartphone Apps Could Change The Way Sexual Assault Is Reported

Photo credit: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

NPR covers Callisto (FFWD 15), citing how sexual assault reporting apps can give survivors the courage to report, thanks to anonymity and strength in numbers.

The report >


600 Million Young People Lack Access to Quality Education – This Startup is Changing That

Photo credit: Learning Equality

Across the globe, 1 in 3 children lack access to a quality education. Learning Equality’s edtech tools are putting a dent in that statistic by servicing the disconnected communities that need it most.

The world-changing product > 


Enveritas Technology Lets Small Growers Tap Into The Market for Sustainable Coffee

Photo credit: Boy_Anupong / Getty Images

Enveritas leverages geospatial and machine learning to support sustainable coffee growers in validating their sustainable, eco-friendly farming. Coffee for now, but huge potential for the future.

Grab a cup o’ joe and enjoy > 


Silicon Valley Writes A Playbook to Help Avert Ethical Disasters

Photo credit: WIRED

“A new guidebook shows tech companies that it’s possible to predict future changes to humans’ relationship with technology, and that they can tweak their products so they’ll do less damage when those eventual days arrive.”

Words on the future > 



This Former J.P. Morgan Analyst Quit Her Job to Build an On-Demand Tutoring App for Low-Income Students

Photo credit: Fast Forward

61% of low-income students don’t have college-educated parents, which can make homework help a challenge. UPchieve fills the gap as a free, on-demand STEM tutoring app for low-income students.

The story of UPchieve >


Nexleaf Analytics Uses the Power of Data to Improve the Lives of Three Billion Impoverished People

Photo Credit: Nexleaf Analytics

Nexleaf Analytics (FFWD 15) just joined Singularity University to continue their groundbreaking work that’s improving billions of lives.

The case study >


Automated Emissions Reduction Technology Shapes The Future Of Electricity Consumption

Ever think you’d be able to selectively power your home or electric vehicle with clean energy? Now you can. WattTime (FFWD ’15) is leading the way in Automated Emissions Reduction (AER) technology, which reduces green house gas emissions by detecting the cleanest energy on the grid.

Go green>