US Institute of Peace (USIP)

In the spring of 2010, TechChange co-founders Dominic Volonnino and Nick Martin developed an online education and training platform for USIP’s Training Academy. This involved installing, configuring and designing a elearning management system, and adapting existing educational content into an online environment.

On June 24, 2010, TechChange worked with USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, & Peacebuilding to organize a major event on mobile phones for peacebuilding in Afghanistan. The event aired on C-SPAN and cosponsored by Mobile Accord and the National Defense University. Read more about the USIP event, watch the video or read the transcript.  TechChange provided significant writing and research for the follow up report entitled Can You Help Me Now? Mobile Phones and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan.

Starbucks

In the fall of 2010, TechChange president Nick Martin received a grant from the Starbucks Foundation to build an online course for educators to learn how to leverage technology in the teaching of human rights, peacebuilding and global citizenship. TechChange is among 21 youth-led organizations  to receive a 2010 grant award through the Starbucks Youth Action Grants program. TechChange was chosen through a competition established in 2008 by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Starbucks in order to make grants available to young leaders who have participated in YouthActionNet® fellowship programs. YouthActionNet® seeks to develop a new generation of socially conscious global citizens who create positive change in their communities, their countries, and the world.

CORE Group

CORE Group is a non-profit organization fostering collaborative action and learning to improve and expand community-focused public health practices. CORE Group is also home to the Community Health Network, which brings together CORE Group member organizations, scholars, advocates, and donors to support the health of underserved mothers, children, and communities around the world.TechChange is helping CORE Group develop a new USAID funded portal on food security, called the TOPS program, which will provide the highest-quality information, knowledge, and best practices for improved methodologies in the Title II food aid commodity program. The partnership entails providing recommendations for platform selection, assisting with developing an overarching technology strategy to support knowledge management and collaboration and helping to curate a Request for Proposal process for portal development.

FrontlineSMS

FrontlineSMS is a popular open source software platform used by a variety of organizations to distribute and collect information via text messages (SMS). TechChange is partnering with FrontlineSMS to curate communication among their user community into a user-friendly format that will aid in future implementations.TechChange will also soon be providing training in the use of the platform, both for users and organizations.