9 Great Tech Non-Profits That Could Use Your Help

Sure, there’s only a few valuable shopping hours left in Holiday Mania 2016, but maybe there’s a better way you can spend those last remaining dollars.

Check out 9 great not-for-profit organizations that are trying to make tech, and the world in general, a better place.

Code.org

Founded in 2012, Code.org encourages schools to include computer science classes in their curriculum. They’re the force behind the “Hour of Code” initiative, and they also offer free coding lessons in more than 45 languages.

Per Scholas

We’ve worked with the folks at Per Scholas before; the non-profit offers tuition-free tech training to people from underserved communities. They’re also committed to diversity – 90% of their students are people of color and one-third are women.

One Laptop Per Child

The Nicholas Negroponte-founded One Laptop Per Child has developed a low-cost laptop for children in developing countries. You can check out Negroponte’s 2006 TED talk for more info.

NPower

Committed to providing tech skills to underserved children as well as U.S. veterans, NPower operates out of five American cities.

Black Girls Code

The not-for-profit Black Girls Code provides African-American girls, ages 6-17, with technology training. In June of this year, Google New York gave the organization 6,000-square-feet of office space for use as a classroom and east coast HQ.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

In a digital age where legal protections feel less and less certain, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has performed crucial work in defending civil rights and protecting free speech online.

Code for Progress

Offering a yearlong fellowship in back-end and front-end development for women and people of color, Code for Progress is a D.C.-based nonprofit.

Defy Ventures

The nonprofit Defy Ventures helps currently and formerly incarcerated men, women, and children develop entrepreneurship skills through intensive, MBA-like training.

Center for Democracy & Technology

Founded in 1994, Center for Democracy & Technology works to advance public policies that keep the internet “open and innovative”.