The Courage to Ask, “What If?”
As someone who’s devoted my career to tech, what’s magical to me about technology is its power to unleash new possibilities. At its highest purpose, technology is a force for social good. Yet ultimately, the true hero isn’t the technology itself, but the people who put it to work for their communities.
What the world desperately needs are people who believe in new possibilities—who don’t just possess skills and expertise, but also hopes and dreams. People who have the courage to ask those two words that have sparked the greatest achievements in human history: “What if?”
A belief in new possibilities is what drives social transformation. It’s the ability to look beyond what is to what should be—and compassion must be the guiding force. Compassion lies at the heart of our humanity; it’s what inspires us to make a difference in the lives of others.
As part of our commitment to global good, F5 annually awards $10,000 USD Tech for Good grants to nonprofits that serve majority Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) or underrepresented communities. These grants are designed to help nonprofits accelerate their digital transformation efforts so they can increase their social impact.
As I think about new possibilities, I’m delighted to announce our 2022 F5 Tech for Good grant partners—25 NGOs working to build more vibrant communities around the globe. From transforming healthcare across Guatemala to helping small farmers in India to protecting neglected children in the U.S., these nonprofits are bringing about much needed changes. It’s our hope that these grants will help them expedite their missions so they can do even more to help those they serve.
Congrats to this year’s Tech for Good grant partners. And thank for believing in new possibilities, for having the courage to ask “What if?”, and for the compassion that guides you as you work to bring about a kinder and more equitable world.
2022 F5 Tech for Good Grant Partners
7000 Languages
Global
Mission: 7000 Languages is dedicated to empowering communities around the world to teach, learn, and sustain their endangered languages through online language-learning technology.
What the grant will fund: Provide a 7000 Languages mobile app, which is a platform designed to help communities and individuals create free language learning materials for their endangered languages, using only a mobile device.
African Community Housing and Development
King County, Washington, USA
Mission: African Community Housing and Development (ACHD) works towards prosperity for the African Diaspora immigrant and refugee community through housing, food access, education, and economic development.
What the grant will fund: Support the technological growth of ACHD, both in general operating functions and via two exciting new STEM education program, for African Diaspora youth.
Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Yakima County
Yakima County, Washington, USA
Mission: The Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Asian Pacific Islander Community Group in Yakima County (APIC-Yakima) promotes civic engagement, diversity, racial equality, immigrant rights, and BIPOC coalition building.
What the grant will fund: Support Eastern Washington public testimony, production, and preservation of historical first-person storytelling as well as a platform for intergenerational communications for the diverse community of Yakima Valley.
At The Crossroads
San Francisco County, California, USA
Mission: At The Crossroads builds unconditional, non-judgmental relationships with young adults experiencing housing insecurity; these supportive relationships lead to our clients feeling a greater sense of connectedness and hope in their futures, which helps them accomplish their personal goals and find increased stability on their terms.
What the grant will fund: Activate and implement new case management software that enables At The Crossroads to better track who its clients are, how it is providing support, and what goals clients are achieving.
Building Education
Pokhara City, Karki District, Nepal
Mission: Building Education is working to end extreme poverty by sponsoring education and building 1,000 schools to spark a legacy of change.
What the grant will fund: Launch the final stage of the nonprofit’s Community Development Project, which aims to install novel hydroponic systems at a Nepalese education center to create a self-sufficient source of income within five years.
Christel House International
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Mission: Christel House International is a global network educating more than 6,000 students in India, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States (Indianapolis) that prepares students from under-resourced communities to achieve upward economic mobility, to become good citizens, and to identify and realize their goals, dreams, and human potential.
What the grant will fund: Provide a comprehensive IT asset management software system to manage all of the IT devices within the school.
Community Bridges, Inc.
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Mission: Community Bridges empowers girls in grades 4-12 from diverse backgrounds to become exceptional students, positive leaders, and healthy young women.
What the grant will fund: Update the Community Bridges Learning Center with new laptops and printers for the girls in the Community Bridges girls program to use as they are working on their college applications, scholarships, homework, tutoring, etc.
Construyendo Esperanzas A.C.
Cardonal, Hidalgo, Mexico
Mission: Construyendo Experanzas A. C. provides access to water, food security, economic well-being, and environmental education in rural and Indigenous communities with high rates of poverty and social marginalization in the State of Hidalgo.
What the grant will fund: Improve access to technologies for Indigenous youth of the Mezquital Valley through the purchase of laptops that enable Indigenous youth to carry out their tasks digitally, learn new technological tools, and further their studies.
EldoHub
Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
Mission: EldoHub helps unemployed youth in Kenya and Africa from rural/peri-urban centers gain access to job skills and connect to employment through job-matching, digital skills development, and digital transformation of SMEs.
What the grant will fund: Support a well-equipped facility, with both static and mobile devices, where the community can access computers, enjoy fast Internet and enhance their digital skills, and be supported to efficiently adopt technology for their day-to-day businesses.
Elijah’s Promise
Greater New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA
Mission: Elijah’s Promise harnesses the power of food to change lives within its job training curriculum, community garden programming, social service assistance to individuals and families, community focused nutrition classes, social enterprise food businesses, and through community food systems advocacy.
What the grant will fund: Provide better resources for frontline and educational staff to create platforms to connect remotely in an increasingly more virtual environment, and to purchase photography and videography equipment to greatly expand our resource development.
FareStart
King County, Washington, USA
Mission: FareStart enables people furthest from opportunity to achieve hunger relief, personal stability and economic mobility through meal programs, job training and employment support.
What the grant will fund: Provide technology resources and digital literacy for job training students, including adults and young people facing homelessness.
Found in Translation
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Mission: Found in Translation gives bilingual women the opportunity to achieve economic security through their language skills and fight linguistic disparities in health care by training them as professional medical interpreters and supporting them as they advance in their careers.
What the grant will fund: Support the implementation of a custom Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to strengthen Found in Translation's data infrastructure, a vital step in building capacity as the organization grows.
Luta pela Paz
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mission: Luta pela Paz works to realize the potential of young people living in communities affected by inequalities and violence, working with them to contribute to making a more peaceful, inclusive society.
What the grant will fund: Provide funding for an M&E platform that will help Luta pela Paz better track the progress of its programs and the impact they are having on young black people from favelas across Brazil.
Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq
Central Highlands, Guatemala
Mission: Led by Indigenous health workers, Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu' Kawoq combines language, culture, and medicine to close gaps in care and transform health in rural Guatemala.
What the grant will fund: Modernize the nonprofit’s informatics architecture to allow for more effective patient care and more robust research and quality improvement.
The ZoNE at Northeast Community Center
Spokane County, Washington, USA
Mission: The ZoNE is a partnership of schools, residents, and organizations building hope and opportunity through collective action in the neighborhoods of Northeast Spokane.
What the grant will fund: Provide the technology and capacity to use texting as a means of communicating with low income and marginalized families in our neighborhood about adult employment and education opportunities, no cost youth programs, access to health services, and healthy foods.
Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya
San Pablo and San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala
Mission: The Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya (ODIM) provides community-driven healthcare and education in the Indigenous towns of San Pablo and San Juan La Laguna in rural Guatemala.
What the grant will fund: Purchase new laptops for ODIM’s clinic staff, which will improve the efficiency of the clinic’s medical services and the quality of care given to patients.
Partners for Andean Community Health
Riobamba, Chimborazo Province, Ecuador
Mission: Partners for Andean Community Health (PACH) and its partner hospital, Fundación Internacional Buen Samaritano Paul Martel (FIBUSPAM), take a unique approach to global health and development by utilizing a non-profit hospital model; together they aim to establish sustainable continuums of care that empower local providers to address the most pressing healthcare needs in the indigenous communities of Chimborazo Province.
What the grant will fund: Support the implementation of an electronic medical records system at the FIBUSPAM Hospital, improving efficiency, cost effectiveness, and quality of care at the hospital.
People's Planet Project
Pomio district, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea
Mission: People’s Planet Project is a global movement with the aim to empower Indigenous communities to protect our forests and their biodiversity through the use of video technology and geospatial data.
What the grant will fund: Purchase equipment such as 4K video cameras, drones, editing software, GPS devices, and other essential film and geospatial mapping equipment for People’s Planet Project’s GeoStory Camp in Papua New Guinea, a workshop carried out in partnership with the Pomio Indigenous community.
Sacred Valley Project
Paucartambo, Department of Cusco, Peru
Mission: The Sacred Valley Project runs three nurturing dormitories in Peru, which provide access to school, academic tutoring, language tutoring for Quechua speaking students, school supplies, uniforms, transportation, technical skills workshops, and post-secondary guidance so that girls from low-income areas in remote areas of the Andes can continue and complete their secondary education.
What the grant will fund: Provide 15 computers to the new dormitory so that students will be able to bridge the technology gap with their peers by accessing their online assignments, conducting research, creating presentations, and more.
Solid Ground Washington
King County, Washington, USA
Mission: Solid Ground works to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty.
What the grant will fund: Purchase and deploy six new network appliances for added security across three sites, including our main staff offices, Sand Point affordable housing campus, and Solid Ground Transportation headquarters, which provides para-transit access to community members living on low incomes unable to use fixed-route transits.
Southwest Youth & Family Services
King County, Washington, USA
Mission: Southwest Youth & Family Services (SWYFS) partners with Southwest Seattle and King County youth and families to transform their futures through counseling, education, family support, and youth development services.
What the grant will fund: Support the nonprofit’s New Futures programs that assists youth and families in five apartment complexes in Southwest King County.
The Max Foundation
Global
Mission: The Max Foundation accelerates health equity by delivering medication, technology, and services to patients in underserved communities around the world.
What the grant will fund: Develop an innovative new application provided via tablets to physicians and pharmacy staff in low-resource settings where lacking internet connectivity can be a barrier to proper treatment and care.
Urban Arts
New York City, New York, USA
Mission: Urban Arts helps students explore their creativity and harness technology to defy the odds and define their future by designing and implementing cutting-edge arts and technology programs for students from underrepresented communities.
What the grant will fund: Support the purchase of essential equipment to optimize Urban Arts' hybrid Learning Hub for accessible in-person and remote learning.
Voices for Children
San Diego and Riverside Counties, California, USA
Mission: Voices for Children transforms the lives of abused and neglected children in foster care in San Diego and Riverside Counties by providing them with volunteer, trained, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) who will speak up on their behalf.
What the grant will fund: Purchase hybrid technology and workstations for staff members who communicate with CASA volunteers, external partners in the child welfare system, and other staff, resulting in higher quality advocacy for the children the nonprofit serves.
Vrutti
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Mission: Vrutti builds wealth and resilience of small producers through knowledge, innovation, and transformative actions.
What the grant will fund: Develop and demonstrate a comprehensive farmer-centric technology solution to enable small and marginal farmers access a bundle of critical services to build their wealth and resilience.