Announcing the winners of the New Relic Impact Fund

We are proud to announce the recipients of our first New Relic Impact Fund* grant. Launched by NewRelic.org in Spring of 2022, the fund seeks to further our commitment to expanding equitable access to technology by providing financial grants to nonprofits focused on technological growth. 

We put out the call to provide funding support for nonprofits with strategic or innovative technology needs, digital transformation projects, and creative solutions to enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness. We received applications from incredible organizations in the US doing great work across a spectrum of focus areas. It was inspiring to review all of the applications,  and while we wished we could have funded everyone’s work, in the end, five projects were selected.

These projects stood out for their thoughtful approach to solving organizational needs through scalable technology solutions, clearly described expected outcomes, and ability to provide sustainable solutions for their organizations. 

We’re honored to partner with these five incredible organizations this year and support them on their digital transformation journeys. Read more below for details about the nonprofits we selected and the transformative technology projects they are driving with this funding.

To learn more about NewRelic.org, visit newrelic.com/social-impact.

Central City Concern

Oregon-based Central City Concern helps those struggling with life’s biggest problems to end or avoid homelessness and build healthy, housed, resilient and engaged lives. Their vision is a future in which nobody in their community has to experience the pain and harm of homelessness.

Central City Concern is working to implement a new client management system to streamline the overall workflow including consolidating and unifying client intake processing, tracking and managing referrals, centralizing waitlist management, and providing higher quality client information throughout agency operations to improve quality of service throughout the client lifecycle. New Relic is proud to fund Central City Concern’s client management system implementation.

Learn more about the Central City Concern project.

Days for Girls International

Global nonprofit Days for Girls International is turning periods into pathways. They increase access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, training and supporting social entrepreneurs, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigma and limitations for women and girls.

Days for Girls is working to operationalize a new mobile supply chain and inventory management system. It will provide global visibility, workflow, and greater opportunity for cost and efficiency improvements to increase access to quality, environmentally friendly menstrual products for women and girls. New Relic is proud to fund Days for Girls’ supply chain technology implementation project.

Learn more about the Days for Girls project.

Free Geek

Oregon-based Free Geek is on a mission to sustainably reuse technology, enable digital access, and provide education to create a community that empowers people to realize their potential. Computers help us in many ways, but the move toward a digital future isn’t without its share of hurdles.  Many individuals lack the resources necessary to purchase a computer or get the training required to use digital technology. At the same time, the rapid pace of technology consumption and turnover means that more than 2 million tons of hazardous e-waste is created each year in America. Free Geek’s goal is to divert technology that would otherwise be recycled or thrown away, refurbish it, and give it back to the community at no or low cost.

By making significant enhancements to its telecommunications technology, Free Geek is working to provide smoother communication and overall experiences to its constituents and volunteers while greatly increasing call handling efficiency, support throughput, and ultimately, program capacity. New Relic is proud to fund Free Geek’s telecommunications enhancement project.

Learn more about the Free Geek project.

Mobile Pathways

National nonprofit Mobile Pathways helps immigrants gain access to reliable legal information about their numerous pathways to immigration via mobile phone technology. Immigrants depend on their mobile phones and have instant access to text technology and the internet, but harnessing the power of mobile technology to reach this audience is expensive and complex. To overcome this challenge, Mobile Pathways partners with immigration nonprofits and digitally transforms their organizations to use a community-based mobile platform technology so immigrants are safe and prepared on their journey.

Mobile Pathways is working to expand its Legal Defense Coalition, a BIPOC-led body of immigration nonprofits that serve historically marginalized immigrant communities. Together, this coalition tracks and supports more than 32,000 immigration cases, confronting the reality that the average wait time of these cases is nearly three years, 35% of court hearings are rescheduled, and immigration judges issue removals 26% of the time.

Through strategic investments in technology, Mobile Pathways launched Hola Asistente in May, a first-of-its-kind, free, virtual immigration assistant for marginalized immigrants who cannot afford legal counsel. Powered by vetted immigration attorneys, Hola Asistente alerts clients about their precise case information via SMS and WhatsApp while teaching the basics of immigration law via info videos in either Spanish or English. Through Hola Asistente, Mobile Pathways seeks to expand the the Legal Defense Coalition’s work and track 50,000 cases by the end of 2022 and 100,000 cases by the end of 2023. New Relic is proud to fund Mobile Pathways’ development and rollout of Hola Asistente.

Learn more about the Mobile Pathways project.

PhET Interactive Simulations

Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. Based on extensive education research, the PhET simulations engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where they learn through exploration and discovery.

PhET is working to re-architect its interactive simulations website to a distributed content delivery model to better and more efficiently serve its global visitors. These changes are critical to the new PhET Global initiative to improve the quality of global STEM education by increasing PhET simulation access and impact around the world. These website improvements will fundamentally improve responsiveness, resilience, and quality of experience for all visitors, including across Africa and Latin America where the PhET team is working to expand use and impact by a factor of 10 over the next three years. New Relic is proud to fund PhET’s global expansion and architecture changes.

Learn more about the PhET project.