At Fast Forward, we anticipate AI's role in transforming education globally. Meet Learning Equality, co-led by Jamie Alexandre, Navya Akkinepally, and Lauren Lichtman, which is doing just that. Its vision is to bring education to the majority of the globe lacking internet access — and it’s well on its way. Learning Equality’s open-source platform, Kolibri, uses AI to align curriculum. This approach aligns materials from a library of nearly 200K educational resources with region-specific educational requirements. Kolibri significantly cuts admin workload, quickly adapting great content to different languages and contexts. In our AI-powered Nonprofit Landscape (bit.ly/3Wo3oIz), Kolibri is an example of ‘AI to organize.’ It extracts unstructured information and automatically structures it. Subscribe to our AI for Humanity newsletter for more inspiring stories of AI-enabled social impact. aiforhumanity.substack.com
Fast Forward
Non-profit Organizations
San Francisco, CA 8,941 followers
Fast Forward accelerates tech nonprofits building tech to solve our biggest social problems.
About us
Tech is ubiquitous. Tech solutions for social problems are not. An emerging class of startups is building tech to solve these social problems. They are tech nonprofits. Fast Forward bridges the tech and nonprofit sectors to build capacity for tech nonprofits, so they can scale solutions to our world’s most urgent problems. As the first and only organization focused exclusively on scaling startups that combine the best tech with sustainable nonprofit business models, Fast Forward’s mission is to accelerate impact. Fast Forward's flagship program is an accelerator, which across ten years has helped over 100 tech nonprofits impact over 186M lives and raise $753M in follow-on funding.
- Website
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https://www.ffwd.org/
External link for Fast Forward
- Industry
- Non-profit Organizations
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2014
- Specialties
- Tech, AI, Nonprofits, and Philanthropy
Locations
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Primary
1002A O'Reilly Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94129, US
Employees at Fast Forward
Updates
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Meet Neel Sukhatme, founder of Free Our Vote and alum of the Fast Forward Accelerator. The civic tech nonprofit is helping formerly incarcerated individuals regain their voting rights. In the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Neel shares the why behind this work. In his words: “We view this as a human rights issue. Once you’ve done your time, you should be able to vote.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/gKdcgDbv
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Open your ears for Jehron W. Petty! On Creating Good with matt barnes, the Fast Forward alum digs into tech's diversity gap, and how he's fixing it with his tech nonprofit ColorStack. Listen: https://lnkd.in/e8Pst6YS
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Meet Swapna Reddy, co-founder of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) and alum of the Fast Forward Accelerator. With ASAP, Swapna is using tech to provide support to nearly 1M asylum seekers nationwide. In this alum spotlight from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Swapna shares: “One of the reasons that immigrants can be underserved in the United States is that immigrant-serving organizations are lagging behind in technical adoption...ASAP is doing things differently. We’re reaching asylum seekers online and using technology to help our members and their families navigate a complex immigration process.”
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Another successful stop for Fast Forward’s Sophie Owens in the Technology Association of Grantmakers roadshow! Grantmakers and nonprofits in NYC explored AI with CareerVillage.org’s Jared Chung. Here are the key takeaways: ▶️ Nonprofits can leverage AI to enhance both their external services and internal operations. ▶️ Philanthropy must actively help nonprofits level the playing field in AI. ▶️ AI solutions require significant upfront investment, emphasizing the need for long-term sustainable funding. If you attended the NYC event, we’d love to see your takeaways in the comments! Next stop: DC! Learn more: tag2024.org
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We are thrilled to team up with Cadence Design Systems on Fem.AI! It's an honor to boost women-led tech nonprofits like Beyond 12 and Gramhal with funding, training, and access to networks. Our efforts will scale their impact even further. Special thanks to Stephanie Kim-Poston and Nicole Johnson! Together, we are all Fem.AI. 💪
A big thank you to our incredible Fem.AI partner, Fast Forward! ⏩ Fast Forward bridges the tech and nonprofit sectors to build capacity for tech nonprofits, like Beyond 12 and Gramhal, so they can scale solutions to our world’s most urgent problems. As the first and only organization focused exclusively on scaling startups that combine the best tech with sustainable nonprofit business models, Fast Forward’s mission is to accelerate impact. Thank you for championing women in tech and AI. Together, we're making strides toward a more inclusive tech future. 🎥 Hear about their organization and our partnership. We are Fem.AI. 💪 #FemAI #CadenceFemAI
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Have burning questions about building a tech nonprofit? Our Tech Nonprofit Playbook has the answers. The Playbook is packed with real-world advice from alums and industry experts on how to fundraise, scale, find the right team, and more. Your guide to making a lasting impact starts here. Plus, a new chapter is dropping soon. Can you guess what it's about? 👀
The Tech Nonprofit Playbook - How to Start and Scale a Tech Nonprofit
https://www.ffwd.org
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Thrilled to see our alum Tarjimly featured in The Associated Press! They partnered with Google.org on AI enhancements to make refugee languages more accessible. Dive into this insightful piece by James Pollard.
A volunteer network of interpreters wants to make refugees' languages more accessible. Will AI help?
apnews.com
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#SaveCallisto 🆘 Help keep the lights on for our alum Callisto. Every year, millions of students become survivors of sexual assault, but too many incidents go unreported. Callisto empowers survivors and holds serial perpetrators accountable. Their service is free and available nationwide, making it a vital student resource. Lend your support: https://lnkd.in/eFCK7SVJ
Since yesterday, we have been overwhelmed by people who have asked how they can help #SaveCallisto. Our team is still working around the clock to secure the $1million needed to reverse course in the week we have. However, we also want to give anyone who is interested the opportunity to keep hope alive for survivors who are reeling this week at the prospect of losing the protection, support, and options Callisto provides. Please share this as broadly as you can with anyone you know who cares about survivors: https://lnkd.in/eFCK7SVJ And please continue to direct anyone interested in providing greater funding to reach out directly to Tracy DeTomasi or email [email protected]
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At Fast Forward, we're committed to supporting proximate founders who deploy AI to uplift underresourced communities. We're excited to spotlight Adrian D.’s Empowr who is doing just that. Adrian built Empowr to help more Black high school students succeed in software development careers. Its AI teaches students how to code with Addis, an AI chatbot that acts as a personal tutor, and Coppin, a platform that helps teachers create customized coding assignments. In our AI-Powered Nonprofit Landscape (bit.ly/3Wo3oIz), Empowr's chatbots exemplify 'AI as a coach,' tailoring lessons to individual needs. This approach ensures each student receives personalized, culturally relevant experiences, preparing them for future opportunities in tech. Subscribe to our AI for Humanity newsletter for more inspiring stories of AI-enabled social impact. aiforhumanity.substack.com 💻