Tech Checkup

Our tech checkup is a structured walk-through of your organizations' technology use in the context of your goals and activities. Technology is now indispensable for organizing, advocacy, and communication, but is increasingly risky, often doing real damage despite everyone's best intentions.

The right use of the appropriate tech can make you more effective at building a better world, but if you get it wrong it can jeopardize your work or even the safety of those around you.

The goal of the tech checkup isn’t to push you to bleeding-edge technology approaches, expensive cybersecurity software, or time-consuming new requirements. It’s to be clear on the risks, safer where you can, and more effectively using tech than you were before, without turning everything into a months-long project or burning your budget.

Who this is for

The tech checkup is for small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations or volunteer coalitions working on democracy, human rights, or the rule of law, especially teams without dedicated technology or cybersecurity staff. We particularly want to support those operating in environments or working on issues that have become more dangerous, increasingly surveilled, or more subject to harassment.

If technology feels essential to your work, vaguely dangerous, and harder to reason about than it used to be, you’re probably not imagining things. We're here to help.

What the process looks like

A typical tech checkup runs over several weeks and is intentionally lightweight. It usually includes:

• A kickoff conversation to understand your mission, constraints, and concerns
• A short questionnaire about how your organization actually uses technology
• One or more structured conversations with organizational and technical leadership
• A written assessment with pragmatic, prioritized recommendations tailored to your resources
• A follow-up conversation to talk through tradeoffs, answer questions, and refine next steps

What we ask of partners

Participating organizations should expect to spend roughly 15–20 hours, spread across several people, over the course of the assessment. The tech checkup works best when partners are willing to look at things honestly. Be open to ideas on how tech can help your work, talk about uncomfortable realities, and treat digital risk as an organizational priority.

The tech checkup is not

• An emergency response service
• Ongoing managed IT or security support
• A vendor bake-off or procurement exercise
• A full cybersecurity audit

What happens next

This work is volunteer-supported, which means availability is limited and scheduling reflects the fact that everyone involved has other responsibilities, too. We prioritize the organizations with the highest risk or most time-sensitive needs. If you’d like to talk about whether a tech checkup might be a good fit for your organization, you can reach us at help@demnerds.org.

If you’re dealing with an active security incident or immediate risk, this is not the right starting point. In those moments, speed and direct support matter more than deep-dive reflection.