Did you know 42% of youth have experienced cyberbullying, and of this group, 54% became depressed or anxious, 21% skipped school, and nearly 16% used alcohol or drugs to cope? It’s a sad reality that YTH (Youth Tech Health) recently discovered in a study by the Vodafone Americas Foundation that analyzes the current cyberbullying landscape.

In October 2016, YTH and the Foundation held a briefing in New York City to present findings from the study and bring together experts and key stakeholders to put the research to action. It was an incredibly special event as we also had young people bravely share their personal cyberbullying experiences with the group. To be in a room with allies who want to create safer online experiences for youth was inspiring and invigorating. However, our research is just half of the story. More →

Bay Area nonprofits are being priced out of the Valley as salaries and overhead costs continue to skyrocket

When you imagine a typical nonprofit, you may picture a soup kitchen, a community center, or a homeless shelter. While such services still exist, many nonprofits now design apps, build websites, and design digital tools that help deliver social programs and services to those in need.

“A lot of organizations that were previously not integrating technology into their programs have quickly realized that you can’t do work in the social sector or the public health sector without embracing technology, because it’s cost effective and impactful,” says Bhupendra Sheoran, the executive director of Youth Tech Health (YTH), a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit organization. “Almost every organization that we work with has some level of technology integration in their organization and their programs,” he adds.

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In 2014, MobileODT won first prize in the Vodafone Americas Foundation’s Wireless Innovation Project for its smartphone-based technology that converts the camera of the phone into a device capable of providing the evidence clinicians need to catch cancer before it develops. With its WIP prize, MobileODT’s first priority was to use its technology to fight cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is responsible for the deaths of more than 270,000 people annually, about 85 percent of whom live in low- or middle-income countries, and it is a leading cause of death for women in developing nations. More →

United Nations Global Pulse will partner with the Vodafone Americas Foundation to embark on a several month study to evaluate the state of mobile data for social impact.

Consultations begin today with a panel discussion among industry experts on “data for development” at this year’s GSMA Mobile 360 – Africa conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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The application submission deadline for the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project has been extended until midnight PST on Sunday, March 6th. We hope that this extension will allow you the chance to quickly finish the application you have already started and submit your project that can help people around the world!

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Vodafone Americas Foundation funds connected toilet project which could help 2.5bn people access better sanitation

I didn’t start out to become the creator of a texting toilet, but my team’s invention, with the Vodafone Americas Foundation’s help, will make a major contribution to solving one of the world’s biggest development challenges.

About 2.5 billion people—around half the people in the developing world—do not use an improved sanitation facility according to the United Nations.

Improved sanitation is not the inside toilet you and I are used to, but covers facilities as basic as a pit latrine covered by a slab. This is a major problem with a wide-ranging impact on health, environment and livelihoods.

A few years ago I joined a project to tackle that problem by creating a low cost, solar-powered wastewater treatment and recycling system for developing countries. The system is an electrochemical reactor that converts human waste into disinfected water. More →

Meet Seva Sustainable Sanitation, first place winner in the 2015 Wireless Innovation Project. Based at Caltech, founders Clement Cid and Cody Finke are developing a low-cost, remote monitoring and maintenance system for sanitation facilities.

Images of open sewers are commonly used to depict one of the most challenging infrastructure issues of our time, one that’s impacting 2.5 billion people globally and has a wide-ranging impact on health, environment, and livelihood.

NGOs and government agencies have long focused on implementation of new sanitation technologies without a clear go-to strategy on monitoring and maintaining those systems. PhD students in Environmental Science and Engineering respectively, Cid and Finke noticed an opportunity in addressing the lack of cheap, efficient toilets but also the skills needed for repair and upkeep within local communities, especially in remote, rural areas.

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Life cannot exist without water, but 748 million people today have no access to an improved water source, according to the World Health Organization. The physical results of this are staggering—600,000 children die to diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe drinking water.

Paradoxically, 2.3 billion people gained access to improved drinking water between 1990–2012 … so why hasn’t the problem been solved? The reason is clear in this startling illustration—in sub-Saharan Africa alone, one-third of rural water systems fail. The systems are there, but fall into disrepair or operate inefficiently. Monitoring rural infrastructure is expensive and time-consuming. As a result, 99% of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) projects lack long-term monitoring infrastructure.

WellDone International, led by Executive Director Austin McGee, CTO Tim Burke and Operations and Finance Lead Ben Armstrong, developed a solution to fill the gap in monitoring and maintaining water systems. Their mission is to build technology and tools that empower resource-constrained communities with the data they need to provide critical infrastructure that lasts.

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Meet Mobile Stethoscope Diagnostics, third place winner in the 2015 Wireless Innovation Project. Based at the MIT D-Lab, founders Rich Fletcher and Daniel Chamberlain developed a low-cost pulmonary disease diagnostic platform implemented on a mobile phone.

Pulmonary disease (which includes asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, lung cancer and tuberculosis) is a particularly large burden in developing countries due to a lack of air quality regulation. This can result in an abundance of air pollution from smoking and cooking on fire stoves, for example, which ultimately produces respiratory problems for people living in these areas. In addition, poor access to health care and affordable screening tools for early detection exacerbates the conditions once they start. More →

Ten years ago the startup landscape was very different. There were no accelerators, investor platforms, or founder communities. Since 2005, ecosystem players like Y Combinator and AngelList have changed how startups start. Today, the tech nonprofit landscape looks a lot like it did for startups back then. Founders are isolated, funders are ill-equipped to evaluate tech nonprofit business models, and motivated donors struggle to find good investment opportunities.

Early sector leaders like Khan Academy and Kiva demonstrate the need and models for some tech companies to adopt nonprofit business models. First, there are some problems markets can’t solve like universal education or access to financial markets for the poor. Second, while tech is capable of bringing about radical transformation, at the moment, it is exacerbating the income inequality divide. UBER, TaskRabbit, and a host of other tech services are designed for the privileged. Innovation can and should benefit more than the haves. By investing in nonprofit tech, philanthropy can level the playing field.

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