Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)

Center for Technology and Civic Life
Basic facts
Location:	Chicago, Illinois
Type:	501(c)(3)
Top official:	Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director
Founder(s):	Tiana Epps-Johnson, Whitney May, Donny Bridges
Year founded:	2015
Website:	Official website

The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Chicago, Illinois. As of August 2025, the group described itself as "a team of civic technologists, trainers, researchers, election administration and data experts working to foster a more informed and engaged democracy, and helping to modernize U.S. elections." The organization was founded in 2015.

Background

CTCL was founded in 2015 by Tiana Epps-Johnson, a former election administration director for the New Organizing Institute (NOI); Whitney May, a former board of elections official in Durham County, North Carolina, and contributor to the voting information project at NOI; and Donny Bridges, a former election administration research director at NOI.

The group said it helped elections officials gain access to better technology to "connect people to the civic information they need to participate in elections."

Leadership

As of August 2025, the following individuals held leadership positions with CTCL:

• Tiana Epps-Johnson, Chief Executive Officer
• Keara Mendez, Director of Advocacy
• Sarah Berlin, Director of Civic Information
• Whitney May, Chief Program Officer

Work and activities

Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grants (2024)

In 2024, CTCL announced the Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grant program. According to CTCL, the "program is nonpartisan and open to rural and nonmetro jurisdictions that can legally apply for and receive funding to conduct reliable and secure elections as outlined by the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security." As of September 2024, $2.5 million of funding was available for the 2024 program.

The program used a dataset maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes, to identify these jurisdictions. Applications were open to qualifying jurisdictions in 20 states and all U.S. territories. Funds were available for expenses incurred between July 31, 2024, and December 31, 2024, for the purposes of "planning and operationalizing reliable and secure election administration." CTCL used a list of assets identified by the Department of Homeland Security as the basis for this criteria.

In response to the question "Who is funding these grants?" the CTCL website said, "By law, CTCL’s financial information on its annual IRS 990s are available for public review. CTCL also publishes a list of its major contributors online." The website distinguished the 2024 grant program from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)#COVID-19 Response Grant Program by saying that those earlier grants were available to election departments of any size and acknowledging that 28 states had passed laws prohibiting or regulating the private funding of election administration. The website also said, "Unlike 2020, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is not funding 2024 grants to local election offices."

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence (2022)

On April 11, 2022, CTCL announced the launch of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, describing it as a "five-year, $80 million nonpartisan program [to bring] together election officials, designers, technologists, and other experts to envision, support, and celebrate excellence in U.S. election administration."

As of May 2022, the program's website described its goal as "[helping] local election departments improve operations, develop a set of shared standards and values, and obtain access to best-in-class resources to run successful elections."

In its statement, CTCL announced the program would include the following partners:

“	Center for Tech and Civic Life: The Center for Tech and Civic Life connects Americans with the information they need to become and remain civically engaged, and ensure that elections are more inclusive and secure. Center for Civic Design: The Center for Civic Design works with elections offices and advocates across the country, using research, design, accessibility, and plain language to remove barriers in the voter journey and invite participation in democracy. The Elections Group: The Elections Group partners with state and local election officials looking to implement new programs or improve processes for voters and stakeholders. Their team of election experts works quickly to provide guidance, resources, and direct management support for jurisdictions. U.S. Digital Response: U.S. Digital Response is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps governments and organizations respond quickly and efficiently to support the critical needs of the public. Through USDR’s Elections Program, election officials receive simple, effective digital tools and rapid response assistance to meet voters at the speed of need. Center for Secure and Modern Elections: The Center for Secure and Modern Elections aligns bipartisan, pro-voter campaigns in states across the country that modernizes the voting system, making elections more efficient and secure. Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford University: The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford was founded in 2005 to prepare a generation of innovators to tackle complex challenges. Referred to as the d.school, the institute brings students and faculty from radically different backgrounds together to develop innovative, human-centered solutions to real world challenges. Prototyping Systems Lab at UC Davis: The Prototyping Systems Lab at UC Davis utilizes elements of design thinking, participatory design, and critical making to create change within complex systems.	”
—CTCL's statement announcing the launch of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence

COVID-19 Response Grant Program (2020)

See also: Center for Tech and Civic Life's (CTCL) grants to election agencies, 2020

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced on September 1 that they were providing $300 million in funding to support nonprofits to provide assistance to city and county election offices, with $250 million going to CTCL and $50 million going to the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR).

According to a press release, CTCL used the $250 million to support the following at the local level:

“

Poll worker recruitment, hazard pay, and training Polling place rental Temporary staffing support Drive-through voting Equipment to process ballots and applications Personal protective equipment (PPE) for poll workers Nonpartisan voter education from cities and counties

”

During the 2020 election cycle, CTCL awarded over 2,500 coronavirus response grants to city and county election offices across the country. To view a full list of the grants, click here. To view a map of the grants, click here.

Prior to the September 1 announcement, CTCL had announced various grants it was making to city and county election offices, but without specifying the source of the funding for this activity. In July 2020, CTCL announced it would provide $6.3 million in grants to five cities in Wisconsin to support their administration of the November 2020 elections. In August, CTCL announced that it was preparing an additional round of election administration assistance grants for rural counties. In August, CTCL signed a grant agreement with the City of Philadelphia to provide it with $10 million in election assistance. CTCL also provided $2.2 million in election assistance to Delaware County.

Several counties in Georgia, including DeKalb, also worked with the National Vote at Home Institute and CTCL to support their election administration.

CTCL announced on November 17 that grant funds were still available to Georgia counties ahead of the state's January 5, 2021, runoff elections: "Every eligible Georgia election department that is verified as legitimate will be approved for a grant. The minimum CTCL COVID-19 Response grant amount award is $5,000 (unless a county submits a request for a lower dollar amount.)"

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Know of one we missed? Click here to let us know.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of CTCL's revenues and expenses from 2016 to 2024. The information comes from ProPublica

Center for Tech and Civic Life financial data 2016-2024

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2016	$1.0 million	$0.50 million
2017	$0.97 million	$1.0 million
2018	$1.0 million	$0.84 million
2019	$1.4 million	$1.1 million
2020	$3.4 million	$1.4 million
2021	$356 million	$335 million
2022	$64.6 million	$4.8 million
2023	$19.2 million	$16.0 million
2024	$10.2 million	$22.9 million

See also

• What is an influencer?
• U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence
• Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR)
• Nonprofits providing vote by mail support to city and county election offices
• Center for Tech and Civic Life's (CTCL) grants to election agencies, 2020
• Laws governing the private funding of elections
• National influencers

External links

• Center for Technology and Civic Life official website
• Center for Technology and Civic Life on X
• Center for Technology and Civic Life on Github