CivicMakers

What CivicMakers does

CivicMakers, LLC is a San Francisco-based strategic consultancy founded in 2015 by Judi Brown and Cristelle Blackford that applies human-centered design (HCD) and systems thinking to public-sector challenges. The firm serves California state and local government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations across focus areas including workforce development, benefits access, housing and homelessness, environmental justice, climate sustainability, and social services, with named clients such as the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, the San Francisco Human Services Agency, the City of Berkeley, BayREN, Rising Sun, and Cerritos College. Its core service lines are Service Design & Evaluation, Strategic Planning, Training & Capacity Building, and Community & Stakeholder Engagement, delivered through a five-phase Discover-Define-Co-create/Prototype/Test-Implement process adapted to government procurement and equity-centered contexts.

The firm's differentiated intellectual property centers on its Listen-Learn-Make framework, Participatory Experiential Futures (PXF) methodology, and the Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI). It supports these methods with a public Resource Library of templates (stakeholder identification, journey mapping, interview protocols, etc.), a Guide to Co-Design, and the long-running LINKS newsletter (150+ editions). The Ridiculously Hopeful Futures initiative, developed in partnership with Realize Impact (fiscal sponsor), Just Visions, Make Fast Studio, and Dalbert.Design, productizes futures-thinking and lived-experience engagement as scalable programs alongside the Learning Labs applied learning experience.

CivicMakers generates revenue through project-based professional services engagements procured via direct contracts and government vehicles including the California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS), San Francisco Local Business Enterprise (LBE), and Woman-Owned Enterprise (WBE) certifications; the firm holds California Small Business (Micro) status. The company is privately held and founder-owned with no external institutional investment disclosed, operates with a distributed team of approximately nine named members across the Bay Area, and has not raised funding rounds. There is no software product, API, or AI/ML component; the offering is fundamentally human-delivered consulting and facilitation.

Name

CivicMakers

Legal name

CivicMakers, LLC

Website

https://civicmakers.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CivicMakers is a San Francisco-based human-centered design consultancy serving California government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations through strategic planning, service design, community engagement, and capacity building. Founded in 2015, it operates via direct project contracts and certified procurement vehicles with a distributed team of approximately nine practitioners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Sector Management Consulting

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Civic and Social Organizations (81341)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Management Services (8741), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPADAGAD

Civil Society Strengthening & Civic Space

Business & Public Services/International Organizations & Development/Human Rights, Democracy & Governance

SECONDARYBPAGADAI

Youth Leadership, Civic Education & Service-Learning Nonprofits

Business & Public Services/Nonprofit, NGO & Social Services/Education & Youth Development Nonprofits

SECONDARYEDAAAEAI

Civic, Citizenship & Community Engagement Education

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Continuing Education (Noncredit) & Lifelong Learning Programs

SECONDARYBPAGAFAJ

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy

Business & Public Services/Nonprofit, NGO & Social Services/Civil Rights, Advocacy & Public Policy Organizations

Keywords

• Public sector consulting
• Human-centered design
• Community engagement services
• Strategic planning consulting
• Service design consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Strategic Consultancy Services: CivicMakers generates revenue through project-based consulting engagements with government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations. Services are contracted through various government procurement vehicles including California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS), San Francisco LBE certification, and direct contracts. The company is a certified CA Small Business (Micro) and San Francisco Woman-Owned Enterprise (WBE).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CivicMakers is a human-centered design consultancy that partners with government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations to design more equitable, effective, and community-centered services and programs. The firm delivers four integrated service lines — Service Design & Evaluation, Strategic Planning, Training & Capacity Building, and Community & Stakeholder Engagement — applying equity-centered design methods such as Listen-Learn-Make and Participatory Experiential Futures. CivicMakers also runs the Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI), a capacity-building program for leaders with direct experience of the systems they aim to change.

Product overview

CivicMakers is a strategic consultancy offering human-centered design services primarily to government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations. The company provides four core service areas (Service Design & Evaluation, Strategic Planning, Training & Capacity Building, and Community & Stakeholder Engagement) delivered through consulting engagements rather than a software product. Supporting offerings include Learning Labs (an applied learning program), the Ridiculously Hopeful Futures initiative (participatory experiential futures), the Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI), a Resource Library of templates and tools, the LINKS Newsletter community resource, and the Guide to Co-Design educational materials.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ridiculously Hopeful Futures: A bold project to transform how government programs are designed, featuring the Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI) in partnership with Dalbert.Design.

Products and services

• Service Design & Evaluation Human-centered design and evaluation of public and mission-driven services, helping government agencies and nonprofits redesign service delivery and measure outcomes.
• Strategic Planning Equity-centered strategic planning engagements for government agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations to set direction and align stakeholders.
• Training & Capacity Building Training programs and capacity-building support that help client teams apply human-centered design and equity-centered practices internally.
• Community & Stakeholder Engagement Design and facilitation of participatory community and stakeholder engagement processes for public sector and mission-driven clients.
• Learning Labs Intensive learning experiences designed to build client team capability in human-centered design and equity-centered practice.
• Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI) A leadership development institute supporting leaders with lived experience of public systems to drive equity-centered change within their organizations and communities.

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Realize ImpactflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerRealize Impact serves as the fiscal sponsor for CivicMakers' Ridiculously Hopeful Futures in California initiative. This is a flagship project involving participatory experiential futures workshops across California to transform how government programs are designed with community input.
• Dalbert.DesigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDalbert.Design (founded by Loren Dalbert, a CivicMakers team member) is a co-development partner for the Lived Experience Leadership Institute (LELI), a training and research platform that equips Californians with lived experience with tools to embed their expertise into county government processes.
• Grounded ResearchcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivicMakers partnered with Grounded Research on the BayREN Climate Careers Program Evaluation and the BayREN Equity Assessment. Grounded Research led quantitative research while CivicMakers led qualitative research, combining mixed-methods evaluation approaches.
• Make Fast StudiocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMake Fast Studio (founded by Virginia Hamilton, a CivicMakers advisor) is a partner in the Ridiculously Hopeful Futures initiative, contributing public sector innovation expertise and co-leading experiential futures workshops.
• Just VisionscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJust Visions (founded by Hillary Carey, CivicMakers Design Futures Advisor) is a partner in the Ridiculously Hopeful Futures initiative, bringing expertise in participatory experiential futures for racial justice and future-thinking methodologies.
• San Francisco-Marin Food BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivicMakers partnered with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank alongside SFHSA to co-design the Mobile Benefits Center pilot program, bringing food, cash, job, and healthcare assistance directly to San Francisco neighborhoods.
• Ecology Center (Berkeley)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerThe Ecology Center led parallel community engagement efforts with frontline communities for the City of Berkeley Environmental Justice & Safety Planning project, coordinating with CivicMakers' engagement strategy.
• Equity First ConsultingcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerEquity First Consulting served as an advisor to ensure equitable design of community engagement approaches for the City of Berkeley Environmental Justice & Safety Planning project, bringing racial justice and trauma-informed expertise.
• Rincon (consultants)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerRincon Consultants served as technical partners on the City of Berkeley Environmental Justice & Safety Planning project, supporting the planning and development team.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• IDEO: IDEO is a global design consultancy with a long-running public sector practice applying human-centered design to government challenges. It is a much larger incumbent that competes with CivicMakers on the same HCD-for-government value proposition but at vastly greater scale and brand recognition.
• Living Cities: Living Cities is a collaborative of philanthropic and financial institutions working to close racial income and wealth gaps in urban areas. While larger and more coalition-oriented, it operates in the same civic equity and government partnership space as CivicMakers.

Direct peers

• FUSE Corps: FUSE Corps places experienced professionals inside government agencies to advance equity-focused innovation and service improvement. It is directly comparable to CivicMakers in mission (government innovation, equity-centered change) while operating a different delivery model (embedded fellows).
• Public Policy Lab: Public Policy Lab is a nonprofit design and research organization that works with public agencies to improve services through user research and prototyping. It directly overlaps with CivicMakers' service design, evaluation, and equity-centered community engagement offerings for government clients.
• Mission Analytics Group: Mission Analytics Group is a California-based consulting firm providing research, evaluation, and capacity-building services to public agencies and nonprofits. It overlaps directly with CivicMakers on program evaluation, equity-focused research, and government engagement work.
• CityFi: CityFi helps cities and civic leaders tackle complex urban challenges through strategy, design, and partnerships. It is directly comparable to CivicMakers on civic engagement consulting and strategic planning work for local government clients.
• Civic Consulting Collaborative: Civic Consulting Collaborative is a boutique firm specializing in community engagement, strategic planning, and organizational development for local governments and nonprofits. Its offerings and target clients closely mirror CivicMakers' core services.
• The Reboot: The Reboot is a civic design and public policy consultancy that applies human-centered design to government institutions. It is one of the closest direct competitors to CivicMakers, operating with a similar boutique model serving federal and city agencies on service design and strategic planning.

Emerging players

• Code for America: Code for America is a nonprofit civic technology organization that builds digital services and advocates for people-centered government. It overlaps with CivicMakers on the civic-engagement-for-equity mission and on government service redesign, though it focuses more on software delivery than consulting.
• Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation: The Beeck Center at Georgetown University drives social impact by training leaders and conducting research on government innovation and economic mobility. It overlaps with CivicMakers on training, capacity building, and human-centered design for public sector challenges.

Market position

Strengths2 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@civicmakers617
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/civicmakers
• Xx.com/civicmakers
• Facebookfacebook.com/civicmakers

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CivicMakers