Chi Hack Night

What Chi Hack Night does

Chi Hack Night is a Chicago-based volunteer-run non-profit founded in March 2012 that operates as the central weekly convening point for the city's civic technology community. Its core product is a free Tuesday-evening event series (7-10pm, in-person at rotating Chicago venues and online via YouTube livestream and Zoom) featuring presentations from government agencies, non-profits, journalists, and technologists, followed by hands-on breakout groups focused on civic tech project work in areas including government transparency, housing, transportation, criminal justice, and digital equity. The organization has hosted 690+ events and produced a public archive of 400+ recorded presentations on its YouTube channel. Supporting assets include an open-source projects directory (tracking GitHub repositories), a curated data and resources hub linking to Chicago/Cook County/Illinois/US Federal open data portals, and a membership program with voting rights in board governance.

The technology footprint is community infrastructure rather than proprietary product: YouTube livestreaming, Slack, Google Workspace, Eventbrite, Zoom, and GitHub. There is no paid staff; operations are carried out by an 11-member Board of Directors (elected or appointed, 2-year terms) and additional volunteers, led by Co-Presidents Samantha Goodman and Sneha Jalukar, with co-founder Derek Eder and Sean Watland serving as President Emeritus. The business model is donation- and sponsorship-driven: in 2025, total income was $15,178, composed of $12,500 in sponsorship donations (from TeamWorking by TechNexus, DataMade, CompTIA, and For Good Advisory), $2,078 in individual donations, and $600 in membership fees, against expenses of $12,072.98, with $15,614.34 cash on hand at year end.

Name

Chi Hack Night

Legal name

Chi Hack Night

Website

https://chihacknight.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Chi Hack Night is a volunteer-run Chicago non-profit founded in 2012 that hosts free weekly Tuesday-evening events to convene the city's civic technology community of designers, researchers, journalists, activists, and developers for presentations, breakout groups, and open-source project collaboration.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology Community Events

NAICS

Professional Organizations (81392)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Inclusion & Civic Tech (Connectivity, GovTech for Social Good) (BPAGALAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Peer Feedback, Discussion Forums & Social Learning Communities (EDAFAGAH)

Keywords

• Civic technology community
• Weekly community events
• Open source civic projects
• Civic data resources
• Volunteer nonprofit organization

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Sponsorship Donations: Corporate and organizational sponsors provide financial support to Chi Hack Night. Sponsors include For Good Advisory and DataMade, among others. In 2025, sponsorship donations totaled $12,500, representing the largest single revenue source.
2. Individual Donations: Community members make voluntary donations to support the organization. Individual donations totaled $2,078 in 2025. Some donors contribute on a monthly basis.
3. Membership Fees: Chi Hack Night members pay fees to join the organization. Members have voting rights in board elections and other governance matters. Membership fees totaled $600 in 2025.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Chi Hack Night is a volunteer-run, non-profit civic technology community that hosts free weekly in-person and online events every Tuesday from 7-10pm in Chicago. The core offering centers on evening presentations by government agencies, journalists, non-profits, and technologists, paired with hands-on breakout group working sessions on civic tech projects covering topics such as government transparency, housing, transportation, criminal justice, and digital equity. Events are livestreamed on YouTube and recorded for a growing archive of over 400 presentations.

Product overview

Chi Hack Night is a non-profit community organization offering a single unified platform centered around weekly civic technology events. The core offering consists of weekly Tuesday evening events featuring presentations on civic tech topics, supported by collaborative breakout groups for hands-on project work. The organization also maintains an open source projects directory and a data resources hub aggregating Chicago-area open data portals. A membership program provides governance participation rights. The portfolio does not follow a platform-plus-modules architecture but rather represents a community-centric event and learning model.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Chi Hack Night Weekly Civic Tech Events Free weekly in-person and online events every Tuesday from 7-10pm featuring presentations on civic technology, data journalism, government transparency, and community organizing topics, with recordings posted to YouTube. Targeted at designers, academic researchers, data journalists, activists, policy wonks, web developers, and curious citizens in Chicago.
• Breakout Groups Weekly collaborative working groups held during Chi Hack Night events where participants work on civic tech projects, learn, and prototype initiatives in areas like transportation, housing, and data analysis.
• Membership Program Annual membership program that provides voting rights in board elections, access to member-only events, and the ability to run for the Board of Directors. Membership fees totaled $600 in 2025.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• i.c.starsminorStrategic or Co-development Partneri.c.stars is a non-profit tech training and placement program that hosts Chi Hack Night events at their office (750 N Orleans, Suite 500, Chicago), providing venue space for in-person gatherings.
• TechNexus Venture CollaborativeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTechNexus Venture Collaborative provides venue space for Chi Hack Night's in-person events at the Civic Opera Building. The organization focuses on tech venture collaboration in Chicago.
• Chicago City Data User GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChicago City Data User Group is a partner civic tech organization that promotes civic engagement and economic opportunity through data. Chi Hack Night cross-promotes their events as part of Chicago's civic tech ecosystem.
• City Bureau Civic Scrapers (#CityScrapers)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCity Bureau is a civic journalism lab whose #CityScrapers project is designed to standardize, scrape, and share information about public meetings. Chi Hack Night cross-promotes this initiative as part of Chicago's civic tech ecosystem.
• City Open WorkshopminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCity Open Workshop is a collaborative group focused on open design for civic engagement, building collaborations between community partners, scholars, policymakers, and the urban planning and design community in Chicago. Listed as a partner in the civic tech ecosystem.
• Maptime ChicagominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMaptimeChi is Chicago's offshoot of MaptimeSF, a weekly meetup of mappers and map learners. Chi Hack Night cross-promotes Maptime Chicago as part of the broader civic tech ecosystem.
• Open Uptown (Chicago Code for America Brigade)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen Uptown is Chicago's Code for America Brigade, forging partnerships between neighbors who use technology to improve public services. Cross-promoted as part of the civic tech ecosystem.
• South Side Code & CoffeeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSouth Side Code & Coffee is a weekly meetup bringing together developers and tech enthusiasts from Chicago's south side. Listed as a partner civic tech organization in Chicago's ecosystem.
• IrazuminorOthersIrazu, a Costa Rican restaurant in Chicago, has provided food for Chi Hack Night's in-person events at i.c.stars venue. This is an ad hoc food service partnership for event catering.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• BetaNYC: New York City's civic technology community organization running regular hack nights, open data advocacy, and civic engagement events. The most direct geographic analog to Chi Hack Night's model and a likely model for replication in other cities.
• Code for Boston: Boston-area Code for America Brigade running civic tech hack nights and projects. Direct analog of the local civic tech meetup model that Chi Hack Night exemplifies, serving a similar practitioner community in a different city.
• DataMade: A Chicago-based civic technology company co-founded by Derek Eder (Chi Hack Night co-founder) and a core financial sponsor of Chi Hack Night. Operates in the same civic tech space with overlapping community, leadership, and thematic focus (open data, government transparency).
• City Bureau: Chicago civic journalism lab and partner organization (their #CityScrapers project is cross-promoted by Chi Hack Night). Operates adjacent civic media/community journalism mission with deep overlap in the Chicago civic ecosystem.
• Maptime: A global network of grassroots map learning community chapters (including Maptime Chicago, a Chi Hack Night partner). Same community-led weekly meetup model applied specifically to mapping, with cross-promotion within the same civic tech ecosystem.

Others

• Knight Foundation: National foundation that funds civic tech, journalism, and community information initiatives. Adjacent enabling organization — a potential funder/partner for Chi Hack Night-style civic tech communities rather than a direct competitor.
• U.S. Open Data: U.S. federal government open data portal — explicitly linked from Chi Hack Night's Data & Resources hub. Not a peer in the organizational sense, but a critical infrastructure dependency and ecosystem participant that Chi Hack Night's community relies on and contributes to.

Emerging players

• Open Gov Foundation: Nonprofit building open-source tools for government transparency and civic engagement. Adjacent mission to Chi Hack Night with overlap in open data, civic tech tooling, and government collaboration themes.

Broad incumbents

• Sunlight Foundation: A more established national nonprofit focused on government transparency, open data, and civic tech advocacy. Operates in the same broader civic tech policy space and shares thematic overlap with Chi Hack Night's presentation topics.
• Code for America: The national civic technology nonprofit that incubates and supports local Brigades (including Open Uptown, a Chi Hack Night partner). Both organizations pursue civic tech for public good and overlap heavily in mission, community, and volunteer base.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/chihacknight/chihacknight.org
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/ChiHackNight
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chi-hack-night

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Chi Hack Night