Code for San Francisco

What Code for San Francisco does

Code for San Francisco, now doing business as SF Civic Tech, is a volunteer-run civic technology organization founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The group mobilizes developers, designers, data professionals, and citizen activists to build open-source technology projects addressing local civic and social problems in San Francisco. It is affiliated with the national Code for America brigade network and operates under the sfbrigade identity on GitHub.

The organization's core activity is a weekly Virtual Civic Hack Night held every Wednesday at 6:30pm Pacific via Zoom, complemented by asynchronous collaboration on a Slack workspace, project proposals submitted through Google Forms, and an open-source project portfolio hosted at github.com/sfbrigade. There is no proprietary technology stack, no commercial software product, and no SaaS offering; outputs are freely distributed open-source civic technology tools and code repositories. The group maintains a blog, a newsletter distributed via eepurl, a Meetup event presence, and social profiles on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for community engagement.

The business model is a volunteer nonprofit model rather than a commercial enterprise. Revenue, to the extent any exists, derives from donations accepted via a dedicated Donate page; there are no paid products, subscriptions, fee-for-service offerings, or disclosed funding rounds. The primary beneficiaries are San Francisco residents and local government agencies, who receive civic technology outputs at zero cost. The organization was rebranded from Code for San Francisco to SF Civic Tech in October 2024 to better reflect its broadened community identity.

Name

Code for San Francisco

Legal name

Code for San Francisco

Website

https://codeforsanfrancisco.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Code for San Francisco (now SF Civic Tech) is a volunteer-run civic technology organization founded in 2013 that mobilizes developers, designers, and citizen activists to build open-source tools addressing local civic problems for San Francisco residents and government.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology

NAICS

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

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industries

Smart Cities & Urban Innovation Programs (Digital Planning, Civic Tech for Cities) (BPAIANAJ), City Clerk/Records, Elections & Civic Engagement (BPAIACAB)

Keywords

• Civic technology
• Volunteer community
• Open source software
• Civic engagement
• Community organizing

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, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and volunteer contributions: SF Civic Tech is a volunteer-based nonprofit civic tech organization. Revenue is generated through donations and volunteer labor contributions rather than product or service sales. No paid products, subscriptions, or fee-for-service offerings are described.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Code for San Francisco (now SF Civic Tech) is a volunteer-driven civic technology brigade that mobilizes developers, designers, data professionals, and citizen activists to build open-source civic technology projects addressing local community and government needs in San Francisco. The organization coordinates its work through weekly Virtual Civic Hack Nights, an active Slack workspace, and a Google Forms project intake process, producing freely available open-source civic tools hosted on GitHub.

Product overview

Code for San Francisco (now rebranded as SF Civic Tech) is a volunteer civic technology organization rather than a product company. The organization does not offer a commercial software product or SaaS platform. Its offerings consist of community programs including Virtual Civic Hack Nights held every Wednesday, project collaboration opportunities, a newsletter, and various community resources. No distinct branded products, software modules, or technology offerings were identified.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Others

• Open Government Partnership: Open Government Partnership is an international multilateral initiative promoting transparency, accountability, and civic technology across member governments. It is adjacent to SF Civic Tech's transparency and civic engagement mission.
• Knight Foundation: Knight Foundation is a major philanthropic funder of civic technology, journalism, and community engagement initiatives in U.S. cities. It is adjacent to SF Civic Tech's mission as a key ecosystem funder for civic tech capacity building.

Direct peers

• Open Oakland: Open Oakland is a Bay Area civic tech brigade that organizes volunteer technologists to build open-source tools addressing local civic issues, highly comparable to SF Civic Tech in geography, mission, and format.
• Code for DC: Code for DC is a volunteer civic technology brigade in Washington, D.C., focused on building open-source tools that serve local residents and government agencies, structurally analogous to SF Civic Tech.
• Code for Boston: Code for Boston is a volunteer civic tech brigade operating in the Code for America network, running regular hack nights and open-source community projects for Boston-area residents and government.
• BetaNYC: BetaNYC is a New York City-based volunteer civic technology brigade affiliated with the Code for America network, running hack nights, open-source civic projects, and community engagement programs in a directly analogous way to SF Civic Tech.
• Code for Pittsburgh: Code for Pittsburgh is a volunteer civic technology brigade in the Code for America network that convenes technologists and civic stakeholders to build community-serving projects on a similar model.

Broad incumbents

• 18F: 18F is a federal civic technology office within the U.S. General Services Administration that builds digital services for government agencies. It overlaps with SF Civic Tech's mission of applying technology to public-good outcomes, though as a paid federal unit rather than a volunteer brigade.
• Code for America: Code for America is the national nonprofit that organizes the brigade network of which SF Civic Tech is a member. It is a broad incumbent in the U.S. civic tech space, providing branding, coordination, and program support to local brigades.
• U.S. Digital Service (USDS): USDS is a federal civic technology group that delivers digital services across federal agencies. It operates in the same broad civic tech category as SF Civic Tech, with substantially greater institutional scale and funding.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sfbrigade
• GitHubgithub.com/sfbrigade
• Facebookfacebook.com/sfcivictech
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sfcivictech

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Code for San Francisco