Humans of Public Service

What Humans of Public Service does

Humans of Public Service (HOPS) is a private, non-partisan 501(c)(3)-style nonprofit founded by Brian Whittaker and headquartered at 1550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia, with a 12-person team. The organization's functional purpose is to humanize government work by collecting, producing, and distributing narrative profiles of public servants across federal, state, and local levels. Its primary audience is government employees seeking recognition, students and career changers exploring public service, and partner organizations focused on workforce diversity and narrative change around government careers.

HOPS's core product is a storytelling platform centered on the Public Servant Stories Platform and Video Stories, supported by a community nomination system that allows external contributors to submit public servants for featuring. The organization operates no proprietary technology platform; its stack is built on standard third-party services including DonorBox (donations), Stripe, PayPal, and Plaid (payments), and Airtable (email subscriber management), with content distribution primarily through LinkedIn and Instagram. To date the platform has produced over 200 unique stories and accumulated approximately 600,000 social media impressions across 36 states and territories.

HOPS is funded through a combination of individual donations and a structured annual sponsorship program with tiered offerings for small and large organizations. It has no disclosed funding rounds, no institutional investors, and no publicly reported revenue. Strategic distribution partnerships with AAFEA, Govern for America, MAPS, Opportunity @ Work, and the Volcker Alliance provide co-branded reach into diversity-focused and workforce-development audiences. The organization is governed by a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board composed of public-sector and workforce leaders.

Name

Humans of Public Service

Legal name

Humans of Public Service

Website

https://humansofpublicservice.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Humans of Public Service (HOPS) is a 12-person nonprofit that produces and distributes narrative profiles of U.S. government employees across federal, state, and local levels to humanize public service and inspire future civil servants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Nonprofit Storytelling / Public Service Media

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Audio & Live Community Platforms (BPAMABAH)

Keywords

• Public service storytelling
• Government employee profiles
• Nonprofit media platform
• Civic engagement stories
• Public sector career narratives

Headquarters

HQ city

Arlington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Sponsorships: HOPS offers annual sponsorship opportunities for organizations looking to increase brand awareness while supporting public service storytelling. They have structured sponsorship tiers for small and large organizations.
2. Donations: Individual donors can contribute to support HOPS's mission of sharing stories of public servants, interviewing public servants in their hometowns, inspiring next generation public servants, and launching celebration events.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Humans of Public Service (HOPS) is a nonprofit storytelling organization that publishes written and video profiles of federal, state, and local government employees across its website and social media channels (LinkedIn and Instagram). Its core activity is interviewing public servants, producing narrative features and short videos, and distributing that content to celebrate government work and inspire future public servants. The organization also runs a public servant nomination system, a donation platform, and volunteer programs that support its storytelling mission.

Product overview

Humans of Public Service (HOPS) is a non-profit storytelling platform that shares profiles and video content of government employees across federal, state, and local levels via social media platforms including LinkedIn and Instagram. The core product is the Public Servant Stories Platform featuring 200+ diverse stories and 600k social media impressions. Supporting services include a nomination system for recognizing public servants, leadership and career development programs, a community platform connecting public servants nationwide, a donation system for financial support, and volunteer opportunities. The organization focuses on celebrating public servants and inspiring future government workers through human-interest storytelling rather than traditional technology products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Public Servant Stories Platform A storytelling platform featuring written profiles and interviews with government employees across federal, state, and local levels, published on the HOPS website and distributed through social media to humanize public service.

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• African American Federal Executive Association (AAFEA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA leading non-profit organization dedicated to preparing and supporting African Americans for advancement into and within the senior ranks of the United States Government. HOPS partners with AAFEA to highlight diverse public servants and change the narrative around government careers.
• Govern for AmericacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA nonpartisan 501(c)(3) working to build the next generation of public servants to create a more responsive government that better reflects and serves communities. Co-founder & CEO Octavia Abell called HOPS 'a critical voice in changing the narrative about what is possible in a government career.'
• Muslim Americans in Public Service (MAPS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA national non-partisan, nonprofit network of professionals and organizations that aim to create an enabling ecosystem for Muslim American public servants to thrive both personally and professionally.
• Opportunity @ WorkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA nonprofit organization focused on building a labor market where all Americans can work, learn, and earn to their full potential. Partners with HOPS to highlight stories of public servants including STARs (individuals skilled through alternative routes).
• Volcker AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA nonprofit founded by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker, dedicated to advancing his vision of an empowered public sector workforce. President Sara Mogulescu said 'HOPS is spotlighting public servants in innovative, compelling ways and has the potential to transform how the public views government work.'

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• GovExec: GovExec is the leading media and events business covering the federal workforce. It directly competes for the same government-employee audience HOPS serves and is a peer outlet where HOPS stories have already been featured.
• African American Federal Executive Association (AAFEA): AAFEA is a nonprofit advancing African Americans into the senior ranks of the federal government. It is a Core HOPS partner and shares the diversity-in-government-workforce storytelling mission.
• Partnership for Public Service: The Partnership for Public Service is a major nonprofit advocating for a more effective federal workforce through research, rankings, and media. It pursues a closely aligned mission to HOPS and has featured HOPS on its podcast, making it a direct peer.
• Volcker Alliance: The Volcker Alliance is a nonprofit founded by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to advance an empowered public-sector workforce. It is a Core partner of HOPS and pursues the same talent-narrative and workforce-reform agenda.
• GovLoop: GovLoop is an online community and learning platform for the government workforce. It serves the same government-employee persona as HOPS, with broader training, networking, and content products.
• Govern for America: Govern for America is a 501(c)(3) building the next generation of public servants. It is a Core HOPS partner, serves overlapping audiences (future public servants and students), and pursues adjacent workforce-pipeline programming.

Emerging players

• Code for America: Code for America is a nonprofit applying technology and talent programs to improve government services. It overlaps with HOPS in the future-public-servant pipeline and narrative-reform mission, though its core focus is civic tech delivery.
• Young Government Leaders: YGL is a professional network for emerging leaders in federal government. It overlaps with HOPS's career-development and community-building offerings for early- and mid-career public servants.
• Opportunity @ Work: Opportunity @ Work is a nonprofit focused on STARs (workers skilled through alternative routes). It partners with HOPS on stories of public servants from non-traditional backgrounds, addressing the same talent-narrative mission.

Broad incumbents

• Route Fifty: Route Fifty is a Government Executive Media Group publication covering state and local government technology and workforce. It has covered HOPS stories and competes for the same government-workforce storytelling audience at greater scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/humans-of-public-service
• Instagraminstagram.com/humansofpublicservice

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 Humans of Public Service