Public Interest Technology University Network

What Public Interest Technology University Network does

Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) is a nonprofit university network founded in 2019 by New America's Public Interest Technology program and operated as a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund. Headquartered at 1828 L Street NW, Suite 400-A in Washington, D.C., PIT-UN serves as a collaboration platform for 51 U.S.-based and 3 international higher education institutions committed to developing public interest technology curricula, research agendas, and experiential learning programs. Membership applications run annually from February 1 to February 28, and member institutions gain access to a learning community of scholars and practitioners, grant funding opportunities, workshops, and toolkits.

PIT-UN's core offerings are programmatic rather than software-based: the ComPITence Framework of nine Public Interest Technology learning competencies (developed in collaboration with All Tech Is Human and IBM Research); the Network Challenge grant program, which has distributed over $16 million to 154 projects since 2019; Tech for Change Hackathons; PIT Career Fairs (engaging ~1,400 students and 150+ employers in Fall 2023); an annual Summit; five Regional Hubs (Midwest, New York, New England, West, plus emerging regions); and time-bound Working Groups. The ComPITence Framework is the closest analog to a proprietary product, designed for integration into both new and existing curricula across higher education.

The organization's business model is grant-funded rather than revenue-generating: member institutions do not pay membership fees and instead receive grant funding distributed through seasonal Requests for Proposals. Distribution occurs through member institutions themselves, Regional Hubs, the Global PIT Working Group, the annual Summit, and a multi-channel digital presence (newsletter, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Facebook). PIT-UN functions as a field-builder and grant-maker in the public interest technology domain rather than a traditional product or services company.

Name

Public Interest Technology University Network

Legal name

Public Interest Technology University Network

Website

https://pit-un.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

PIT-UN is a nonprofit network of 51 U.S. and 3 international universities and colleges building the public interest technology field through shared curricula, the ComPITence competency framework, grant programs, hackathons, career fairs, and an annual summit.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Network (Nonprofit Consortium)

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (61171), Professional Organizations (81392)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Research Collaboration & Joint Labs (International Partnerships) (EDAIABAC)

Keywords

• Public interest technology
• University network
• Grant programs
• Civic technology education
• Tech workforce development

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

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. Grant Funding: PIT-UN operates as a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity. The network distributes grant funding to member institutions through seasonal Thematic and topic-focused Requests for Proposals including the Network Challenge, PITathons, Tech for Change Hackathons, and Career Fair grants.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

PIT-UN operates a collaborative network of universities and colleges that builds the field of public interest technology through grant funding, convenings, hackathons, career fairs, regional hubs, and a shared curriculum competency framework. The network distributes thematic grants (Network Challenge), runs civic-focused hackathons and career fairs, hosts an annual Summit, and stewards the ComPITence Framework for cross-institutional curriculum integration.

Product overview

PIT-UN is a university network organization (not a traditional software company) that operates a collaborative platform of interconnected programs. The core offering is the PIT-UN Network itself—a membership-based consortium of 54 universities and colleges dedicated to building the public interest technology field. This is supported by a portfolio of programs including Tech for Change Hackathons (student-led civic hackathons), Network Challenge Grants (thematic funding RFPs), PIT Career Fairs (workforce pipeline events), the annual PIT-UN Summit (multi-sector convening), Regional Hubs (place-based programming in 5 regions), and Working Groups (time-bound research collaborations). Educational resources include The ComPITence Project—a competency framework for PIT curricula developed with partners All Tech Is Human and IBM Research. The organization functions as a grant-maker and field-builder rather than a product company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Tech for Change Hackathons: Civic-focused, community-driven hackathons deployed by students to address local injustices in health care, elections, education, and other public interest areas.
• ComPITence Project

Products and services

• PIT-UN Membership Membership program for universities and colleges committing to developing public interest technology curricula, research agendas, and experiential learning programs. Members access a learning community, Network Challenge grant eligibility, annual convenings, workshops, tool kits, and exclusive training resources. Applications open annually February 1-28.
• Network Challenge Grants Seasonal thematic and topic-focused Requests for Proposals driving equitable innovation in public interest technology across academia, government, industry, and civil society. Distributed to member institutions for new courses, research centers, community partnerships, certificates, degrees, internships, and fellowships. Open only to PIT-UN member institutions.
• The ComPITence Project Nine Public Interest Technology learning competencies framework designed to prepare university graduates for ethical and societal challenges of the digital age. Designed for integration into new and existing higher-education curricula and draws inspiration from social work education competency models.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $16 million distributed to 154 projects since 2019
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 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

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• National Deep Inference Fabric (NDIF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Seven PIT-UN faculty members selected to serve on the NSF National Deep Inference Fabric Advisory Board. NDIF is an NSF-funded research computing project enabling researchers and students to conduct transparent, reproducible experiments on large-scale AI systems.
• Paragon Policy FellowshipcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partnership with Paragon Policy Fellowship to offer 150 students opportunities to work with state and local government officials on science and technology issues over a 12-week period. Part of Brown University's Tech Policy Fellowship and Playbook project funded through the Network Challenge.
• Erikson InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partnering with clinicians from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Erikson Institute Early Childhood Project on Ohio State University's Data Curation project to build data capacity in social impact organizations.
• All Tech Is HumancoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Ethical technology advocacy partner collaborating on the ComPITence Project to develop nine Public Interest Technology learning competencies. The partnership bridges academia and industry to ensure students graduate with technical skills alongside ethics and social responsibility foundations.
• IBM ResearchcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Industry fellows from IBM Research participate in the ComPITence Project to provide practical industry perspective on PIT competencies needed in the workforce. Partnership aims to bridge gap between academia and industry expectations.
• BetaNYCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing partnership with civic technology organization BetaNYC to establish publicly accessible tech credentials in PIT within the CUNY system and position the CUNY Public Interest Tech Lab as a central innovation hub.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• EDUCAUSE: The leading nonprofit association for higher-education IT professionals and institutions. Broader incumbent in higher-ed technology with a comparable membership/consortium model and convening function.
• Internet2: A nonprofit U.S. higher-education consortium providing advanced networking and technology services to member institutions. Comparable consortium model serving universities with collaborative technology infrastructure and research services.

Direct peers

• All Tech Is Human: Direct partner organization co-developing the ComPITence Project with PIT-UN. A nonprofit dedicated to building a more responsible tech future by connecting stakeholders across industry, academia, civil society, and government — overlapping mission and audience.
• Ashoka U: A program of Ashoka that supports social entrepreneurship and changemaker education in higher education. Comparable university-network model focused on field-building and curricular transformation around social impact.
• AI Now Institute: A research institute examining the social implications of artificial intelligence. Comparable mission around responsible technology and public-interest research, with strong academic and policy networks.
• Code for America: A nonprofit that builds digital services for government and trains technologists for civic careers. Directly comparable mission of connecting technologists with public-interest work; complements PIT-UN's higher-education-focused pipeline-building.
• Data & Society: A research institute studying the social implications of data-centric technologies. Overlaps with PIT-UN's mission at the intersection of technology, ethics, and society; similar funder base and academic partnerships.
• Campus Compact: A national coalition of colleges and universities committed to civic and community engagement. Comparable higher-education consortium model focused on embedding public-purpose work in academic institutions.

Others

• New America: Parent organization of PIT-UN; a nonpartisan think tank that founded the Public Interest Technology program and the Public Interest Technology University Network. Operates in adjacent policy and technology spaces and channels grant funding to PIT-UN.

Emerging players

• NetHope: A nonprofit consortium of humanitarian and development organizations using technology for global good. Comparable nonprofit network model serving civic/public-interest technology users, though oriented to NGOs rather than universities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/newamericapit?lang=en
• Facebookfacebook.com/NewAmerica
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/groups/8944407

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Public Interest Technology University Network