Happy Birthday: Citizen Labs

Citizen Labs has much to celebrate! It was just one year ago when our application to become 501c3 nonprofit was approved. We have seen tremendous growth as measured by budget, hack night involvement, organization, community feedback, and partnerships.

By The Numbers

• 102 Slack members
• 41 Active Slack users
• 172 Meetup members
• 219 Facebook followers
• 4 Deployed Projects

Accomplishments

January - March: Our efforts were heavily focused on creating the organization.

• Registered with the State of Michigan as a nonprofit.
• Created bylaws and policies.
• Hack Night Rebuild.
• Submitted application with IRS to become nonprofit.

April - June:

• Gained our 501c3 status as an official nonprofit from the IRS.
• Received first donations of in-kind services and money.

July - September: We began reaching out to the community.

• Citizen Labs had featured speakers at the Big Data Ignite, Bar Camp, and City Hacks weekend.
• Improved Hack Nights by beginning our first focal project. Our first project is focused around Voter Engagement.

October - December: Getting To Work

• Hack Night participation increased in number and diversity.
• Citizen Labs began partnerships with local and national organizations (Grand Valley Metro Council, Sunlight Foundation, and Start Garden).
• Community Outreach continued to technical and non technical organizations.