Fast Forward Announces 2018 Cohort - Including Tech Nonprofits Building Solutions to Issues Like Mental Health, Workplace Harassment, and the Refugee Crisis

Fast Forward, the organization building an ecosystem of human and financial capital to help tech nonprofits scale, announces its 2018 Accelerator cohort. With 10 tech nonprofits selected, this is Fast Forward’s largest class to date. The tech nonprofits selected are building technology solutions to timely issues including: support for DREAMers, workplace harassment, the refugee crisis, veteran mental health, voter turnout, and more.

Every single team has at least one founder who is a woman or a person of color, which echoes the findings in the diversity report Fast Forward published in April 2018.

The 2018 Accelerator cohort includes:

• Dost Education: Mobile audio content that helps parents of any literacy level support their child’s early education success

• DREAMers Roadmap: A mobile app connecting undocumented students to hard-to-find college scholarships

• Empower Work: A real-time SMS hotline for workplace issues

• Learning Equality: An offline platform making open education resources globally accessible

• Objective Zero Foundation: An app providing 24/7 mental health interventions for active military and veterans

• Peerlift: Platform connecting underserved high schoolers to exceptional college opportunities

• Tarjimly:  A real-time translation app connecting the world’s 3 billion bilinguals to the 23 million refugees worldwide

• UPchieve: Free, online, & on-demand STEM tutoring & college counseling for underserved high school students

• Upsolve: TurboTax for personal bankruptcy

• We Vote: A national, digital guide that leverages the power of networks to make voting easier

Fast Forward’s Accelerator is funded by Google.org, BlackRock, Omidyar Network, Comcast NBCUniversal, GM, Twilio, Zendesk, Okta, AWS, Box, and Bloomberg.  Fast Forward uniquely bridges the gap between the tech and social sectors. These partnerships enable Fast Forward to connect its cohort with valuable product opportunities, as well as skilled tech executives who share their expertise through mentorship, which often leads to long-term advisory and board seats.

Through the Accelerator, these tech nonprofits receive:

• A $25,000 grant

• Introductions to 100 mentors in the tech and social sectors

• 3 month of training, curated to the unique needs of tech nonprofits

• Access to the tech nonprofit founder and funder communities

• 2 Demo Days (one in San Francisco and one in Silicon Valley), where the teams pitch to hundreds of philanthropic funders  the goal of raising follow-on funding

This summer marks Fast Forward’s 5th Accelerator program, a meaningful milestone for the four-year-old organization. Its tech nonprofit Accelerator has proven successful, with 31 alumni impacting 35+ million lives and securing $56+ million in follow-on funding. Beyond the Accelerator, Fast Forward also supports tech nonprofits through its Job and Volunteer Board, Directory, Online Community, Alumni program, and Accelerate Good Global Summit.

About Fast Forward

Fast Forward accelerates tech nonprofits. Every year Fast Forward brings a new cohort of startups building tech solutions to global issues like health care, human rights, education, and the environment through its three-month Accelerator program. The Accelerator connects each team to seed funding, over 100 mentors, and community to help scale their solutions and maximize impact. Over four years, Fast Forward has helped 31 tech nonprofits impact 35+ million lives and raise $56M+ in follow-on funding. Fast Forward also runs a global Summit, Tech Nonprofit Directory, Volunteer Board, and Job Board. The organization was founded in 2014 by seasoned tech and nonprofit entrepreneurs, Kevin Barenblat and Shannon Farley, and is based in San Francisco. For more information visit www.ffwd.org

Contact Information

Christina Shatzen

Director of Marketing and Communications

Fast Forward

Contact via E-mail