Tech-for-good nonprofits

The nonprofits that build software

Most nonprofits use software. Some build it. In many Indian cities, paying property tax online runs on a platform built by a nonprofit. (More on it in Market Segment 44.1, Government software.) This Market Segment is about nonprofits like that, whose main work is technology.

What they build. Technology nonprofits build three kinds of things:

Standards

agreed rules that a whole industry follows, such as the quality tests a medicine must pass.

Open platforms

open-source software that governments and others can use for free, such as a platform that runs a city's services.

Digital services

services run directly for the public, such as a chatbot that advises farmers.

How the money flows. A nonprofit does not sell software for profit, but it still has to pay its engineers. Its money usually comes from three places:

grants from philanthropic foundations
contracts with governments to build or run a platform
fees for what it produces, such as its standards

Digital public goods. Open software, open data and open standards that anyone may use, change and share for free are called digital public goods. India has several, because it built many of its shared national systems this way. Government and nonprofits built the open platforms for identity, payments, health and cities together. (More on India's shared national systems, such as Aadhaar and UPI, in Market Segment 44.1, Government software.)

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

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Standards, open platforms and public services

Standards, open platforms and public services

US Pharmacopeia

with its team in Hyderabad, is the nonprofit that sets the quality standards for medicines in America and many other countries. A pharmacopeia is a book of official standards for medicines: what each must contain, how pure it must be and how to test it. India has its own, the Indian Pharmacopoeia.

Why it matters to India: India makes a large share of the generic medicines sold in America. Generic medicines are cheaper versions of a medicine whose patent has run out. Those sold in America must meet US Pharmacopeia's standards.
How it earns: it sells its standards, and reference standards. These are carefully made samples that laboratories test medicines against.
In India: it runs a laboratory and technology centre in Hyderabad. (More on it in Market Segment 25.5, Pharma manufacturing and quality software, in Industry Vertical 25, Pharma and life sciences.)

Platform Commons

with its team in Bengaluru, is another nonprofit in this area.

What a technology nonprofit builds, and who pays: grants from foundations, government contracts and fees pay for standards, open platforms and digital services run for the public. Open software, data and standards that anyone may use are called digital public goods.

One nonprofit covered mainly in another Market Segment is an example of a digital service run for the public:

Digital Green

with engineers in Bengaluru, runs an AI chatbot that advises farmers in their own languages. (More on it in Market Segment 45.2, Agribusiness and farm advisory platforms, in Industry Vertical 45, Agritech.)

A generic medicine for America: an Indian maker makes it, a laboratory tests it against a reference standard, and it is sold in America because it meets US Pharmacopeia's standards. US Pharmacopeia earns by selling its standards and the reference standards.

The public good built on AI.

India's digital public goods were built by nonprofits and government together. The next ones are being built on AI models, like the chatbots that advise farmers in local languages. Nonprofits are among the first to put AI in front of people who have never used a computer.

That is the technology nonprofit: an organisation that builds standards, open platforms and public services. It pays for them with grants, government contracts and fees, not profit.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What govtech and nonprofit companies hire for.

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