---
title: Civic Tech Field Guide
type: research
status: active
country: US
website: https://civictech.guide
logo: /assets/org-logos/civic-tech-field-guide.svg
contact:
  checked: 2026-08-09
  email: info@civictech.guide
  source: https://civictech.guide/contact
summary: A crowdsourced directory describing itself as the world's most complete collection
  of projects, tools, and organisations using technology for democracy — founded 2016,
  now helping 50,000+ people a month find civic-tech work, tools, and collaborators
  rather than rebuild what already exists.
concepts:
- meta-organisation
- e-government
- democracy
location:
  latitude: 40.7128
  longitude: -74.006
  name: New York City, USA
  precision: city
events:
- date: '2016-01-01'
  title: Conceived and first edition published as an open spreadsheet
  url: https://civictech.guide/about
  quote: The Field Guide was conceived in early 2016 by Micah Sifry, co-founder of
    Civic Hall, Matt Stempeck (then the Director of Civic Technology at Microsoft),
    and Erin Simpson, then at Civic Hall Labs.
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-17'
- date: '2018-01-01'
  title: Developed into a full directory under Civic Hall
  url: https://civictech.guide/about
  quote: Stempeck developed the project into a full directory in 2018 under the auspices
    of Civic Hall with support from Knight Foundation, Luminate, and Patrick J. McGovern
    Foundation.
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-17'
- date: '2022-01-01'
  title: Revamped with National Endowment for Democracy support
  url: https://civictech.guide/about
  quote: In 2022, the National Endowment for Democracy provided critical support to
    revamp and activate the project, making its resources readily available to people
    fighting for democracy all over the world.
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-17'
activity:
  manual:
    checked: 2026-08-07
    date: 2026-08-07
    note: Site loaded, active directory and listings confirmed.
    url: https://civictech.guide/
  sitemap:
    date: 2026-08-10
    note: Page last modified (from sitemap)
    url: https://civictech.guide/sitemap.xml
    checked: 2026-08-17
last_checked: '2026-08-09'
---

The Civic Tech Field Guide is a crowdsourced directory — "the world's most complete collection of projects, tools, and organizations using tech for democracy."[^about] It was conceived in early 2016 by Micah Sifry (co-founder of Civic Hall), Matt Stempeck (then Director of Civic Technology at Microsoft), and Erin Simpson, starting life as an open spreadsheet before Stempeck built it into a full directory in 2018 under Civic Hall, with funding from the Knight Foundation, Luminate, and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.[^about] Stempeck spun it out independently in 2020; it's now fiscally sponsored by Superbloom Design (a US 501(c)3), with National Endowment for Democracy support since 2022.[^about]

## What it does

The Field Guide exists to connect democracy advocates, builders, students, job-seekers, funders, and researchers to the tools, organisations, and people already working in this space — explicitly so people don't have to rebuild what already exists before they can start. It now serves over 50,000 people a month.[^about] The directory is open-source and community-driven: entries can be submitted, claimed, and edited by the organisations they describe, under editorial curation.

## A meta-organisation at scale

Founded the same year as DOD (2016), the Field Guide runs on a similar premise — that most civic-tech efforts are reinventing something that already exists somewhere, and a shared, findable directory reduces that duplication — just at a much larger scale: thousands of listed projects and tens of thousands of monthly users, backed by a fiscal sponsor and multiple institutional funders, rather than a volunteer discussion forum. See [Meta-Organisation](../concepts/meta-organisation.md) for how DOD's own version of this idea compares.

## Links

- Website: [civictech.guide](https://civictech.guide)
- Directory: [directory.civictech.guide](https://directory.civictech.guide)

## See also

- [Meta-Organisation](../concepts/meta-organisation.md)
- [Participedia](participedia.md)
- [Democracy Technologies](democracy-technologies.md)
- [E-Government](../concepts/e-government.md)
- [Democracy](../concepts/democracy.md)

[^about]: "The Civic Tech Field Guide is the world's most complete collection of projects, tools, and organizations using tech for democracy." and "We help over 50,000 people per month," ["About the Field Guide"](https://civictech.guide/about/), Civic Tech Field Guide.