Technovation
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Obstacles to learning for youth in underrepresented communities include the absence of educational infrastructure and ineffective reach to underserved communities. These challenges are multiplied in environments that lack a robust/vibrant culture of learning to solve problems. The key is to build a platform and community of educators, parents, and mentors to work with young people. Technovation, through its deep connections with all three of these groups, is uniquely well-positioned to address these challenges by engaging directly with the young people, especially girls, in these US communities and developing economies. Committed to sustained engagement, impact at scale, and advancing the state of knowledge relevant to hands-on STEM training, Technovation is unique in its holistic approach to advance the self-efficacy of young people and ultimately the transformation of communities that can begin to solve their own problems effectively through innovation, leadership, and resilience.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Technovation Girls
Technovation Girls is the world's largest global technology entrepreneurship program for girls. The program offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the skills they need to emerge as tech entrepreneurs and leaders. Every year we invite girls to identify a problem in their community and then challenge them to solve it. Since 2010, Technovation Girls has impacted more than 23,000 girls in 100+ countries.
Technovation Families
Technovation Families is the world’s largest AI-education program, engaging ~7500 3rd-8th grade students and their parents across the world to learn about AI technologies and develop an AI-based prototype that solves problems in their community.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of participants engaged in programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Program participants (include girls ages 8-18 and adult volunteers) completing, at a minimum, one hour of engagement/impact with one of our two flagship programs
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The vision of Technovation is to inspire girls and families to be leaders and problem-solvers in their lives and their communities. Through our programs, our participants (children, parents, and mentors) will develop a sense of self-efficacy as STEM learners and become life-long learners. They will be committed to persevering through challenges to achieve their goals and be successful.
Participants in our programs will pursue further courses developing their skills and knowledge of new technologies. They will demonstrate an increased interest in technology jobs and the confidence to pursue leadership opportunities in the workplace and community. Ultimately, they will be more engaged, involved, and influential in bringing about positive changes to their lives and their communities.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Technovation is a global STEM education nonprofit with a mission to empower the world’s underrepresented young people, especially girls, through engineering and technology to become innovators and leaders. Our programs emphasize problem-solving and innovation, encourage and facilitate parent involvement, and leverage STEM mentorship by connecting children with science and engineering mentors and role models.
What differentiates Technovation as a leader in STEM education is our three-pronged approach to changing the attitudes and sense of self-efficacy around technology for underrepresented groups. (1) We lead with a real-world community problem. Program participants are empowered to find a problem in their community and develop a real-world technological solution for it. (2) We engage the whole family. By studying 85,300 underserved parents and adults in a five-week, learning-by-doing STEM program, we have learned that parents must be engaged as active learners and facilitators of their child’s learning in STEM. (3) We invest in trust-building with community partners. Our model aligns with community needs and goals, plugs into existing community hubs, and runs successfully in diverse settings - rural, urban, different cultures and ethnicities.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Over 130,000 young people and parents, from over 100 countries and growing, have participated in our programs to date. We have trained over 14,000 volunteers to serve as mentors and program facilitators.
Through Technovation's programs, children have created prototypes to reduce the number of drowning deaths of children across the world with a wearable device that notifies adults of risky swimming behavior. They have designed inventions that analyze drawings and children’s communications to identify and stop bullying behavior. They have protected their environment with technology that removes harmful plants from water sources. They are not simply “playing with technology.” They are using technology to address and remedy real-world problems.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We aim to innovate in STEM education. We use a lean, iterative research approach to determine factors that drive lifelong learning and respond with cutting-edge programming aligned with best practices. We have been recognized with the US2020 STEM Mentoring Award, the GSMA GLOMO Women4Technology - Industry Leadership Award, and three National Science Foundation awards.
We were the first to develop and launch a mobile-app entrepreneurship program in 2009, embrace open, online courses early in 2013, and launch the world's first and largest AI education program in 2018. To drive that launch successfully, we: commissioned a survey to determine what the public thought about AI, interviewed 40 AI researchers (70% women) from across the world, and conducted 5 AI-
debates connecting AI researchers with the public and 2 design hackathons helping AI researchers communicate their work to the public at AAAI's and IJCAI's annual conference. We also chaired the education track at the 2019 UN AI for Good Summit.
A 5-year longitudinal study funded by the NSF found that after our programs, 94% of students were more excited about doing challenging activities. 90% understood STEM better. 89% were more persistent and 88% had a better understanding of what jobs are available in those fields. 94% of parents did more hands-on science with their children at home. 92% understood STEM better, and 91% said they would encourage their child to pursue a STEM education or career.
Our program participants have been recognized by President Obama at the White House Science Fair, Prime Minister Modi of India, the First Lady of Nigeria and the UN's ITU Secretary General. They have been featured on Good Morning America and Amy Poehler's "Smart Girls".
And they've gone on to win startup and app-building competitions and become leaders in their communities.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Technovation
Board of directorsas of 11/09/2023
Ann Weeby
Salesforce
Term: 2018 -
Sepehr Moghadam
Rossana Wang
Wang & Partners
Kate Parker
Transcend
Adelia Curtis Duarte
Reddit, Inc.
Birte Hoehne Mahyera
Clorox
Heather Knight
Baxter, International
Ann Weeby
Salesforce
Alicia Hammond
World Bank Group
Mukul Aggarwal
Cargill
Lisa Tenorio
Harvard Business Publishing
Jessica Kung
Roblox
Sana Khareghani
UK Government Office for Artificial Intelligence
Sonya Park
State Street Global Advisors
Jonathan Berman
Shell Foundation
Gabriela Burian
Bayer
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: