2021 Impact Report

We helped over 2.8 million people access food benefits and received over 1.5 million SNAP applications.

One year from March 2020, we shared our findings on how the pandemic had affected all of our lives. And we helped show what’s possible when government uses human-centered technology to solve problems by piloting a flexible interview process in Los Angeles County, CA to close the gap between those who need food assistance and those receiving benefits. Learn about our work in LA County.

We created the National Safety Net Scorecard Framework.

In partnership with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Scorecard Framework helped us evaluate the current landscape of benefit delivery and measure progress towards a human-centered safety net. Learn about the Scorecard Framework.

We worked shoulder to shoulder with the state of Minnesota and launched MNbenefits.mn.gov.

The easy-to-use, all-in-one application is available to residents across 80+ counties and 11 Tribal nations applying for nine different benefits programs, and reduces application time from 110 minutes to less than 20 minutes. Read more about our work in Minnesota.

We helped the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania transform the delivery of public benefits and adapt to better meet client needs.

As part of our training and capacity building approach, our project with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services focused on improving the state’s online benefits application experience. Learn about our work in Pennsylvania.

We launched a new initiative to transform America’s social safety net.

In partnership with states across the country, our goal is for government services to be equitable, easy-to-use, and built for the digital age. Learn about the initiative.

We helped deliver a total of $766 million in flexible cash and helped file 211,000 accepted tax returns.

GetYourRefund delivered an estimated $327 million in flexible cash and accepted 96,000 returns with the support of 5,439 active tax prep volunteers and 85 active tax prep partners. GetCTC delivered an estimated $440 million in Child Tax Credit and stimulus payments claimed by 115,000 families—all in our 10-week pilot launch.

We built GetCTC.org, launched in collaboration with the White House and the US Department of Treasury, to connect more families to the Child Tax Credit and stimulus payments.

The portal was the first of its kind: free to use, accessible on desktops and mobile devices, and available in both English and Spanish. It dramatically reduced client barriers by not requiring any tax documents to file. Read about the GetCTC.org launch.

We showed what’s possible when government uses technology in human-centered, meaningful ways.

GetCTC was the first tool built to truly simplify tax filing for families with low incomes, providing a service that the overwhelming majority of families could finish without assistance in 10-15 minutes on a mobile phone. Read about how we center the needs of clients.

We led a national movement to reach nonfilers, engaging over 200 outreach and navigation partners with toolkits and training sessions.

Though it ran for only 10 weeks, GetCTC helped more than 115,000 families who had never filed before access benefits during a critical period. In the last 28 days of operations, GetCTC was averaging over 2,700 accepted returns per day. Read more about our outreach strategy.

We built and launched the Hub, our own case management system.

It allowed us to continue to scale virtual Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services at no cost to VITA sites, and supported our transition to directly filing returns ourselves for GetCTC.

Clear My Record built and influenced technology that will impact approximately 1 million people.

We developed technology that allowed the Utah courts to implement the Clean Slate Act and provided technical support to pass laws in Connecticut and Delaware. By partnering with government to build and shape technology, we’re showing it’s possible to automatically clear millions of records across the country. Learn more about our work with Utah.

Delaware and Connecticut became the latest states to pass Clean Slate legislation that will automatically clear hundreds of thousands of criminal records.

We collaborated with the Clean Slate Initiative and advocates in Delaware and Connecticut to help make this legislation possible. Learn more about our automatic record clearance work.

We helped shape the federal Fresh Start Act. 

Introduced by bipartisan coalition, the bill would allocate $50 million in federal funds to states to fully implement automatic record clearance, including with support from organizations like Code for America.

We spoke to people across the country living with a criminal record.

Listen to our audio series to hear them describe in their own words the impact of their record on their employment prospects, housing, and mental health.

Brigades and our Network continued to deliver support to their communities in year two of a global pandemic.

In 2021, 3,890 volunteers contributed 142,160 volunteer hours, helping 4.5 million people.

We hosted two community-focused events in 2021: National Day of Civic Hacking in September and Brigade Congress in October.

For National Day of Civic Hacking, we tested collective action around reimagining the 911 emergency response system, partnering with the Transform 911 Health Lab at the University of Chicago and coordinating local Code for America Brigades and volunteers. Just one day of collective people power brought together over 1,000 volunteers who reviewed 384 jurisdictions and developed 17 case studies, nine prototype projects and one data analysis project.

In October, Code for Tulsa virtually hosted our annual Brigade Congress on the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, bringing together members of our national Brigade Network to learn about Tulsa’s past, present, and future through the voices of local community activists and leaders.

The Community Fellowship program led four projects in 2021.

This included:

• Providing shelter during inclement weather to people experiencing homelessness in Adams County, CO
• Connecting residents with low incomes in Fort Collins, CO with low-cost gigabit internet and other income-qualified city programs
• Pairing people experiencing homelessness in Oakland, CA with on-demand resources based on their geo-location
• Furnishing the justice-impacted community with resources to reduce recidivism and improve quality of life in Santa Barbara, CA

In Adams County, Fellows developed an app that enabled the county to take their emergency weather motel shelter program into the field to distribute digital vouchers directly to those in need, preventing 7,471 nights of unsheltered homelessness. The remaining three projects were extended for an additional six to nine months for further development. Read more about the Community Fellowship project in Adams County.

We reset our vision for the Network to focus on making impact through direct partnership with community based organizations, organizing collective action, and scaling the principles and values of Code for America.

Our new vision recognizes our unique strengths in the civic technology ecosystem as the only organization for civic technologists to explore their potential without prohibitive barriers to entry. Our new vision identifies ways to scale Code for America’s philosophy and methodology by learning, iterating, and piloting new approaches through our distributed Network. More to come in 2022!