Since our founding, we have collaborated with and supported over 900 groups of human rights defenders, climate advocates and social justice organizers across the Majority World who are using data and technology to advance change for their communities. 

We engage with practitioners, communities, humanitarian organizations, and philanthropic institutions to undertake and advance community-centered research, responsible data governance, security and decision-making, and reimagining healthy digital ecosystems. 

The work that we do with organizations takes place on an arc. Partners and collaborators can plug in depending on where they are. When we work with organizations that are under-resourced or under threat, we assess how we can help right now– but we are also always thinking about how we can help clear the table for the possibilities for a more caring and joyful digital world.

TER values are not abstract; they are concrete commitments we make with each other, our partners and the spaces we share with others.

Lee nuestro Informe de Impacto 2023 [ES] |  Lis notre Rapport d’Impact 2023 [FR]

Our organizational values, commitments, and practices

• Centering community: We center the knowledge, leadership and priorities of our partners, and use non-extractive practices that allow us to integrate and learn from multiple ways of knowing and making sense of the world. 
  • Focusing on community needs, questions, curiosities and impact
  • Nurturing equitable partnerships
  • Seeking and cultivating local alternatives
• Building energy and propositionality: We center joy, curiosity and agency when designing engagements and developing partnerships. We amplify knowledge and perspectives that seed change and sustain communities and the planet.
  • Uplifting stories of agency and possibility
  • Building connections between communities
  • Making tech accessible through play, joy and experimentation
• Care: We safeguard people and data with care and responsibility, using and promoting responsible data practices that respect data sovereignty of our partners. Our relationships with our partners are rooted in trust, mutual care, wellbeing, and learning.
  • Contextually and culturally relevant tools
  • Implementing non-extractive knowledge sharing methods 
  • Ensuring safe and meaningful access  
  • Developing responsible data protocols
• Resilience, health and transformation: We use tools and methods that are adaptive, flexible and responsive to different contexts, strengths and constraints. We share our process and outputs in accessible ways that people can use and engage with over time.
  • Rewiring structures for health and resilience 
  • Sharing knowledge for justice and transformation

Our structure

The Engine Room is a 501(c)(3) registered charity in the United States. For an overview of our funders and financial information, you can explore our most recent Form 990.