Choose Your Contribution Path

Tech is in the name of civic tech, but you don’t need to be a software developer to join our community! The best projects welcome and bring together people with different skills, experiences, and interests.

You don’t need to have a role in mind before joining. Some people come to practice skills they already have, while others want to try something new. You can contribute to one part of a project without committing to everything that comes afterward.

Below are a few ways to get involved. These aren’t formal roles or requirements, and what you work on will depend on what each project needs and what you want to do.

I Like Building Things

Do you like programming or technical problem-solving? You might help develop a website, build an application, work with databases, or improve an existing tool. Some projects are building something from scratch, while others need help maintaining what they’ve already created.

Let’s Start! Ask a project lead whether there are smaller GitHub issues, bugs, or features you can work on. You can also start by downloading the code and learning how to run the project locally.

Roles: Software Developer, Frontend Developer, Backend Developer, Software Engineer

Community Example: CIB Mango Tree has a New Contributor Guide that walks volunteers through the different ways they can contribute to its library of tests for detecting coordinated inauthentic behavior on social media, from research and design to prototyping and software development.

I Like Design

Design helps teams understand how people will interact with the technology they’re developing and how to make it more useful and accessible. You might conduct user research, create wireframes, prototype ideas, or review an existing tool for usability and accessibility.

Let’s Start! Try out a project’s website or application and share your experience. What worked well? What was confusing? Your observations can help a team identify areas for improvement.

Roles: UX Designer, UI Designer, Product Designer, UX Researcher

I Like Researching Problems

Before building a solution, teams need to understand the problem they’re trying to address. Research remains important throughout a project to make sure what we’re building continues to reflect the needs of the community. This might involve interviewing people, gathering feedback, or analyzing data.

You might also help a project work with public datasets, create maps, or build visualizations that make information easier to understand.

Let’s Start! Ask what questions the team is currently trying to answer. You could help research an issue, find relevant datasets, or summarize existing work to inform the project’s next steps.

Roles: Researcher, Policy Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Scientist

Community Example: The Data and Democracy Project works with data from the federal Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) to make election administration data easier to analyze and understand. Contributors help clean datasets, identify patterns, develop visualizations, and build tools that support research into voting access and election administration.

I Like Working With People

Community relationships are central to civic tech. Projects need to understand the people affected by a problem and work with partners who can help shape useful solutions.

You might help conduct interviews, gather feedback, connect with local organizations, or organize community conversations. You could also help with outreach to share what a project is doing and bring new people into the work.

Let’s Start! Help prepare questions for a community partner interview or identify organizations working on a similar issue.

Roles: Community Engagement Lead, Partnerships Coordinator

I Like Keeping Things Organized

Our projects depend heavily on people who can keep teams organized and moving forward. This might involve coordinating meetings or maintaining task boards. Since our projects are volunteer-driven, good coordination also means ensuring tasks are manageable and that people have the support they need.

Let’s Start! Ask whether the team needs help organizing its GitHub issues, documenting meeting notes, onboarding new contributors, or breaking larger goals into smaller tasks.

Roles: Project Manager, Scrum Master, Team Co-Lead, Project Coordinator

I Like Writing

Good documentation helps new people understand a project and how they can contribute to it. You might write contributor guides or improve README files.

Writing also helps teams share their work beyond Civic Tech DC through blog posts, project updates, presentations, and other materials.

Let’s Start! Read through a project’s existing documentation and identify anything missing, outdated, or difficult for a new contributor to understand.

Roles: Content Writer, Documentation Writer

I’m Not Sure Yet

That’s completely fine! You don’t have to choose one of these paths, and many contributors work across several areas. Projects may also need help with policy, grant writing, or other skills not covered here.

The best way to find out where you fit is to attend a Project Night and meet a few teams. Start with something manageable, and build from there.