Organizing technology built by and for organizers.
The tools are part of that story. Twenty years of rising vendor fees, private equity acquisitions, and platforms built for contract growth, not movement growth.
The data hasn't gotten better. The practice hasn't gotten more sophisticated. The investors have done fine.
When your tools are owned by people whose returns depend on your dependency, you get tools designed to retain you, not to develop your practice.
EveryAction acquired by Apax Partners ($80B fund). Organizing data serves investor returns.
Significant price increases post-acquisition. Reduced support for small organizations.
Can't build custom features. Features oriented toward large institutions, not grassroots.
Groundwork is built on a different premise: that the organizations doing this work should own the infrastructure, own the data, and build the features that good organizing practice actually requires. It is open source and available to groups across the ideological spectrum.
Modern tooling makes a production-quality custom build feasible in weeks, not years.
Supabase, Next.js, Vercel, Claude Code—production builds in (production builds in weeks, not years).
Estimated infrastructure cost. Open source, so any group can fork it, modify it, or run it independently.
Your Postgres database. Export anytime. No vendor lock-in.
Access to cross-org learning: what's working, where, and why. Built to connect to POLIS (Participation, Organizing, and Local Influence Study; McKenna, 2026, Harvard Dataverse, doi:10.7910/DVN/SCLKL7).
DUA opt-in (data de-identified)
Your team at a glance. See everyone's engagement, commitments, and what needs attention.
| Name | Team | Role | Activity (12 wks) | Next Commitment | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Santos | Northside | Team Lead | Bring 5 to training (Mar 15) | Pending | |
| James Chen | Northside | Canvasser | Follow up with Rosa (Mar 10) | Overdue | |
| Angela Torres | Westside | Team Lead | Host house meeting (Mar 18) | On Track | |
| David Kim | Eastside | New Vol | Attend training (Mar 15) | Pending | |
| Rosa Martinez | Northside | New Vol | — | No Commit |
Organizers build power through relationships. Capturing what matters after a 1-on-1, on the spot, so nothing gets lost and every conversation builds on the last.
"Met with Maria today, she's fired up about the school board race. She committed to bringing five people to the training next week..."
Commitments tracked to completion, not noted and forgotten.
"I'll bring 5 people"
Surfaces in queue
Broken commits flagged
Completion rates
Event-level data that helps organizers learn. Who's building leaders? Where are people flaking?
Last 30 days
| Event | Organizer | Flake | Retention | New Leaders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canvass Training | Maria S. | 12% | 67% | 3 |
| House Meeting | Angela T. | 8% | 71% | 2 |
| Phone Bank | James C. | 45% | 23% | 0 |
| Rally | David K. | 28% | 34% | 1 |
| 1:1 Blitz | Maria S. | 5% | 82% | 4 |
Core Leaders, Active Vols, Active Base
A practice that makes organizers better (not a reporting burden). The tool pre-populates all one-to-ones and events held that week, leaving space for reflection.
Coach receives push when submitted
Took a risk pushing Maria to co-lead the house meeting, she crushed it. Still avoiding the hard conversation with James about his follow-through...
"You took a real risk with Maria and it paid off. What did you see in her that made you believe she was ready for that?"
"What is James getting out of letting himself off the hook?"
See your whole team. Know who needs attention. Respond in seconds.
The organizing world has tried to build political power on rented infrastructure for 20 years. Groundwork is a chance to change that.
Have feedback? Share it on the next slideHelp shape Groundwork. What do you think?