Team4Tech’s Annual Celebration to Honor Our Collective Impact

On November 8, Team4Tech hosted our annual Lighthouses of Learning impact celebration. Together with 250 partners and supporters, we were thrilled to honor our collective impact in advancing education for employment worldwide.

Guests learned how Team4Tech has expanded our programming online and on the ground to scale our support for 900 education-focused NGOs operating in the world’s least-resourced communities with technology resources and evidence-based education practices.  Our community of education innovators are building skills for over 42 million learners across 90 countries. 

Spotlighting Outstanding Contributions to Our Work

At the celebration, we were humbled to honor the incredible work and partnership of Team4Tech’s 2024 honorees.

Team4Tech’s nonprofit partner Ek Tara works to empower over 1,100 girls living in the Topsi slums of Kolkata, India. Vinita Saraf, Co-Founder and Trustee of Ek Tara, noted in her remarks that “Ek Tara was founded on the belief that every girl, if given the opportunity, the right resources, and nurturing, can become a star. At Ek Tara, we celebrate every girl as a shining star.” The video below highlights Ek Tara’s critical mission and the impact of our partnership on amplifying their work:

A data scientist with our corporate partner, Logitech, Aarthi was an integral part of a 10-member Logitech team that created a career guidance mobile application for the India-based nonprofit Learning Links Foundation. The application developed by Aarthi and her Logitech colleagues has the potential to impact 40,000 students and 200 teachers with career pathway resources. 

Aarthi also volunteered on one of Team4Tech’s first micro-matching volunteer projects, delivered through our online Community of Practice. She collaborated with our nonprofit partner in Vietnam, Vietnet-ICT, to develop an AI curriculum for teachers. Aarthi developed an AI overview, curriculum framework, and nine detailed modules that Vietnet-ICT staff and teachers can adapt and localize to teach AI concepts.

The partnership with Team4Tech is awesome for us because it’s a symbiotic relationship. We are not just giving, we are getting so much. Our purpose at Logitech is to extend human potential in work and play. Nothing brings home extending human potential like our partnership with Team4Tech because they help us to leverage design thinking for community impact in multiple countries.”

— Hannake Faber, CEO of Logitech, in her remarks at the event

Hannake also noted that Logitech debuted this year as number 20 on the Forbes survey of best global employers and attributed the company’s partnership with Team4Tech as one of the initiatives helping them achieve this ranking.

The Guidewire Gives Back Program enables Guidewire employees to drive meaningful change in local communities where they live and work, focusing, in part, on supporting technology education for underserved communities and women. 
The impact of Guidewire employees in skilled volunteering projects with Team4Tech has been tremendous. The 35 employee volunteers from all over the world brought Guidewire’s values to life as they contributed nearly 2,500 volunteer service hours valued at over half a million dollars. In just one year, Team4Tech and Guidewire projects have impacted thousands of learners.

Thanks to Team4Tech, one Guidewire volunteer shared with me that this project was the most transformative experience of his life.”

—Mark Daniels, Director of Program Adoption for Guidewire Software

The House Family Foundation believes that education is the most important investment society can make. Their long-term partnership has delivered technology grants for our partner BUILD and unrestricted support to amplify Team4Tech’s impact. In his acceptance remarks, Dave House noted, “The House Family Foundation believes that education is the most important investment society can make. Capability, intelligence, grit, and drive are distributed evenly across humankind. However, opportunities are increasingly concentrated in limited areas. Our objective is to make sure that opportunities become more available where there is an opportunity gap. And that’s why Team4Tech has been important for us – because we believe in the work that they do, particularly in leveraging technology to build skills for young people to participate in the workforce.” 

Generous Support for Our Mission

So inspired by Team4Tech’s deep collaborations, our generous community contributed $250,000, which was matched by the generosity of the Hopper-Dean Foundation. Half a million dollars will directly amplify Team4Tech’s accelerator program, which delivers education-focused nonprofit organizations with access to:

• A global, online Community of Practice: We offer free courses, learning cohorts, toolkits, and resources, designed for nonprofit staff and teachers, all focused on strengthening organizational capacity and practices to build employability skills for learners. Community members can share best practices, learn together, and build meaningful connections. 
•  Facilitated Regional Hubs: Through our regional hubs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America, we provide hands-on support to NGO partners and contextually relevant resources, and we organize convenings for local networking, engagement, and knowledge-sharing.
•  Access to Skilled Volunteers and Educational Resource Partners: Through our corporate partnerships, we provide many formats of pro bono consulting support from skilled employee volunteers, ranging from short-term, virtual opportunities to immersive on-site opportunities. We also bring in educational resource providers to offer their solutions and knowledge resources to our community.
• Access to Funding, Amplification, and Coaching: Our global team of education experts provides ongoing coaching and strategic guidance for our nonprofit partners, including $600K in annual technology grants to approximately 40 strategic nonprofit partners. We showcase and amplify the impact of our partners through speaking engagements and other marketing support.

And while the match from the Hopper Dean Foundation has been met and, therefore, is closed, you can still donate to amplify our impact with our nonprofit partners. And if your company matches your gift, you can double your impact!

Thank you so much for being a part of our growing community that shares our vision of a world where all learners have access to an education that builds skills for high-quality employment.