US Digital Response

US Digital Response is a national nonpartisan nonprofit that helps governments, nonprofits, and public servant leaders respond to pressing public needs through modern technology.

USDR is composed of a network of more than 8,000 experts who serve those working in the public sector. The organization’s three foundational values are (1) working in the public interest and promoting openness, transparency, and accessibility, (2) maintaining humility and respect, and (3) having all volunteers and staff members adhere to a very strict code of conduct.

USDR’s work spans multiple program areas, with one of them being unemployment insurance. The organization has partnered with the Department of Labor and several workforce agencies to ensure that governments are distributing unemployment benefits in a timely and effective manner through minimum-code technology and human-centered design. USDR also works to reduce language barriers via translation services. A second program area regards federal grants, with team members helping to increase the efficiency of federal grant processing for public programs. For example, during the COVID pandemic, USDR helped process the substantially increased volume of grants from the CARES, ARPA, and IIJA policies.

In a third program area, the USDR Election Software Collaborative provides modern tools to election offices to help manage workers, candidate profiles, election help desks, voter wait times, and more. The final program area focuses on providing high-speed internet access by connecting people to the Affordable Connectivity Program and editing broadband maps.

Other services offered include user experience audits, user research, procurement and vendor evaluation, and data for decision-making. USDR has worked with more than 300 governments and nonprofits on 400 projects across 38 US states and territories.