Benetech, Understood Founding Partner
Benetech, a Palo Alto, California–based nonprofit, empowers communities with software for social good. Our work transforms how people with disabilities read and learn, makes it safer for human rights defenders to pursue truth and justice, and connects people to the services they need to live and prosper. We’re constantly pursuing the next big social impact. We achieve our mission serving as a bridge between the social sector and Silicon Valley to identify needs and software solutions that can drive positive social change.
Founded in 1989, Benetech operates on the belief that the benefits of technology must reach all of humanity. The organization’s business model aims to create financially sustainable projects that measure success in the number of lives changed for the better. Benetech’s program areas — education, human rights, and poverty alleviation — and its innovation engine, Benetech Labs, offer the greatest social impact on funds invested.
Benetech’s education work is focused on one thing: make learning inclusive for everyone around the world. Benetech provides e-books to people with reading barriers through Bookshare, the world’s largest accessible online library; runs the DIAGRAM Center, an R&D organization that provides technology resources for making educational content accessible to all students; offers a digital math platform, Mathshare, that makes it easier for all students to do math and show their work online; and drives systemic change in the publishing industry through Born Accessible, an initiative to make all e-books fully accessible when they are first created.
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