Every year, nonprofits publish their annual reports. And every year, they tend to look pretty similar: glossy metrics, feel-good stories, a confident declaration that the mission is on track. We've done versions of that, too.
Today is our six year anniversary, and we decided to skip the traditional victory lap.
When I took the CEO seat at U.S. Digital Response a year ago, I asked myself a question that's been with me ever since: How is civic tech — and USDR specifically — actually helping governments build trust in our democracy?
That question led us somewhere more honest than a traditional year-in-review allows. So instead of a highlight reel, we published a progress report. It's called USDR in Review, and it reflects on what we've learned across nearly 700 projects and over five years of showing up for state, local, and tribal governments when they needed help most.
Download USDR in Review
What we got right
The numbers tell a real story:
- 96 percent of our government partners would work with us again.
- 81 percent would recommend us to peers.
- Nearly half of our partners have already come back for additional projects.
- Our volunteers, the equivalent of 121 full-time employees deployed since 2020, have helped deliver government services to 50 percent of Americans.
We're proud of that.
What we're still figuring out
But here's the thing: putting out fires is fundamentally different from fireproofing the building.
USDR was built for speed. That's still one of our greatest strengths. When a government is in need, we can deploy expert technical teams quickly. Not the months a traditional procurement might take. But sustainable government modernization, the kind that changes how agencies operate long after we've completed a project, requires something different. It requires patience, deep partnership, and a clear-eyed understanding of the structural constraints governments actually face.
When we surveyed partners about barriers to building digital capacity, three themes came up again and again: organizational silos that fragment technical solutions, cultural barriers that make it hard to design around user needs, and a lack of sustained investment in the roles and procurement practices that enable long-term ownership. Many partners rated their own digital capacity at three out of five: enough to launch something, but not enough to sustain it.
That capacity gap is exactly what we're built to fill. It's also what we're working hardest to understand.
What we're building toward
As we look forward into our sixth year, we're measuring not just outputs (projects completed, volunteers deployed) but outcomes: actual change in governments' digital capacity. We're testing new delivery models, like workshops and short consulting engagements that don't require massive commitments but create real, lasting value. We're scaling what works, while exploring cost-recovery approaches that keep our services accessible without compromising sustainability.
We're also being transparent about what's hard.
Why this matters right now
State and local governments are being asked to do significantly more with significantly less. New federal policies demand rapid implementation. Budget constraints are intensifying. And we know that reliable digital service delivery is directly linked to stronger public trust in government.
This is the moment USDR was built for. Not to celebrate what we've accomplished, but to be clear-eyed about where we're headed.
If you care about government that works for everyone, and the organizations working to make that possible, I hope you'll read what we put together.
Download USDR in Review
Tina J. Walha is CEO of U.S. Digital Response, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that partners with state, local, and tribal governments to modernize essential digital services.
