This article from the New York Times Inside the Democratic Disaster That Didn’t Happen in November by Shane Goldmacher was an interesting and also harrowing read. It felt like a chickens-coming-home-to-roost moment, having read Micah L. Silfry’s blog post Living With VANxiety: The Present and Future of Progressive Movement Tech last year.
Both articles are fascinating and you should read them in their entirety, but here are a couple of key points from each:
- In April 2024, Micah L. Silfry gave a history of NGP VAN, which is software used by the Democratic Party, and how it came to be owned by a private equity firm.
- In March 2025, the NYT described how NGP VAN needed an “extraordinary intervention” from software engineers to keep it running through the 2024 presidential campaign.
The NYT article noted that several Democratic officials had complained about the effects of “cost-cutting, layoffs and underinvestment since the purchase.”
Micah Silfry’s post posed this question: “Is there something about the economics of political tech development that makes private equity takeovers inevitable?”
That’s been on our mind at Raise HECK too, although we view the question through the lens of nonprofit technology rather than specifically political technology. In our 5+ years of helping nonprofits choose and use the best technology to fit their missions, one of the common reasons organizations seek our help is because their solution’s future was thrown into doubt after an acquisition–often by private equity.
A fascinating keynote speech at BridgeTECH 2024 by Grady McConnell, Managing Director at Raymond James, educated us about how widespread private equity investment is in nonprofit tech companies. The short answer is: it’s quite widespread, and has become more so in the last several years.
Another thing we’ve been wondering is: can nonprofits have it all? Can they have stability in their chosen software, meaning that it won’t be sunsetted or discontinued, and also have innovation and growth? Can nonprofit software companies innovate and make their solutions keep up with the astounding pace of technology if they don’t have a big infusion of cash from private equity?
We believe the answer can be yes, but how? This is a question that many people are trying to answer. One place to learn and discuss is at #25NTC, the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Our friends Peter Genuardi, Watt Hamlett, and Maureen Wallbeoff will be leading a session called Nonprofit software: How is it funded, and is that good? Here’s the description:
In the last 3 decades there has been a massive proliferation of nonprofit software options with an accompanying cycle of acquisitions, product sunsetting, new products being created, and the cycle repeats. That means nonprofits may invest deeply in a solution only to feel like the rug has been pulled out from under them. It is important to understand what is driving this cycle of competition, acquisition, and sunsetting. Venture capital, being a public company, private equity firm ownership, co-op models, and individual ownership by a person all have their various pressures, pros and cons, and outcomes. The big question is: is this actually good for nonprofits? Are we truly seeing innovation from competition, or are nonprofits spending big bucks on constant software evaluations and migrations? While this panel discussion will not have all the answers, we will seek to understand the questions. We hope this discussion will help the nonprofit tech community gain understanding of the landscape and lead to ideas about how to make software sustainable.
If you’re headed to #25NTC April 16-18 in Baltimore, make sure to check out this session!