As we close in on the 2020 election, there’s an enormous surge of civic tech enthusiasts and eager volunteer technologists seeking and try to counter the chaos. We today have a lot of opportunities to lift up and build community with the activists, organizers, and organizations that have been laying decades of groundwork on the most important social issues facing the world.

Hackathons can be one way to not only re-center these organizations and their increasingly important work, but onboard new people who are eager to learn, work, and channel their energy and multi-disciplinary talents productively in to learning about and joining this movement, and forging lasting relationships.

In this guide is a non-exhaustive list of templates and tips on how to run a civic or social issue hackathon. This is just one model that we’ve found helpful in organizing the Abortion Access Hackathons, assisting with the Debug Politics hackathons, and helping to bring social issues in to “regular” hackathons like Ether Hack.

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