DemTech Commons is the Foundation's signature infrastructure programme — a shared, low-cost civic technology stack that powers our own research and is offered freely or near-freely to partner NGOs across Pakistan. Built once, applied across every focus area.
Rules-of-procedure trackers · polling-station observation · returning-officer compliance
Citizen-facing portal · response tracking · public compliance index
District-level price monitors · product-test repository · forum case tracker
Anonymous grievance intake · industrial-accident tracker · wage surveys
District exposure maps · flood-vulnerability indices · community data apps
Pakistan has hundreds of small NGOs doing essential rights, transparency and service-delivery work — most without the budget for custom software. DemTech absorbs that cost once, on behalf of the sector.
Each tool is designed, hardened and maintained by a small in-house team — saving partner NGOs the cost and risk of bespoke development.
Eligible NGOs apply through DemTech Commons. Approved partners get hosted access, training and Urdu support — at a tiny fraction of commercial cost.
The DemTech codebase is open where it doesn't compromise partner safety. Where personal data is handled, we publish the data model and ethics protocol publicly.
DemTech Commons accepts rolling applications from registered NGOs working on rights, transparency, service delivery, environmental justice or labour. Approval normally takes 4–6 weeks.
Registered Pakistani not-for-profits (Society, Trust or Section 42) with at least 12 months of operating history and a public commitment to non-partisan civic work. Coalitions and informal collectives may apply through a registered fiscal sponsor.
Hosted access to the relevant DemTech tool(s), onboarding training in English and Urdu, technical support during business hours, and the ability to brand citizen-facing pages with your organisation's identity.
Most tools are free for approved partner NGOs. A small number of high-cost services (e.g. SMS gateway-dependent tools) recover marginal cost only. The Foundation never charges margin on DemTech access.
A wider, more diverse civic ecosystem; richer national datasets aggregated across partner deployments (with explicit consent); and a stronger evidence base for our own research — which feeds back into better tools.
Use the application form on the DemTech Toolkit page. You'll need your registration certificate, a brief description of how you would use the tool, and contact details for two civic-society referees.