About Portland Digital Corps

Portland Digital Corps was a short-term civic tech sprint that ran from March to June 2025, connecting tech volunteers with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations in the Portland metro area to solve digital problems—fast, collaboratively, and with care.

Why this, why now?

This project came out of a moment of transition. I found myself with some unexpected time and started thinking about how to use that space in a way that felt meaningful. I kept coming back to the same question:

"What can I do with the skills I already have that might actually help someone right now?"

Portland Digital Corps was one answer. It wasn't a new org or a big moonshot. It was a lightweight, short-term effort to bring people together and help local orgs make progress on the kinds of digital challenges that often get ignored or postponed. The work was real, the needs were real, and we just wanted to help.

Who Was Behind This

Portland Digital Corps was founded in March 2025 by Ron Bronson. He organized Design For The Public 24, a civic design conference in Portland in fall 2024, and was formerly Head of Design at 18F, where he spent seven years.

Ron has deep roots in public interest tech and has worked at all levels of government to improve how services are designed and delivered. He's built and led teams inside public agencies, advised on digital strategy and infrastructure modernization, and worked with mission-driven orgs across the country.

He also serves as President of AIGA Portland, where he helped launch PDX Design Month, and recently taught service design at the University of Michigan. This project reflected the kind of work he's most drawn to: practical, collaborative, and focused on getting useful things into the hands of people doing good work.

A different kind of volunteering

Volunteering doesn't always mean stacking boxes or cleaning parks. Designers, developers, researchers, and product folks have critical skills—but many local orgs don't have access to them. This project connected the dots.

Maybe an organization's donation form was broken. Maybe their site hadn't been touched in five years. Maybe they were trying to decide whether to adopt a new tool. We helped scope the problem, figure out what was possible, and—if it was a fit—built a team to help.

We didn't do long-term maintenance, marketing, or fundraising—but we could improve accessibility, simplify a workflow, or untangle a backend mess. Sometimes we could even prototype something new. Our focus was on public interest tech and small-but-impactful wins.

How we worked

Short sprints (4–8 weeks) with clearly scoped goals
Cross-functional teams of experienced volunteers
Participatory design methods with org involvement throughout
Documentation and handoff at the end of every project

What we drew from

Delivery mindset from 18F and USDS
Service design practice refined through years of government and nonprofit work
Collaborative spirit that's kept civic tech going even when institutions don't

The sprint format

Portland Digital Corps was always designed to be short-term. It started in March 2025 and wrapped up in June 2025 with a final celebration on July 10th. This wasn't meant to be a permanent organization—it was an experiment in what you can accomplish when you just try something, ask for help, and bring people together around a shared goal.

Over those few months, we helped 6 different organizations with digital projects and engaged over 100 people through events, volunteering, and communications. For something that was mostly built over a weekend, it proved what's possible when you focus on action over planning.