June 21, 2017
We are looking for two Fellows to support our mission to help government become more collaborative, inventive, and responsive to San Franciscans. Fellows will work with changemakers and innovators in City Departments to support our team’s work on Mayor Lee’s priority to improve the safety, cleanliness, and livability of San Francisco. Fellowship is targeted to start September 13, 2017.
December 15, 2015
Calling all civic technologists and change makers! The Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI) is opening a call for two new Mayor’s Innovation Fellows to join us for a one-year fellowship embedded in City government.
July 23, 2015
The Asian Art Museum seeks to provide an even deeper and more enjoyable visitor experience through prototyping exhibition elements and inviting visitor feedback as part of our exhibition interpretation planning and design process.
July 13, 2015
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is the municipal water, power and sewer services provider for the City and County of San Francisco. We generate and deliver power to hundreds of municipal buildings in San Francisco, including libraries, schools, fire stations, recreation centers, and office buildings. While this power is 100% greenhouse gas-free, the City’s large facility inventory brings with it a responsibility to use this energy as efficiently as possible. San Francisco has invested for many years in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in these public buildings, and the City is saving over $5 million each year in energy costs as a result.
June 29, 2015
Car sharing is a simple idea that’s already helping San Francisco achieve environmental and transportation system goals as it provides residents and businesses a way to reduce their parking headaches and transportation expenses while maintaining access to “just enough car” for errands and other trips. Research has repeatedly shown that every shared vehicle available to users results in private cars being taken off the road, with conservative estimates of from 7 to 15 vehicles taken off the streets for every shared vehicle.
April 24, 2015
On January 31, 2014, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) asked its customers to voluntarily curtail water consumption by 10%. To facilitate achieving this goal, the SFPUC Communications Division developed a multi-lingual and edgy public education campaign that successfully promoted water conservation through behavioral changes and plumbing upgrades for residents and businesses.
March 24, 2015
The Mayor’s Innovation Fellowship in the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI) is a novel one-year program that looks to utilize entrepreneurial minds from all sectors to help San Francisco tackle challenging civic issues and be more accountable, accessible and responsive to residents. Meet our 2015 Fellows!
July 11, 2014
The Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI) is opening a call for two new Mayor’s Innovation Fellows. MOCI champions new ideas and approaches that make our City government more accountable, accessible and responsive to the residents of San Francisco. This novel one-year program looks to utilize entrepreneurial minds from all sectors to help San Francisco tackle challenging civic issues, including open data standards for social services, entrepreneurship in residence, workforce innovation, and much more.
November 20, 2013
In October, we announced the opening of applications for our firstEntrepreneurship-in-Residence program. We received hundreds of applications from an impressive group of world-class startups. After reviewing the teams and applications, we were able to narrow them down to 11 semi-finalists.
October 12, 2013
A new platform for civic innovation has arrived. The City and County of San Francisco is proud to announce that it will be hosting a feature event — called a “Datapalooza” — on October 17th to highlight local innovators that are transforming open data into valuable new products and services. This celebratory showcase will include ten entrepreneurs that answered a call-to-action from the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, the California Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development, and the San Francisco Office of Civic Innovation.
September 06, 2013
Mayor Edwin M. Lee, in collaboration with the White House and other strategic partners, today announced San Francisco’s Entrepreneurship-in-Residence (EIR) program. “We need the top entrepreneurs to work with us on opportunities that are actual pain points and needs of government. San Francisco’s EIR program advances our role and vision as the Innovation Capital of the World,” said Mayor Ed Lee.
Civic Bridge
Bridging the Public and Private Sectors on Critical Challenges
Civic Bridge recruits private sector professionals to volunteer their time to work alongside government employees on critical City issues. Pro-bono, private-sector support can increase the City’s capacity to identify and analyze pain points, provide agile and iterative solutions, as well as increase interest in cross-sector collaborations. Civic Bridge is a cohort-based program, the program builds off of the example set by a number of Cities such as Chicago’s Civic Consulting Alliance and San Jose’s Silicon Valley Talent Partnership.
Are you an industry partner interested in joining our Civic Bridge program?
Please contact us.
Are you a government employee interested in replicating our Civic Bridge program? Download our program blueprint PDF for detailed instructions on how you can launch Civic Bridge in your city.
Civic Bridge History
In 2015, MOCI piloted Civic Bridge with five private-sector teams. Volunteers used skills including data collection and analysis, visual interface design, and management strategy to help tackle problems like the surge in 911 call volume and how to search for affordable housing online.
In fall 2017, Civic Bridge expanded to include 12 challenges ranging from tackling how to increase Medi-Cal enrollment and retention of the homeless population to designing the permitting process for the newly opened Office of Cannabis.
In 2019, Civic Bridge expanded to include a new one-day model called Day of Service. Similar to the traditional 16-week Civic Bridge cohort program, Day of Service matched private sector volunteer teams with City Departments to tackle a civic challenge. During the course of one day, ten public-private partnership teams worked on ten unique challenges facing the City and its residents.
Case Study:
Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development + Google
A team of volunteers from Google helped the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) do user research and project scoping for a new digital public service that will let users search and apply for city-funded housing programs online, saving the project team time and money as they move to build the new service -- and produce a more simple, easy-to-use product. Browse the new affordable housing portal.
Why Join Civic Bridge?
For City Departments
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Access to unique skills and expertise
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Bring the benefit of new insights, approaches, methodologies and ongoing interactions with pro-bono teams to department staff
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Reduce reduce time and costs of delivering services to residents
For Industry and Nonprofit Partners
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Recruit and retain top talent
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Facilitate leadership development of high performers
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Build networks and learn to work with City Departments
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Cultivate public goodwill in the region where employees live
For Volunteers
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Apply your skills to a crucial challenge in your community
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Learn about local government
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Build lasting relationships with members of your team, Civic Bridge pro-bono team alumni, and city staff
From Civic Bridge Partners
“The team from Google that came to DEM [Department of Emergency Management] through Civic Bridge were a pleasure to work with and of tremendous assistance. Their analysis is helping 9-1-1 make operational changes and deploy resources in ways that will meet the changing needs of our evolving city. The real good that came from this project was not just the Googlers’ analysis and recommendations, but also the on-going benefit to existing staff from the interactions and discussions that came from this collaboration.”
--Anne Kronenberg
Executive Director, Department of Emergency Management
From Civic Bridge Partners
“The team from Google that came to DEM [Department of Emergency Management] through Civic Bridge were a pleasure to work with and of tremendous assistance. Their analysis is helping 9-1-1 make operational changes and deploy resources in ways that will meet the changing needs of our evolving city. The real good that came from this project was not just the Googlers’ analysis and recommendations, but also the on-going benefit to existing staff from the interactions and discussions that came from this collaboration.”
--Anne Kronenberg
Executive Director, Department of Emergency Management
Select Civic Bridge Partners
