History and impact
Our history
DharmaTech was founded in 2002 by Sarmeesha Reddy, a former Motorola engineer. Sarmeesha left the Fortune 500 world with one goal in mind: to use her computer engineering skills to help community organizations to be more effective in their work. Knowing that she wanted DharmaTech to be about the mission and not the money, she applied for nonprofit status with the IRS. DharmaTech began to operate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2004.
In 2007, DharmaTech moved out of Sarmeesha’s basement and into its current office in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Sarmeesha began to hire staff, seeking out individuals with talent and experience, as well as a strong commitment to community activism and an understanding of the critical role that technology must play.
Today, DharmaTech has a national board of directors, a formal advisory board, and a staff of six with a collective 70 years of computer programming and software engineering experience. Every member of the DharmaTech staff also has nonprofit experience – ranging from working as an organizer or fundraiser to donating time as a board member or volunteer.
Our impact
DharmaTech has provided technology solutions, including open source websites and databases, to approximately 40 nonprofits in Utah and across the nation, including the Utah Avalanche Center, Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah), Spy Hop Productions, Native Americans in Philanthropy, and Harvard University.
The tools and services we provide help nonprofits of varying sizes and missions to:
- Save staff time and minimize technology-related frustrations.
- Reduce their total cost of ownership and yield a higher return on investment.
- Improve community outreach, education, and advocacy efforts.
- Generate more online revenue through donations and sales.
- Streamline operations through use of integrated systems.
- Have access to a system (one that cannot be purchased “off the shelf”) that is specifically designed to execute their program work and accomplish their missions.
DharmaTech is committed to giving back to the nonprofit and open source technology communities. We create products and systems geared for small to medium-sized nonprofits that can be reused, and that scale as an organization grows and matures. We freely and openly share all of our software contributions.
