At Grameen Foundation, an International Nonprofit Becomes a Software Developer Capital Business (06/09/13) Steven Overly The Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit that provides healthcare to pregnant women in developing countries, has developed Mobile Technology for Community Health (Motech), an open source software platform that nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, and humanitarian groups are using to address pandemics such as tuberculosis and HIV. "We’re a nonprofit developing software that we hope other nonprofits will build on top of," says Grameen Foundation's John Tippett. Grameen's Steve Wright notes, "at the highest level, what we’re doing is helping these organizations be more efficient and more effective in the same way any well-funded business would be more efficient or effective with technology.” The Grameen Foundation also has developed TaroWorks, a program that enables humanitarian organizations to create customized surveys. The organizations produce questionnaires designed to collect information about the people they aim to assist. Field workers then employ mobile phones or computers to perform the surveys and submit responses. Wright says TaroWorks helps organizations make decisions about the communities they serve and the development programs they offer based on tangible evidence. "We want them to build products and services that are useful to the poor, based on data," he says. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-it/at-grameen-foundation-an-intern...