Fellowship Spotlight: Taylor Fang

The following was written by Taylor Fang as a part of the 2022 TechShift Summer Fellowship program.

Although some people think about politicians and lobbyists when they hear “politics,” I think about my parents. As first-generation immigrants, they’ve spoken from personal experience about how rare and special the right to vote and be civically outspoken in politics is. They’ve encouraged me to be politically engaged. 

 Thus, I was super excited to work at a political engagement startup this past summer. I had the chance to intern at Impactive (impactive.io) with the support of TechShift’s Summer Fellowship Program. Impactive, backed by YCombinator and Higher Ground Labs, is an all-in-one hub for digital organizing. Impactive is used by over 1,000 progressive campaigns, advocacy organizations, and unions. Its software tool includes features like peer-to-peer texting, broadcast texting, phone banking, and more.

Impactive landing page screenshot. Image source: Impactive website

I was drawn to Impactive because I believe we need more technology like this in our world. At a time when people are becoming increasingly distrustful of and distant from systems of government, Impactive represents a vision of all people in society organizing and mobilizing for change as part of civic movements. I knew I wanted to work at a social impact organization this summer to help do good in the world, and was super lucky to be able to join Impactive with the support of TechShift.

I’m really excited about the mission and vision of Impactive as a centralized platform for organizing and mobilizing the progressive movement—which really comes down to leveraging the power of technology to scale political movements and engage people across the country. It’s incredible how many use cases Impactive solves for and how widely the app is trusted by nonprofits, campaigns, unions, and organizations. 

Impactive landing page statistics on impact, clients, and other metrics. Image source: Impactive website

Over the course of 10 weeks at Impactive, I worked on a wide variety of projects: including data analysis and generating visualizations, research, product design and management, and strategy. The internship was fully virtual, but I still felt connected to the team through weekly wins meetings and other team socials. One of my substantial projects was a nonprofit go-to-market research deliverable, which included a 6-page insights document, a database of 57 competitors with details on product offering and differentiation, and a market map. This project will help Impactive’s current expansion into the nonprofit space, so they can use their tech to aid more social good causes.

Market map visual I created of nonprofit digital fundraising tools and their market positioning, color-coded with brief explainers

Section of the digital fundraising database I created with details on most competitors

I also helped clean up Impactive usage data and metrics, including analysis of clients’ spending, lifetime value, and usage metrics. I made spreadsheets that are responsive and can be easily updated in the future just by pasting in more data. Other work I did included research on client engagement and retention, pricing decisions, setting up Hotjar, and referral motivation.

Screenshots of various research projects I worked on: competitor pricing analysis, client engagement and retention, and user incentivization

Through this internship, I learned that I really like roles where I get to work on a wide variety of projects and take on many flexible roles, especially those that exercise creative muscles. I felt lucky to take on a lot of substantial projects during my internship. I got to see many different parts of running and scaling a social impact startup, and now feel more confident that this is an area I hope to work in in the future. During the school year and next summer, I especially want to learn more about nonprofits working in international development and human rights, which is something I became interested in during my research for Impactive. Some of my other key learnings are the following: ask for help early and often, document your process and make your data easily sustainable in the future, and present data in a variety of formats for different purposes.

Impactive team Zoom photo. Source: Impactive website

Overall, this internship was truly an incredible experience, and I not only learned a lot, but also had a lot of fun. To students who are just starting out in the world of political and nonprofit tech (like I am), my advice is to talk to as many people in the organization as you can near the start of your internship or job. You will be able to learn a lot about their work, view of the organization, and you can turn to them later for help or advice.

Throughout the summer, the TechShift fellowship gave me so much support and inspiration. Going into the fellowship, I wasn’t super sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that nearly every week we would have a group event: ranging from fellowship-information sessions to small-group speaker events to Masterminds sessions (biweekly meetings to share challenges and advice.) These events have been a nice structure that prompts me to reflect on my work, check what I want to improve, and celebrate wins. 

Through Masterminds, I’ve actually learned to share my struggles more and to listen to others’ advice—which is difficult to do but something I’ll definitely take with me after the fellowship. I’ve become friends with the other fellows and have felt supported by their close listening and recommendations. Their work is super cool and they have shown me that there are a lot of possible paths in social impact tech!

My advice to future TechShift fellows is to: first, take advantage of all the resources provided in the fellowship and connect with everyone you meet through the program. And second—make sure to add all events to your calendar as early as possible and double check the time zones. It’s really cool to have fellows from all over the country (and sometimes internationally), but sometimes it can also make scheduling tricky!

I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity this past summer, and am especially grateful for the support of the TechShift fellowship to make it possible! Thank you to Impactive and to my supervisor, an amazing mentor and inspiration, Katy Dolan. Thanks to the other fellows in my cohort: Pearl, Leo, and Shalin. I’ve learned so much from you all and genuinely look forward to our Masterminds conversations. And lastly, a huge shoutout to Michelle Jakab, our cohort leader: for offering advice, for being a communication and scheduling master, and for incredible support!