OUR STORY
Anyone who works in the nonprofit sector knows two things to be true:
It seems there is never enough funding or other resources to do the work that is necessary.
Any social reform is far too complicated for any single organization to tackle alone.
In light of these two challenges, the Open Gov Hub was founded in 2012 to break through traditional silos between different sectors and organizations and to catalyze sharing and collaboration needed to rise to the global challenges of our time, particularly related to good governance and opening up governments.
By bringing together researchers, data analysts, communicators, technologists, lawyers, journalists, and more, we began to uncover the tremendous potential of this themed model of co-location and collaboration, particularly as we worked on opengov related issues in many different countries and contexts.
The year of our founding was a key moment in time. A window of opportunity appeared to capitalize on the momentum around a new global movement for open government. This term began to take off around 2011, when President Obama announced the creation of the Open Government Partnership at the UN General Assembly that year in response to the historic Arab Spring and other people-powered social movements worldwide. At the same time as this movement, an exponential growth in the number of physical hubs, such as coworking spaces, incubators, and resource centers, began to be established around the globe.
With both a clear vision and the serendipity of the commitment and needed resources coming together between our two founding non-governmental organizations — Global Integrity and Development Gateway — the Open Gov Hub was launched and a new vehicle for social impact was born.
The first version of Open Gov Hub existed in 2013 and 2014 in the old offices of Development Gateway at the Organization of American States building. This 1.5 year incubation period gave time for our founders to recruit early tenant members and to find an appropriate space for the vision they had in mind for the Hub. Then, on April 1, 2014, the second version of Open Gov Hub was launched at our current 20,000 custom-built space in downtown Washington D.C.
Since those early days, the membership, programs, and collaborations of Open Gov Hub have grown tremendously. We invite you to explore the rest of our site to learn more.
