NYC Campaign Finance Board and Method, 2013
Written by Art Chang. Contributors to this post include Sarah Evans, Dan Getelman, and Hendrick Townley. Thanks to Jaime-Jin Lewis, Jessica Cole, Aidan Feldman, Noel Hidalgo, and Nathan Storey for your advice and feedback.
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Lessons from transforming NYC’s campaign finance system — and why the “gift economy” is not the answer
In our previous post, I described how NYC transformed its campaign finance system between 2009 and 2017, eliminating compliance violations that were threatening local democracy. The transformation worked: by 2017, 94% of candidates were using NYC Votes Contribute, and credit card violations had virtually disappeared.
What lessons from this story can other administrations replicate?
The “Gift Economy” Reality Check
Tech companies — Pivotal Labs, Method, and my own venture studio Tipping Point Partners — contributed significant time and expertise without payment. This was voluntary, mission-driven work that happened because of unique circumstances that resemble today’s challenges:
A crisis moment that threatened democracy itself
Personal relationships between board members and industry leaders
Companies with strong civic missions and capacity to contribute
A specific, time-bound project with clear impact
Alignment of multiple stakeholders at exactly the right moment
The hard truth. You can’t build a sustainable government technology practice on volunteerism. It doesn’t scale. It’s not fair to ask private companies to subsidize what should be core government functions. And it creates dependencies on external goodwill rather than internal capacity.
What government actually needs: An internal technology team at City Hall with the expertise, authority, and resources to lead digital transformation across agencies. This team should…
Have deep technical expertise comparable to private sector teams
Work as peers with agency leadership, not as an IT support function
Own the product and technology strategy for civic infrastructure
Have the authority to set standards and enforce best practices
Build internal capacity rather than depend on external vendors
Proven models for building iterative, people-first digital service teams in government already exist. Precedents, such as the U.S. Digital Service, 18F, UK GDS, and, closer to home, New Jersey’s Office of Innovation, have demonstratively improved people’s lives while saving billions for other initiatives.
The gift economy model worked for NYC Votes because we treated it as a one-time transformation with explicit knowledge transfer and sustainability planning. But it’s not a model for ongoing government operations.
Open Source As The Sustainable Alternative
While the gift economy model isn’t replicable, open source offers a sustainable path for government to work with external teams.
By releasing everything as open source, we created opportunities that go far beyond the original project:
For government:
Build once, reuse everywhere: Other cities can adopt and adapt the code without starting from scratch
Continuous improvement: External developers can contribute enhancements and bug fixes
Transparency: The public can see exactly how systems work
Reduced vendor lock-in: Any qualified developer can work on the codebase
Lower long-term costs: Shared infrastructure means shared maintenance burden
For external contributors:
Civic impact without procurement: Developers can contribute to public infrastructure without navigating RFPs
Portfolio building: Companies and individuals get credit for civic contributions
Technical challenges: Government problems often require interesting technical solutions
Community building: Open source creates networks of practitioners across jurisdictions
The key difference: Open source doesn’t require ongoing pro bono work. It creates an ecosystem where government maintains and owns core systems with internal staff, external contributors can add value when it makes sense for them, everyone benefits from shared infrastructure, and contributions are voluntary but not required for the system to function.
This is the replicable model: Internal government teams building and maintaining core systems using open source tools and practices, with the option for external collaboration when it adds value.
Open source also solved critical legal challenges we faced: Who owns the IP when private companies build software for government without payment? What about errors and omissions liability? Open source licenses provided clear answers with legally recognized disclaimers and “as-is” provisions.
The Replicable Playbook
Here’s what any new administration should do:
1. Start with mission, not features. What civic function is under attack or underperforming? What measurable outcome would signal success? And critically: what’s the root cause, not just the symptom? We could have hired more auditors or added more training — that would have addressed symptoms. Instead, we fixed the root cause: regulations designed for paper being forced onto digital transactions.
2. Relentless focus on the end user and frontline worker. Focusing on people, the humans running for office and supporting candidates, puts administrative priorities where they belong, out of sight.
3. Build an internal technology team at City Hall. Don’t depend on volunteerism or traditional vendors. Create a team with authority, expertise, and resources to lead transformation. This is the sustainable foundation.
4. Assemble experts with cross-domain fluency. We required everyone to work in a “blended team” process. Find people with deep domain knowledge in each critical function — campaign finance, design, engineering, program management — and require each domain to become fluent in adjacent domains.
5. Create collaborative culture. Traditional government IT procurement creates adversarial dynamics: specs, bids, contracts, then negotiating over scope. We threw that out. CFB staff and external consultants worked as peers with shared ownership, daily standups, continuous knowledge transfer, and trust over contracts. Eric Friedman’s leadership made this possible.
6. Design for sustainability from day one. Knowledge transfer must be continuous, not an afterthought. External talent should augment internal capacity, not replace it. By 2013, CFB staff owned the platform and could maintain, debug, and evolve it.
7. Use open source by default. It’s not just about transparency — it’s an organizational mechanism that enables sustainable collaboration without procurement delays or vendor lock-in.
8. Use industry-standard, open architecture. No proprietary frameworks. Build systems that any qualified developer can maintain. Make technology decisions that outlast any single administration.
9. Don’t wait for regulatory reform. Translate existing regulations into code. Make compliance automatic. Turn policy into product features. This transforms user experience without requiring regulatory changes.
10. Integrate, don’t bolt on. NYC Votes Contribute was fully integrated into CFB’s disclosure system, audit workflows, and matching funds calculations. Integration drives adoption because it eliminates friction.
11. Attack root causes, not symptoms. Ask “why” repeatedly until you understand the fundamental problem. Then fix that, not its surface manifestations.
12. Lead with courage. Amy Loprest put her career on the line to pursue this transformation. She made space for her team to take ownership. That leadership was the foundation of everything else.
The Bottom Line
Digital transformation in government isn’t about technology — it’s about organizational transformation enabled by technology. The NYC Votes success factors weren’t technical breakthroughs. They were organizational and leadership challenges.
The tools exist. The talent is available. The model is proven.
What’s needed is the leadership to create the conditions for success — and the courage to see it through. But that leadership must build sustainable internal capacity, not depend on external miracles.
That’s what Amy Loprest showed us at the CFB. That’s what any administration could replicate — if they build the right foundation.
This transformation would not have been possible without the vision and courage of the CFB Board and CFB Executive Director Amy Loprest, the orchestration and leadership of Eric Friedman , and the contributions of many others including Rob Mee , Edward Hieatt, Josh Knowles, Michael Schubert, Sam Coward, Joe Masilotti, David Lipkin, Mehera O’Brien, Andi Cheung, Narguess Noshirvani, Rusty Munro, Baykal Askar, Michael Carlson, Samantha Perez, Christopher Dragotakes, Daniel Grippi, Evan G., Maria Rabinovich, Nathan Storey, Joe Leo, Matt Sollars, Onida Coward Mayers, and the teams at Def Method, Pivotal Labs, Method, and Tipping Point Partners.
I am a member of the Tech Mayor project, a group of civic tech people advocating that NYC build government tech in-house for a more affordable, faster, and fairer city. Interested in following our work? Join our mailing list to stay up to date.