In the Media

Philanthropy News Digest | May 17, 2023 | Interview

Daniel X Matz of Philanthropy News Digest spoke with Fruchterman about his latest ventures at Tech Matters, how technology and social entrepreneurship have changed over his career, and his plans to write a book on how to start a nonprofit tech company.

Alliance Magazine | April 13, 2023 | Article

The magazine reports on Tech Matters announcing its new status as an independent nonprofit at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, and highlights the organization’s milestones to date.

Solutions Insights Lab | February 23, 2023 | Interview with downloadable transcript

Skyler Reid asks Jim to describe the problem that he is addressing with his work (the fact that that great technology rarely gets to 95% of humanity because they don’t have enough money) and how he is responding to that problem.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy | January 11, 2022 | Article

Devex | April 13, 2021 | Article

TechCrunch | April 2, 2020 | Article

Engineering for Change | July 25, 2019 | Interview

Mr. Fruchterman answers Engineering for Change’s questions, “some in engrossing detail”.

TechCrunch | November 1, 2017 | Article

“Incredible potential can be unleashed by someone like Jim,” says Skoll’s Sally Osberg, “and the rising generation sees this potential. We see incredible talent that’s just as drawn to the nonprofits as they are to the commercial sectors.” Fruchterman’s example, more than his next single or home run, may be the most important platform he leaves the tech world.

Fast Company | April 2011 | Article with video clip

Human Rights Program Featured in Fast Company – “How Benetech Slays Monsters With Megabytes and Math” described how Benetech’s Human Rights Program specializes in cloud-based storage of corruption evidence and employs sophisticated statistical techniques that bring dictators to justice.

PBS NewsHour | March 25, 2011 | Video

Human Rights Program Featured on PBS NewsHour – This broadcast about Benetech and its Human Rights and Bookshare programs notes how Benetech’s Martus software is used to secure sensitive human rights data such as the type of information about abuses that have recently been documented in the Middle East. The story also notes that Benetech’s Bookshare library allows people with disabilities to access 95,000 copyrighted digital books in accessible formats.

PBS NewsHour | March 25, 2011 | Video

Human Rights Program Featured on PBS NewsHour – The PBS NewsHour broadcast this story, which explains that Benetech’s Martus software includes a “panic button” feature that allows users in threatening situations to delete all data and even the program itself with one keystroke. Unlike other “panic button” applications designed for cell phones, Martus allows users to securely back up their information to secure, remote, publicly available servers. This allows users to retrieve their data when it’s safe to do so.Data collected by Martus is used to hold perpetrators accountable for large scale human rights violations. “The data itself can help build a case against a regime, and in some cases may be as valuable as eyewitness testimony, proving documented patterns of unethical behavior by police or the leader himself,” PBS reports. “In Guatemala, which had a bloody civil war in the ’80s and ’90s, for example, Benetech’s program, called Martus, was used to help sift through a huge secret police archive that included records of people killed or disappeared. Two police officials were tried and convicted — so far — as a result of the information gathered by the software program, and analyzed by Benetech experts.”

San Francisco Chronicle | February 1, 2011 | Article

Jim Fruchterman Profiled – The article looks at Jim’s work as an engineer and his creation of Benetech. The story notes that Benetech only takes on projects where it sees the potential for change, applying the technology and business strategies of Silicon Valley to social needs.

“The status quo approach in philanthropy is incremental change,” Fruchterman told the Chronicle. “The nature of the tech industry is: How do we make people 5 times more effective? How do we give them capabilities they never had before?”

Foreign Policy Magazine | March 9, 2010 | Magazine Article

Story about HRDAG Chad Study – Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, cited in an article in Foreign Policy magazine, an HRDAG report on human rights violations in Chad. The HRDAG study, “State Coordinated Violence in Chad under Hissène Habré, A Statistical Analysis of Reported Prison Mortality in Chad’s DDS Prisons and Command Responsibility of Hissène Habré, 1982-1990,” demonstrated that former Chadian president Hissène Habré had detailed information about the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his state security force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).

The HRDAG report is based on thousands of documents generated by the DDS itself. The analysis could be critical in the long delayed prosecution of Habré who has been accused of killing and systematically torturing thousands of political opponents from 1982 to 1990.

Chronicle of Philanthropy | January 7, 2010 | Article

Features Comments From Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman about the future of nonprofit organizations –  “‘The for-profit whose job is only to make money or the nonprofit which is a charity, those are two poles. In reality there is an entire spectrum in between them,’ says Jim Fruchterman, chief executive of Benetech, a nonprofit technology organization in Palo Alto, Calif. In the next 10 years, he expects changes in federal and state laws to foster the development of L3C’s. ‘Someone should be able to operate a business and have a social mission without getting sued by shareholders for not making the maximum [amount of] money,’ he says.”

Smithsonian Magazine | September 22, 2009 | Magazine Article

Benetech Covered By Smithsonian Magazine –  “‘The for-profit whose job is only to make money or the nonprofit which is a charity, those are two poles. In reality there is an entire spectrum in between them,’ says Jim Fruchterman, chief executive of Benetech, a nonprofit technology organization in Palo Alto, Calif. In the next 10 years, he expects changes in federal and state laws to foster the development of L3C’s. ‘Someone should be able to operate a business and have a social mission without getting sued by shareholders for not making the maximum [amount of] money,’ he says.”

e-Campus News | April 30, 2009 | Online E-zine Article

Coverage of Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman’s address to the National Press Club.

BBC Business Press | April 2, 2009 | Radio Documentary

Coverage of Benetech’s Guatemalan National Police Archive Project – The BBC has aired an extensive two-part investigative report on the Guatemalan National Police Archive project entitled The Atrocity Archives. Part One | Part Two (Covers Benetech’s software)

PBS Frontline World | April 2008 | Interview In this interview with FRONTLINE/World correspondent Clark Boyd, Fruchterman talks about bringing the values of social entrepreneurship to his work, where his company can choose to develop products based on what is “important and right, as opposed to what makes money.”

Technology reporter Clark Boyd describes how one Silicon Valley nonprofit became involved in human rights work and how a simple database application has moved a country closer to finding justice after years of violence.

New York Times | April 2008 | Newspaper Article

Social Enterprise Story – Benetech was cited in a story about “hybrid” technology organizations that are defining a path between the nonprofit world and traditional for-profit ventures. Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman provided the lead quote for the article which appeared in the Technology section of the newspaper. The story also appeared in the International Herald Tribune and on the Slashdot web site. “There is a lot of discussion taking place right now about a whole new organization form around social enterprise,” said Fruchterman in the article. “Many of these efforts can make money; they will just never make enough to provide venture capital rates of return.”