Cash
The simplest path. Annual unrestricted contributions that fund fellow stipends, program operations, and the Open Library. Tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
A multi-year partnership with Game for America. Sponsor a fellow seat. Contribute pro bono engineering. Co-develop a public-interest project with a host nonprofit or public agency. Tell your team and your candidates that the craft they spent years sharpening can also serve.
Your studio has talent. Your studio has tools. Your studio has the institutional muscle to ship things that move millions of people. The civic sector has the problems and the audiences that will benefit from those skills the most.
A Partner Studio relationship gives your team a structured way to put that craft to work in service of public-interest outcomes — without you taking on a nonprofit-management burden you didn’t sign up for. We do the legal, programmatic, and evaluation work. You bring the muscle.
Each with a clear contribution and clear recognition. We’ll help you pick the right fit in a 30-minute conversation. No hard sell — some studios should just stay donors or volunteers, and that’s fine.
For independent and mid-size studios who want to support the field and stay close to the work, with a manageable annual commitment.
For mid-size to large studios ready to engage substantively. Most Partner Studios start here. You’ll be active in the program and visible in our work.
For studios who want to shape this field. Founding Studios join us for the inaugural cohort and define what an industry-civic partnership can look like.
Most Partner Studios mix all three. Cash is the cleanest, but pro bono time and sponsored seats often deliver more value to your studio — and we’ll help you figure out the right blend.
The simplest path. Annual unrestricted contributions that fund fellow stipends, program operations, and the Open Library. Tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Underwrite a specific seat in the cohort — for example, “the [Studio] Designer Fellow.” Recognition tied to the seat. Strong stories for your team and your recruiting funnel.
Your senior practitioners contribute hours to a co-development project alongside our fellows. Governed by a per-engagement Statement of Work. Excellent for senior staff who want a meaningful sabbatical-flavored experience.
A partnership is a trade. Here’s what we trade you for the contribution.
Co-branding on shipped products, named recognition in annual reports, joint announcements that reach industry press.
Fellows who have shipped a real public-interest product, validated under real constraints, and can talk about it.
Pro bono engagements give your most experienced practitioners work that matters without leaving your bench permanently.
Your team learns how the public sector buys, builds, and evaluates — useful for commercial work that touches government, education, or healthcare.
Candidates ask. Existing team asks. Players ask. A Partner Studio relationship is a substantive answer, not a press release.
Pro bono and co-development engagements ship things. Real things, used by real people, with real evaluations. Add it to your portfolio.
To save us all time: there are a few things partnership emphatically does not buy. We’re listing them here because every studio asks, and we’d rather have the conversation now.
We respond within five business days. The conversation is exploratory; nothing here commits you to anything. Bring questions, doubts, or wild ideas — we welcome all three.
Anything else, email partnerships@gameforamerica.org.
You can absolutely just donate — we welcome it. A Partner Studio relationship is a multi-year, structured engagement that gets your team meaningfully involved in the work, not just your money. If your studio just wants to write a check, “Contributing” tier is the right shape, but you might also just join our annual fund.
It varies. Common patterns: a senior engineer or designer spends 4–8 hours a week on a co-development project for a quarter; a small team takes a one-month sprint to extend an Open Library component; a senior practitioner mentors fellows on a specific craft area. Each is governed by a Statement of Work that protects everyone’s time, IP, and confidentiality.
Game for America is filing for 501(c)(3) status. Once approved, contributions will be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. We’ll provide proper acknowledgment letters. We don’t give tax advice — your tax team should make the determination for your jurisdiction.
Each co-development engagement is governed by its own Statement of Work. The default for work intended for general public-interest distribution is permissive open-source licensing (Apache 2.0 for code). Your pre-existing studio IP, tools, and proprietary technology are not affected by the partnership.
No. We work with as many studios as want to engage seriously. Founding tier comes with first-look on co-development opportunities, but no studio gets exclusive rights to a category, technology, or partnership pipeline.
The fellowship places fellows with public-interest hosts — nonprofits and public agencies — not with for-profit studios. Pro bono and co-development engagements are how studios work directly with fellows. If you have a public-interest spinoff, foundation, or in-house civic team that’s organized as a 501(c)(3), that organization could potentially be a host through normal intake.
We look for studios in good legal standing, with anti-harassment and equal-employment policies meeting industry baselines, and with a credible reason to want to do this kind of work. We reserve the right to decline partnerships where the alignment doesn’t hold up — including from studios whose business or recent conduct would create reputational risk.
Stay close. Forward to a candidate, suggest a host, or just subscribe to our updates.