1. Tectonica is a non-profit/NGO

In reality, Tectonica is a mission-based social positive business (owned by Mariana Spada and Ned Howey). We’ve always been social positive in our work supporting NGOs and progressive political parties and are in the last stages of being certified as a B-Corp. But, for reasons having partly to do with our initial founding in Argentina and partly with other factors, it made the most sense that Tectonica launched as a business structure. Within that framework, the mission of Tectonica is to create a seismic shift in the way politics are done, through innovations that empower social, economic, and environmental justice movements.

You can read more about our company values here. 

2. Tectonica doesn’t provide services

We’ve recently been hearing from a number of folks in our community who were unaware that what we do goes beyond just the free content we put into the Tectonica Organising Network (TON). We love that people know us through TON, but Tectonica’s primary work is to provide an extensive set of deeper services to help progressive NGOs, parties, candidates, and B-Corp businesses build movements. 

You can find out how our services can help support your work by reaching out to us here or referring someone with whom we’d be a good partner. 

3. Tectonica only works on NationBuilder projects

While Tectonica was one of the first agency partners to work on the NationBuilder platform - when it was first serving clients - we also have a long history of building on other CMS systems (WordPress, Drupal, static website build technologies like Jamstack), and works with as a partner of many other civic technology platforms (such as EveryAction, Action Network, New/Mode, etc). 

4. Tectonica is an “international” agency and so doesn’t work in the US

Tectonica is an international firm in the sense that we work in countries around the world (39 so far, as of this post). Shock though it will be for some to hear, the U.S. is, in fact, part of the world! It is, in fact, one of the 39 countries in which we’ve done the most work, and several of our team members are from the US. We believe the international nature of our work has made us more flexible and creative, giving us a distinct advantage over agencies whose experience is limited to just one country. 

5. Tectonica is only a tech build shop or a web design studio 

Although we build some of the best progressive sites on the market, Tectonica offers a wide array of strategic services, and does numerous projects whose focus is purely on digital organising strategy. 

6. Tectonica only does finite short-term tech build projects with clients

In fact, Tectonica’s value is often most evident in projects where we work on an ongoing basis with our clients, such as Voor 14, Bend The Arc and the University of South Carolina Alumni Association. 

7. Tectonica is “non-partisan”

While Tectonica works with multiple parties in numerous countries, we do not work with any that fall on the conservative end of the spectrum. 

8. It’s spelt “Techtonica”

Noooooo!!! We get the confusion certainly, but Tectonica actually comes from the word “architectonic” - and not from “technology”.