Jeffrey Hein founded Techempower.org in January 2023 to scale, into free public resources, what he'd spent the previous 22 years doing one organization at a time: helping Nevada County's nonprofit community get the technology they needed without paying for what should have been free.
His first tech job was at FREED, the Foundation of Resources for Equality and Employment of the Disabled, founded in 1985 by the late Sam Dardick — Nevada County Supervisor, wheelchair basketball All-American, and one of the architects of California's independent living movement. Jeffrey grew up in the Nevada County community Sam helped shape, and was hired into that first tech role under then-Executive Director Tony Sauer. He learned early that technology belongs to the people it's meant to serve, not to the vendors selling it.
That principle shaped two decades of work that followed. Jeffrey supported the technology backbones of organizations including Community Beyond Violence (over 15 years), FREED, Connecting Point (formerly NSPA), Sierra Harvest, 4eee, and CHIRP — the cultural nonprofit serving the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribal community. The through-line: open-source software where it served the mission, refurbished and low-power hardware where it didn't have to be new, and the free or low-cost services that already existed for organizations willing to learn the rules.
In 2023, Jeffrey stepped back from direct nonprofit IT support and founded Techempower.org as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to take that approach to a wider audience. Techempower.org's free guides walk anyone — not just nonprofits — through how to access free internet, free cell service through Lifeline, EBT food benefits, EV incentives, password security, and the dozens of other public programs whose biggest barrier isn't eligibility but knowing they exist.
The work is rooted in Nevada County, served from Grass Valley, and written in plain language by someone who has used most of these programs himself. The premise is simple: the help is already out there. Techempower.org just makes it easy to find.