Online for Offline: What Communities Are Telling Us About Digital Tools
Key Finding
A six-month field scan (11,000+ civic tech projects reviewed, 16 org interviews) concludes basic, community-controlled tools outperform novel tech, and that digital tools work best as bridges to in-person connection.
About this research
This report is a six-month (June-December 2025) field scan by Trust for Civic Life examining how rural civic organizations use digital tools, combining a review of 11,000+ projects in the Civic Tech Field Guide database with interviews of 16 organizations using varied technology approaches. It concludes that simple, community-controlled tools tend to outperform novel technology, and that digital platforms are most effective when used to drive people toward in-person interaction rather than to replace it. As an example, the report cites Front Porch Forum members reporting increased civic engagement and event attendance traced back to online posts.