What is Community Tech Alliance?
Community Tech Alliance (CTA) is a not-for-profit data infrastructure organization serving mission-driven campaigns, nonprofits, and research institutions. We build and maintain an enterprise-grade analytics platform, data warehousing, integrations, reporting, and AI tools, and we’re priced for nonprofit and campaign budgets rather than commercial ones.

Who does CTA work with?
CTA partners with nonprofits, political campaigns, PACs, and labor unions; advocacy and civic organizations; political research and analytics firms; state and local civic tables; and academic institutions studying voting behavior and civic engagement.

How is CTA different from other data platforms?
CTA owns and manages the full analytics platform and data warehouse for our partners, rather than being just a reporting layer that sits on top of infrastructure you still have to maintain elsewhere. We also operate as a partner, not a commercial vendor - we're built by and for the organizations we serve.

What is PAD?
PAD is CTA's core data warehouse and analytics platform, built on Google BigQuery, bringing together data from the tools campaigns, nonprofits, unions, and research institutions already use.

Do I need a technical team to use PAD?
No! PAD is built for every skill level. Point-and-click tools let non-technical staff build reports, run standard queries, and manage workflows directly, while technical staff (if you have them) can still write SQL or Python for deeper control.

What can I actually do with PAD, day to day?
Without writing any code, partners can build and schedule reports, set up real-time dashboards, sync data automatically from the tools they already use, run voter file matching, and share results with boards, funders, or program staff. Technical staff get full access to the underlying warehouse for custom queries and workflows.

What tools does PAD integrate with?
PAD offers 65+ ready-to-use integrations, including CRMs, fundraising platforms, organizing tools, digital ad platforms, and voter file vendors. CTA builds and maintains every integration, including handling API changes and sync issues, so your data keeps flowing without your team managing it.

What is ElectionPAD?
ElectionPAD is a joint offering from CTA and TargetSmart: a census block-level U.S. election dataset covering results back to 2012, enriched with TargetSmart's voter demographics. It's built for campaign analysis, political research, and modeling in CTA PAD.

What is PAD AI?
PAD AI connects AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to an organization's actual data, translating plain-language questions into verified, auditable queries. Every query is scoped to the organization's own data definitions and logged for compliance, so answers come from real data rather than guesswork. PAD AI is rolling out to partners as we build. Let us know if you're interested!

Does CTA provide access to voter file data?
Yes! CTA partners can access national, state, or local voter file data alongside their own program data, and can then combine it with other sources for analysis and reporting.

Can CTA help with projects beyond the standard platform?
Yes! Beyond PAD itself, CTA offers custom solutions including bespoke analytics, dashboards, workflow automation, and data infrastructure assessments for organizations with specific or one-off needs.

Do you offer support after we sign up?
Yes! Every partnership includes ongoing support, not just initial setup. Our team handles infrastructure maintenance and security updates and is available when something isn't working as expected. And if your organization would like heavier migration support or ongoing training, we can do that too!

Is my organization's data secure with CTA?
Absolutely. Security is one of our core focus areas, as well as one of the reasons we started CTA in the first place. CTA manages security, access controls, and infrastructure maintenance as part of every partnership. See our Security page for details.

How can CTA's pricing be so much lower than commercial data platforms?
CTA operates as a not-for-profit, building shared infrastructure once and making it available to all partners rather than custom-building systems from scratch for each organization. That shared model is what lets us offer enterprise-grade tools at a fraction of typical commercial pricing.

Do I have to be a political campaign to use CTA?
No. CTA’s tools are designed for mission-based groups, and that includes nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and academic institutions studying civic engagement and voting behavior. If your organization is mission-driven and needs reliable, affordable data infrastructure, CTA is likely a fit!

Can CTA help us migrate from another system?
Yes! CTA can help organizations assess existing infrastructure, migrate data, connect existing systems, and build workflows in PAD. Migration support can range from a focused project to more hands-on implementation.

How do I get started?
Reach out through our Get a Demo or Contact page, we can show you a demo, and our team can talk through your organization’s needs and the right tools and tier for you.