tekFoundation: Bridging the tech-charity divide

When Joni Fleischer moved to Israel after finishing university in the United States, she had no idea the experience would one day inform a charitable venture on the other side of the world.

She spent time in Tel Aviv before heading south to Nitsana, near the Egyptian border, helping establish a desert sports program in one of the country’s more remote communities.

“I eventually realised I was very far from home and still quite young,” she laughs. “So I moved back to the US.”

That instinct to deploy skills where they are genuinely needed has followed Fleischer ever since.

Today, from her base in Sydney, she is co-founder of tekFoundation – a registered Australian charity with a clear mission; to empower charities by creating strategic connections in the tech community, so they can focus on their work, upskill their teams, and deliver good in the world.

The idea originated with her co-founder Nick Shepherd, CEO of tekFinder, a digital recruitment agency that remains tekFoundation’s founding sponsor.

Shepherd noticed a recurring pattern: charities were desperate for digital help they couldn’t afford to hire.

Their websites were outdated, their systems antiquated, and finding the right volunteer through a public ad was its own time-consuming burden.

Shepherd brought Fleischer on board to launch tekFoundation as a formal initiative in 2023, and the pair separately registered the charity in 2024 once it became clear the vision had outgrown its origins.

“Nick’s the one who deserves credit for the idea,” Fleischer says.

“He hired me to launch it, and then eventually promoted me to co-founder.

“In the two years since, tekFoundation has partnered with more than 50 charities across Australia, connecting them with skilled volunteers for everything from website builds and data dashboards to marketing strategy and content creation.”

Crucially, the organisation sees itself as more than recruitment without the fee.

Its values emphasise genuine connection – not just matching skills to needs, but building meaningful relationships that bring fulfilment to volunteers and charities alike, grounded in collaborative spirit and mutual learning.

Now, faced with ballooning demand and the need to sustain itself, tekFoundation is evolving toward a social enterprise model.

Its headline new offering – “volunteering as a service” – is aimed squarely at corporates, who pay tekFoundation to manage the entire skilled volunteering process for their employees; matching, coordination, and impact reporting included.

“It’s cheaper than hiring a social impact manager internally,” Fleischer points out, “and it’s cheaper than replacing a single engineer who leaves because they don’t feel engaged.

“The corporate arm is still in pilot phase, with several companies currently co-designing and testing the model ahead of a broader launch campaign planned for the coming months.

Longer term, expansion into New Zealand is on the horizon, though the focus for now remains firmly on Australian tech talent and Australian charities.

For Fleischer, the through-line connecting her Israel years, her corporate tech career, and her current work is a simple one: the value of showing up somewhere under-resourced and contributing what you actually know how to do.

“Sometimes it’s just nice to see directly how valuable your skills can be to an organisation that doesn’t have that capacity internally.”