Giving Compass' Take:

• Ben Paynter reports that many organizations that are part of the next wave of tech-for-good companies are being built by women and minority groups.

• Why aren't more philanthropists supporting these enterprises? Most have annual budgets below $500,000 due to lack of funding from major foundations.

• Read about unsung women in tech you should know about.

A simple question you can ask about new startups: Are they building a gizmo or app to bring American consumers more joy or convenience? Or are they building a product or service that radically improves the lives of the poor and disenfranchised around the world?

The founders of these two archetypical types of companies, it turns out, have pretty stark demographic differences.  Most traditional tech company founders are white and male, while comparatively far more women and minorities go the social good route, according to a new report by Fast Forward, an accelerator for what it calls “tech nonprofits.”

That report, entitled “The State of Diversity and Funding in the Tech Nonprofit Sector,” shows that 47% of all tech nonprofit founders are women, compared to just 17% at traditional startups. Minorities make up 30% of all tech nonprofit founders compared to 13% in the for-profit field. Just what earns a nonprofit that “tech nonprofit” distinction could be the subject of its own debate. “We classify a tech nonprofit as a tech company building original software or hardware, but leveraging a nonprofit business model so they can focus 100% on social impact,” notes report co-author Christina Shatzen in an email to Fast Company.

Read the full article about women and minorities building the next wave of tech-for-good companies by Ben Paynter at FastCompany.