Closing the Digital Divide: How Upwork Supports Human-I-T’s Social Mission

Human-I-T is a nonprofit social enterprise on a mission to close the digital divide by ensuring that everybody in the world has access to the digital tools they need to reach their fullest potential. 

The company achieves its mission in two distinct ways. First, Human-I-T provides devices, internet access, digital skills training, and tech support for communities left on the wrong side of the digital divide. The organization also partners with large corporations and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to repurpose electronic waste, which is the fastest growing waste stream in the world — representing 2% of trash, but 70% of all toxic heavy metal waste. 

“We want to take the environmental issue and help businesses do good with their electronic waste by offering consumer-grade tech to those who need it most,” said Gabe Middleton, co-founder and CEO at Human-I-T. “We've been doing this for about 13 years and we now have about 200 Human-I-Ters working on this mission.”

The challenge: accessing diverse, mission-driven workers

As an SMB looking to expand the reach of its mission, Human-I-T needed to scale operations quickly and cost-effectively. This required building a team of skilled, diverse, and mission-driven professionals to support functions across the business — including IT, accounting, administration, design, and marketing. However, exclusively relying on full-time, in-house workers and searching for talent in the local market can be costly and time-consuming, as well as limiting the opportunity to access diverse perspectives. 

“If you solve a complicated problem and you're working toward a tough mission, you need people who are committed to the mission but who are also very talented and have different types of backgrounds,” shared Middleton. “If you're truly going to be an outside-the-box kind of organization, you need outside- the-box thinkers, which requires diverse perspectives from people with different backgrounds.”

The solution: building a global team of skilled freelancers on Upwork

Human-I-T is a longtime Upwork customer that first turned to the platform in 2016 to find a WordPress developer to build their website. The team quickly recognized the benefits of Upwork, such as access to a global talent pool, diverse skill sets and perspectives, and the flexibility to scale up and down as needed. Over nearly a decade, Human-I-T has continued to engage freelancers on Upwork to power and expand its mission.

“At Human-I-T, we really believe that talent is universal and opportunity is not,” said Padric Gleason, senior VP of operations at Human-I-T. “Upwork makes it very easy to access talent, not just in the U.S., but all over the world. This provides opportunities, not just for the freelancers, but also for Human-I-T, especially when it comes to accessing unique skill sets or trying something new. It can be risky as a small or medium-sized business to take on a whole new skill set or employee profile and Upwork makes it easier.” 

Middleton added, “Working with Upwork to very easily find individuals with the skill sets and diverse perspectives we need allows us to collaborate well. As a result, we can then find the best ideas to lean into so we can impact people's lives who are left on the wrong side of the digital divide. This is fundamentally what's been the experience between Upwork and Human-I-T in terms of fulfilling our mission.”

In addition to accessing skilled freelancers, Upwork’s user-friendly features have helped Human-I-T drive efficiencies across the business. “Upwork stood out by the simplicity of the tools and the control that we had on the back end,” explained Gleason. “So we can review time sheets and negotiate and agree to payment terms. We can also deposit funds into escrow and then release them upon completion of milestones.

Gleason continued, “All of these features, while they sound more technical, are really easy to navigate. Upwork gives us the skills to do things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do through other software.”

The results: scaling impact and global reach 

Over the course of nearly a decade engaging freelancers to address skills gaps across the organization, Human-I-T has cost-effectively scaled its operations and continues to maximize its impact as a nonprofit social enterprise. The freelancers on Upwork enable Human-I-T to deliver high-quality outcomes to both the recipients of their services and partner businesses looking to make positive contributions with their electronic waste. 

“Our recipients are often left on the wrong side of the digital divide, and they may be receiving their very first computer or technical support experience,” said Middleton. “The work needs to be extremely high quality. We take our work very seriously because we know we're impacting lives and helping someone who needs it most get through a tough time or accomplish an important goal for themself or their family. Upwork is well-known as the best platform to find freelancers. And we want to work with the best because that's how we approach our work every day. So that's a big reason why we chose Upwork.”

Key outcomes to date include:

• Engaging 25 freelancers, five of whom have converted into full-time employees
• Expanding geographic reach to include team members in 12 states and eight countries 
• Improving website traffic by 400% year over year from 2024 to 2025, by building a long-term relationship with a skilled copywriter on Upwork 
• Expanding the impact of Human-I-T’s mission by distributing 50,000 devices in 2025 to close the digital divide and reduce electronic waste — an increase from 12,000 devices in 2021

“Skills are everywhere and we can tap into diverse skill sets and engage team members wherever they are,” explained Gleason. “Upwork really unlocked that in a way that if we only focused on full-time, local, in-person employees, we would not have been able to move as quickly as we want to.”

Helping individuals reach their full potential while reducing electronic waste

With the support of freelancers on Upwork, Human-I-T has grown from a small nonprofit to a global force for digital inclusion and sustainability. The social enterprise now distributes tens of thousands of devices annually, significantly reduces electronic waste, and creates opportunities for people around the world to contribute to a mission that truly matters.

As other small to medium-sized businesses consider engaging freelancers on Upwork to accelerate their growth and impact, Middleton offered some advice. 

Middleton shared, “For small businesses, resources are tight. You don't have all of the people that you need to help you because your budgets may be limited. You're trying to scale. You wear many hats. What Upwork provides is an opportunity to easily find other people who care about the things that you care about and who may be able to offer their talents in a capacity that you or your small business can handle. And so, lean into the advantages that Upwork provides and that other technologies provide, because they’re great equalizers for your organization.”