EXCITING NEWS: Euki is now a 501(c)3 nonprofit

Domingo, Junio 9, 2024 blog Share


(Re) Introducing Euki!

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We’re excited to announce that Euki app, the privacy-first, comprehensive, and customizable period tracking app developed using research from Ibis Reproductive Health, has a new home: a dedicated, independent 501(c)3 nonprofit tech organization, also called Euki.

In 2017, amid increasing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) misinformation and mounting concerns about data privacy, researchers at Ibis Reproductive Health embarked on a study to understand what people in the United States wanted from a SRH information and tracking app. This research revealed the urgent need for an inclusive, secure app that centered communities not represented or whose experience was not included in existing SRH tracking options. Research participants wanted robust protections for their personal data, gender inclusive information, and an interface that allowed them easy access to the features most important to them. Euki was developed to meet this need, and was released in partnership with Women Help Women in 2018. Over the past six years, it has grown significantly: since the US Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision in June 2022, Euki has been downloaded and trusted more than 90,000 times, celebrated by privacy experts at the Mozilla Foundation, and hailed as “a critical resource,” “more than a period tracker,” and “one of the best, most empowering apps” by users on the app stores—largely for its ethos around data privacy, accessibility, and inclusivity.

In the ever-changing US political and legal landscape, Euki is uniquely positioned to be a key part of the movement-wide effort to protect and increase access to SRH information and care—including abortion. Ibis’s rigorous research approach and commitment to principled partnerships laid the foundation for an app that can meet this critical moment and has made Euki the unique and trusted tool that it is, especially among partners in the reproductive health, rights, and justice field. We remain committed to this people- and community-centered approach as we work to meet the evolving needs of Euki’s growing community of 10,000+ active users. Given its rapidly growing user base—and an expanding need for more complex, customized features—Euki is ready to take its next step.

Ibis staff member and Euki Project Director, Ana Ramirez will be the Co-Executive Director of Euki along with Co-Founder Melinh Rozen, and the Board of Directors will be chaired by Ibis Vice President for Research, Dr. Caitlin Gerdts. Ibis and Euki look forward to the new organization’s growth and the important role it will assume as continued attacks on reproductive health and autonomy drive a greater demand for user privacy and trusted access to SRH information and services.

Caitlin Gerdts, vice president for research at Ibis Reproductive Health and board chair at Euki, released the following statement:

I am immensely proud to see Euki launch today as an independent non-profit organization with the mission of co-creating accessible, private, and secure digital health tools with and for people and communities facing barriers to sexual and reproductive health care. Euki was originally created because researchers at Ibis Reproductive Health partnered with activists, clinics, and communities to ask people what they needed from femtech products. We heard that people needed a product they could trust, that adapted to their specific needs, that took their privacy seriously, and that would provide reliable, accurate information about all types of sexual and reproductive health experiences, including abortion. Euki's success to-date, and its potential for further impact as an independent organization in a post-Dobbs landscape, are a testament both to the hard work of Euki's leadership, as well as to Ibis's unique approach to research and principled partnership, and an example of the type of tangible change in sexual and reproductive health access that underpins the missions of both organizations.

Ana Ramirez, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director at Euki, released the following statement:

I am thrilled to take this next step together with so much of the core team that has been working on Euki since the very beginning. Euki is still the privacy-first app that our users know and trust. Becoming an independent nonprofit simply allows us the flexibility to be more nimble and responsive to our users’ needs, while at the same time bringing Euki’s free, private, and secure information and resources to even more people.