Legal considerations

States typically work with a list of vendors, who have been through a lengthy vetting process, when looking for technology solutions. To expedite working with a volunteer group, like USDR, some states prefer their main internal party be the state's Office of Innovation or Digital Service, who tend to be agile and flexible with technology partnerships. However, to be clear, this is not necessary to successfully collaborate.

In New Jersey's case, this entity is a 501(c)(4), which works collaboratively with government, academic, non-profit, and private sector institutions to drive innovation in the state’s economy and improve the design and delivery of policies and services to the state's residents, businesses, and institutions.

The New Jersey Office of Innovation, in this case, was under the umbrella of a national 501(c)(3) organization, which contracts with volunteers and volunteer organizations. Therefore, instead of needing a contract with every single vaccine provider/vendor in the state (e.g. 450 vaccine sites in New Jersey), a single contract between USDR and the Office of Innovation was all that was required. USDR already had a strong relationship with New Jersey, as they already collaborated on multiple technology projects over the last year.

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