BlackGirlsCode raises $21K on IndieGoGo for nationwide coding classes for girls of color

BlackGirlsCode was a nonprofit organization teaching girls aged 7 to 17 to code through hands-on workshops, Summer of Code programs and robotics camps in cities across the United States.

That teaching girls of color to code from ages 7 to 17 could change the ratio in tech, and sold-out workshops would raise the money to scale.

$21,000 raised on IndieGoGo in mid-2012

Founder Kimberly Bryant, an electrical engineer who had felt isolated in her own computer science classes, started BlackGirlsCode in 2011 and framed the mission around Douglas Rushkoff's line 'Program or be programmed.' Her organization cited a pipeline problem: African American women made up 4.8 percent of graduate enrollment in computer science, and only 0.03 percent of female Hispanic freshmen intended to major in computer science in 2006.

In 2012 BlackGirlsCode's Summer of Code workshops ran from June to September across San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, serving 200 to 300 girls. Over 90 students attended the June 30 workshop at DeVry University in Oakland, the follow-up San Francisco class sold out in one week, and Bryant said parents were planning weekend trips from as far as Los Angeles. A $21,000 IndieGoGo campaign was set to buy 15 laptops to loan attendees, send 20 girls to the August Robotics Summer Camp and pay teacher and TA stipends.

The unmet need was quantified: BlackGirlsCode cited 4.8 percent graduate enrollment for African American women in computer science and 0.03 percent for Hispanic female freshmen.

Workshop demand was concrete and current: over 90 students at the Oakland session, a San Francisco class sold out in one week, and inquiries from Los Angeles and other cities.

Crowdfunding fit the nonprofit's stage: $21,000 bought laptops, camp scholarships and teacher stipends without requiring institutional grant cycles.

Bryant's own experience of isolation in computer science supplied the conviction to start in 2011 and scale city by city in 2012.

When the audience has been written off, sell the proof before the pitch: sold-out classes and waiting lists raised $21,000 for BlackGirlsCode where demographic arguments alone would not have.

As of 2012-07-18 BlackGirlsCode was in its second year, running Summer of Code workshops in eight US cities through September 2012 and using its $21,000 IndieGoGo raise to buy laptops, fund robotics-camp scholarships and pay teacher and TA stipends. What the organization grew into after that summer is beyond this batch's sources.