The pre-season of giving is upon us. Though giving will be top of mind next month, we’re excited that our New Tech community is partnering with GeekWire for Geeks Give Back this month.
You’ve probably heard about us giving 12% of our ticket sales to Washington State Opportunity Scholarship. This awesome charity is fostering Washington’s next generation of developers, scientists, engineers and mathematicians.
All donations received in the month of October through Geeks Give Back will be matched by GeekWire and then matched again by generous local companies and Washington state, meaning every $1 you give multiples into $4!
If you’d like to help educate low-to-mid income young women and minorities in STEM education to help fill the estimated 25,000+ open STEM jobs in Washington state, please join the rest of the New Tech community in giving what you can. Small donations mean a lot when $1 is matched and turns into $4.
Members of local and national tech communities keep stepping up efforts to build diversity. Techstars recently announced their new foundation and new diversity goals to include and support increasing numbers of women and underserved minorities to launch startups.
Among the international effects that will come from these efforts, they will also help Seattle rise beyond it’s current low position of being 20th in the world for female founders, as well as have a global impact.
With this new foundation, Techstars is joining a growing number of companies, individuals and the White House in tackling this issue. Investors like Jonathan Sposato have pledged to fund more female run companies, and leaders like President Obama have rolled out initiatives like TechHire to ensure our future is full of diverse leaders and employees.
The change is picking up steam. In 2009, 9.5% startups had at least one female founder, but by 2014 that rate had almost doubled to 18%. So expect the news to continue getting better as more people jump in to make a difference where they can.
