Crowdfunding Campaign Countdown Just Started

Posted on by Ana Sofia Pinho

Categories: blog and news

5 Years of RGSoC Teams (image by multiple people)

4 teams sponsored with the help of our sponsors and individual donors (image by Ana Sofia Pinho)

Back in 2013, when we received 18 applicants for the first Rails Girls Summer of Code, we couldn’t imagine that these 18 people would turn into 188 a few editions later. What makes these numbers even more thrilling is the fact that 90% of them are still working in tech, 55% are still contributing to Open Source Software (OSS) and 8% have founded their own company — as per a survey we did with our students in 2015.

Side by side with these impressive stats, from the number of coaches to the OSS Projects we have worked on, are the inspiring stories of our participants, coaches, mentors, supervisors and organisers. RGSoC is made of all of our stories together and the impact each of us has in our communities — you can read some of these stories on our #ThankfulForRGSoC series here.

#ThankfulForRGSoC Stories (image by Ana Sofia Pinho)

#ThankfulForRGSoC Stories (image by Ana Sofia Pinho)

Edition after edition, together we have been changing the world, slowly but surely, creating new communities — some of them in remote places — and encouraging these role models who, just by being themselves and pursuing their career in tech, have been inspiring even more people from underrepresented minorities to follow their dreams in this field.

15 days until the crowdfunding campaign closes

The selection process is currently underway and we hope to send the acceptance letters on the 17th of April. This means that in the next few weeks we need to know how much funding we have in order to select the teams. Considering that we have raised 43255 USD, we have enough money to sponsor 4,5 teams. We don’t want to diminish this accomplishment by any means, as we are profoundly grateful for all the support we have received so far, but as you might have noticed, we are 7,5 teams from our initial goal of sponsoring 12 teams. This means that we are far from the funding goals of previous years at this time of the year.

4 teams sponsored with the help of our sponsors and individual donors (image by Ana Sofia Pinho)

4 teams sponsored with the help of our sponsors and individual donors (image by Ana Sofia Pinho)

Help us beat the 200 scholars mark!

We still have time! We are 1,5 teams away from beating the 200 scholars mark and 7,5 teams away from sponsoring the 12 teams that we usually do, so let’s roll up our sleeves and push our campaign! So how can you help?

If your company or a company you know might be interested to support our program, please feel free to send us an email to contact@rgsoc.org. We will happily follow up on any leads or intros. Additionally, if you need any resources or info about RGSoC you can check our sponsor deck and sponsor packages.

Another way to help is to talk with your friends in-person and share our crowdfunding campaign posts or any other information that you find important on social media. A little can go a long way, so let’s do our best to fund as many teams as possible for 2018!

Thank you — you’re awesome!