Community Partnerships: At Hackergal it’s more than dollars and cents
For those of you who don’t know us, we love Hackathons and breaking the record in participation numbers! Especially when it involves thousands of middle-school girls working together using code to create a project! On May 2nd, Hackergal will implement its second largest Hackathon in 102 schools, 7 Provinces and 1 Territory. This translates to over 2,500 girls enrolled! We could not have done this without our corporate partners.
Lets talk Donors — A new wave of Philanthropy. There are many new meaningful causes with a passionate mission around the world. As social responsibility platforms become more of a priority, the donor landscape has become far more invested in what it supports.
Modern donors and corporate partners are interested in more than financial support and slapping a logo on a website or marketing material; there is real interest to engage in the cause of a non-profit. Donors want to be interactive at the grass-root level offering various opportunities for engagement. As a newly founded non-profit, Hackergal embraces this level of support!
Barrick — More than just dollars and cents.
An example of this new wave of partnership can be found with Barrick, one of the largest Gold companies in the world with its headquarters in Canada. The company has supported Hackergal since July 2017, not just providing the dollars and cents. Barrick has gone one (actually two or three!) step further offering different levels of support along with their funding; this is an important aspect of their corporate social responsibility — and let’s be honest, how can you say “no thank you” to additional support!
Barrick has provided Hackergal with access to females in their organization that have participated in our coding camps. The company has toured local participating schools during our Hackathon Program. Girls are able to engage with women in business who actually apply computer science in their careers!
“It was truly remarkable to witness Canada’s next generation of women taking part in the Hackathon last December and spring camp this past March. Watching the girls working together in collaborative teams, using coding to bring their ideas to life, left me with a new excitement for the future of women in STEM fields. At Barrick, we believe creativity and teamwork enabled by new technologies will continue to transform our business. This is evident with the programs offered by Hackergal”. Kristyn Zoschke, Project Coordinator, Innovation, Barrick Gold Corporation
We are also grateful for the introductions made by Barrick to a new community partnership with Cisco. Hackergal is working with Cisco and their WebEX team to enable video conferencing to all 100+ schools on the May 2nd Hackathon. As we grow across Canada we want to share the enthusiasm each school has to empowering girls to code.
“Today, women make up only 27 per cent of the global workforce in STEM. We need to do better. If we are serious about building a dynamic 21st century workforce, we need to access that untapped talent by encouraging girls across the country to get excited about STEM learning at an early age, and inspire them to follow STEM career paths. At Cisco Canada, we’re committed to doing this — and reaching out to girls in schools and programs across the country. That’s why we’re proud and pleased to be supporting the Hackegal Hackathon,” Rola Dagher, President Cisco Canada.
It’s a Win Win at Hackergal!
Donors are the back bone to Hackergal. We are grateful to have found an organization such as Barrick and partnership with Cisco that believes in the same mission and values we do” says Lucy Ho, Co-Founder of Hackergal.
Our partnership with Barrick has truly bridged the gap between education and industry for our teachers and girls, providing them with invaluable perspective on industry trends and the gender gap first hand.
Yes dollars and cents translate to funding budgets for non-profits — but these days donors expect more and non-profits need more — without engaged partners, innovative ideas would not come to light adding more value to our mission. We believe in going beyond the dollars and cents to make a difference and empower the next generation of female coders!
Matoula Mitropoulos, Managing Director Partnerships, Hackergal (www.hackergal.org/support-us/)
