Community Spotlight, Giving Circle Edition: James Liu
Tech workers from across the Bay Area have joined TechEquity’s network and are giving their time, skills, and financial support to make their communities more equitable. This month, we’re kicking off our giving circle. This initiative allows members of our network to pool their funds and increase their collective impact as they give to organizations doing work that aligns with TechEquity’s mission and goals. This community spotlight is a special edition to highlight the importance of this work.
Meet James Liu:
James is currently a Product Manager at Color, a healthcare company focused on helping people live healthier lives by democratizing access to high quality genetic testing. His previous experiences have ranged from working at large Silicon Valley companies to developing mobile technology for blue collar workers in India. Outside of work James volunteers for causes related to housing and income inequality in the Bay Area. You can also catch him performing improv on Friday nights in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.
What prompted you to get involved with TechEquity?
As I near a decade of residence in the Bay Area, I continue to be fascinated by the contradiction between my industry’s (and my own) passion for changing the world and our futility in addressing the growing issues of inequity in our community. I have found TechEquity to be an incredibly supportive platform to engage with local issues in an informed way. I appreciate the balance of beginner-friendly educational resources which have helped me understand the basics of civic engagement in the Bay Area, as well as the nuanced and challenging conversations that TechEquity has facilitated on how the tech community has played a role in issues of inequality in our community.
Why is joining the giving circle important?
If we truly believe in building a more equitable and inclusive community, we need to confront one of the most obvious and uncomfortable ways that the tech industry has impacted the Bay Area — our contribution to growing inequality. The tech industry has generated an incredible amount of wealth for tens of thousands of employees who benefit from secure, high paying jobs, while many others have been left behind. Another challenging trend that compounds this problem — those with higher incomes tend to give less.
While it can seem overwhelming to address this trend at a macro level, those of us who have benefited from a tech-driven economy can make a real impact by starting at the individual level. Joining TechEquity’s giving circle offers a tangible way to give back to our communities and the people doing incredible, innovative work, who are simply underfunded and undervalued. Additionally, it provides a platform to engage with a supportive group of folks ready to grapple with the role of wealth and money in our daily lives and society.
I hope you’ll join us!
Join our Giving Circle today!
Help us build a culture of philanthropy amongst tech workers who are motivated to give boldly to their community. We believe the tech industry can and should generate widespread opportunity instead of inequality and displacement.
