Code.org’s crowdfunding campaign to teach kids coding just broke Indiegogo’s record, having hit $2.8+ million in pledges, with notable backers like Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, John and Ann Doerr, and Rich Barton. The campaign aims to raise enough funds to train 10,000 computer science teachers, and to get 100 million students to try one Hour of Code, across all grades, worldwide.
With 40 days left to go the campaign has surpassed historical projects like Stone Brewing Co, a craft brewery who raised $2,531,775 in August of 2014. Surprisingly, Hour of Code is the seventh Indiegogo campaign this year to raise over $2 million.
Code.org’s founder, Hadi Partovi, learned to code from a young age when his father gave him an old computer that didn’t come with any games. Instead of purchasing a game, he had to learn to write them himself. Although this knowledge worked to his advantage, he recognized that many others didn’t have this opportunity. In fact, 90% of schools still don’t offer programming courses.
“At its heart, the Hour of Code is a grassroots movement driven by parents, teachers and students who want computer science in schools. Whether you donate to our campaign or not, you can still help make history.”
Code.org estimates that it has already taught code to more than 40 million students in 200 countries to date. It now seeks to expand it’s mission, having set a $5 million fundraising goal on Indiegogo. The project has gained a lot of attention from high profile individuals and companies. Pledges are being matched by several donors including Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and Google.
A post on Code.org’s website, Announcing the Hour of Code and new partners, explains that:
“Code.org’s own tutorial has been created in collaboration with engineers from Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook. Designed as a game that teaches basic coding principles, it will feature guest lectures by technologists including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and artwork from popular games such as Rovio’s ‘Angry Birds,’ ‘PopCap Games’ and ‘Plants vs. Zombies.””
The project is offering a wide variety rewards for backers who support this project, including t-shirts, stickers, behind-the-scenes access, and a Q&A with Code.org’s founder.
Each pledge level also tells you what your money is going towards and how many students it will affect. The $500 pledge level says, “Stick it to the stereotype and wear your ‘CODE Like a Girl’ zip-up hoodie proudly. Only 18% of computer science graduates are women. We can change this.” 40% of the students reached by this campaign are girls.
Participating classrooms have the chance to win a number of prizes including 10GB free storage from Dropbox, a class-set of computers, or a video conference with one of the company’s major donors.
You can check out the Indiegogo video below.
About the author
Krystine Therriault is the community manager for CrowdCrux and has helped creators with their crowdfunding projects on KickstarterForum.org. She loves learning about new trending projects and dissecting them to bring new tips and information to creators. You can find her on LinkedIn here or Twitter here.
