Ways to give back
For #GivingTuesday, we’re highlighting five nonprofits that support Supermakers like you with education, networking, and training programs committed to supporting women; LGBTQ+; and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color entrepreneurs and startup businesses.
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday—once you've recovered from the doorbuster whirlwind that is Thanksgiving weekend, focusing on helping other people can feel like a gentle spiritual cleanse.
#GivingTuesday, the annual online fundraising initiative launched in 2012 by New York's 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, arrives right on time: Nonprofit organizations of all sizes and missions receive a huge annual boost thanks to the event, which, last year, raised $400 million online in the U.S. alone. #GivingTuesday has also become a global generosity movement, with campaigns in over sixty countries.
At Supermaker, nonprofits that support emerging business leaders and creatives are especially close to our hearts. I don’t know the real origins of that old saying about teaching a person to fish and feeding them for a lifetime—was it Jesus, Confucius, or Ron Swanson?—but it strikes me as an appropriate guiding principle for maximizing your charitable giving. Stuck on who to give to, though? No worries. That’s why we’re here.
This #GivingTuesday, we’re highlighting five nonprofit organizations that you can support (and, bonus: follow on Instagram). These orgs offer education, networking, and training opportunities that break down barriers for women and entrepreneurs of color in the tech industry and innovation economy; cultivate resilient economic ecosystems for Native American communities; and help underrepresented small business owners launch thriving start-ups. Trust us, these nonprofits are worth knowing, no matter how you choose to participate in #GivingTuesday.
Francisco-based nonprofit Code2040 combats racial inequality in Silicon Valley through programming that supports early-career Black and Latinx technologists and cultivates a diverse talent pipeline through work with Black and Latinx computer science and engineering majors at schools across the country. Code2040 also mobilizes a broader community by offering events and trainings for industry allies. Their annual leadership summit brings together analysts, activists, lobbyists, and allies to develop new strategies for advancing racial and social justice at all levels of the industry, from tech regulation to workplace best practices to product development.
Code2040 alumna Aniyia Williams created Black & Brown Founders in 2017 in order to help connect founders of color to outside investors. Acknowledging that the mistakes all early-career entrepreneurs make can have amplified economic effects on Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and their families and communities, the org's Bootstrapping Bootcamp combines online course material with live group coaching and prepares participants to go from brilliant idea to completed prototype, brand platform, and launch strategy in ten weeks. In 2018, the group partnered with the City of Philadelphia to launch Project NorthStar, a three-day tech conference for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and professionals.
She Runs It, originally founded as the League of Advertising Women over a century ago, is a powerful professional networking group designed to bring women to leadership positions across the marketing and media sectors. The She Runs It Foundation, the group's nonprofit arm, offers education and mentorship programs that connect early-career professionals with with C-Level executives, brand VPs, and agency leaders. The foundation's Education Loan Relief program helps ease debt burdens for talented women whose careers might be held back by student debt. In just six years, the initiative has paid off over $600,000 in student loans for 60 participants.
Since 2009, StartOut has worked to amplify the visibility and impact of LGBTQ+ founders and entrepreneurs. StartOut cultivates professional networks through regular events in six cities and maintains Networq, a 5,000-member online business directory. The org's StartOut's Investor Portal connects funders with LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. In 2019, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, the group announced the development of the StartOut Pride Economic Impact Index, an agile online data tool that provides real-time data on the state of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship in order to help governments, founders, and investors work together to expand the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Change Labs provides support and assistance to Native American entrepreneurs who run businesses on northern Arizona's Navajo and Hopi reservations. A program of the Grand Canyon Trust, Change Labs recognizes that small-scale, community-driven economic development builds resilience and helps Indigenous communities maintain autonomy in the face of pressure from outside developers and private investors. The Lab's business incubator program has helped support Native new and early-phase entrepreneurs whose businesses provide everything from affordable off-the-shelf solar energy units to event planning and management to mobile beauty salon services. Change Labs supports Native startups with a free community co-working space and an innovative program that rents a small Popup Pod to Native American small business owners who need affordable retail space.
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