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First it was Women Who Code and now Girls in Tech

Published at

7/9/2024

Women Coders Network (WCN)

The official Discord for the Women Coders Network. Elevating women in tech through networking, mentorship, and support. | 758 members

discord.com

And today's news broke of yet another long-running organisation that will be shutting down, and that's Girls in Tech!

And it all boils down to funding as it's been harder to get funding from companies and people alike the last few years.

I am involved in initiatives that advocate diversity in tech, but right now it's primary focus is Ireland and Northern Ireland. I thought in isolation it was me who thought getting funding was hard. The most basic is getting support for meetups - that's a little bit "easier" with companies offering to host (and cater food which is a bonus as that's not cheap).

But what about the wider implications, like community conferences (which I have had chats with a few) that found it hard to seek sponsors to help alleviate the expenses of running the event and offering affordable tickets.

Free events (local community meetups) are still expected to provide food and beverage with 40-60% no-shows by attendees.

Many of this is taken for granted by everyone. What can we all do to help initiatives that are still running. And of course, my ones as when I heard about Women Who Code, I thought "If they can't do it, how can Coding Grace survive?" and the spiralling starts. The difference with PyLadies Dublin (I run monthly, if possible) is that it's part of PyLadies global and is supported by The PSF.

This year, PyLadies Auctions (annual event at PyConUS) raised over US$60k this year! So I can apply for support (which I rarely do and rely on local support). The meetup page for PyLadies Dublin is part of PSF's pro-network account on meetup, so no need to pay meetup (extortionate) fees.

Locally, we don't have that privilege, I keep an eye out on local funding like Funding Point from The Wheel, but the ones of interest only allows registered charities. 😢 Plus I don't have time to write applications to grants (and I'm not great at writing them either).

With Coding Grace (an organisation I co-founded), it's a registered not-for-profit Irish company (CLG) which has its minimum annual expenses - bank and accountant's fee are the main ones.

I am very bad at asking for donations of which we have several ways from Open Collective (it's down to 2 people who regularly contributes) to Patreon, Ko-Fi and even GitHub sponsors.

Can someone help me figure out how to ask for donations without feeling guilty?

What about support for other exisiting organisations out there? Here's a list of curated groups around Ireland and Northern Ireland (this needs updating btw, so help would be appreciated here also), I don't know what the funding sitch is for all the groups that I'm not involved in, but if there are ones that you are interested in, even if you can't support with your time, find a way to donate.
https://diversityintech.fyi/diversity/

Murmers of decreasing budgets allocated to DEI/CSR initiatives in the corporate world, how can we make sure that it's still very important?

I've no answers, I am feeling despair although this means we as a community have to work even harder. I hope to kickstart and figure out the next steps at the very least for Coding Grace with the rest of the team and our amazing advisors/mentors. Find a smarter way to keep what we doing alive and get funded.

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