A few months ago, shocking news resonated around the world as Women Who Code announced it was shutting its doors.
The community straight away came together and formed their collective groups to make sure their community members don't get left behind. There were many events including workshops, meetups, bookclubs happening around the world as this news broke.
Women Who Code Dublin (ex-director here 🙋🏻♀️) and Women Who Code Belfast (who has been very active) banded together to form Women Coders Community Ireland -- this is an all-island group. If you are interested in getting involved, let us know.
One core ex-WWC group of folks created Women Coders Network, they are re-creating the various structure for keeping community events going, and are still lookin for volunteers. You can join their discord server. 👇👇👇
Women Coders Network (WCN)
The official Discord for the Women Coders Network. Elevating women in tech through networking, mentorship, and support. | 756 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.
Top comments (2)
Sigh. This is really disappointing news.
With that said, I do think/hope smaller organizations have a better chance right now because the scale of their operations need less funding overall, so perhaps an easier 'yes'. Good luck with Coding Grace and thanks for doing the entire community a service by organizing it!
Yikes, I am so sad to read about these changes. Best wishes for all you're doing to promote and support folks in the community.