INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Girls Who Code, an organization focused on closing the gender gap in tech, has raised $1 million from Lyft riders since the ride-hailing
company added the non-profit organization to its Round Up Donate program last year
The program allows participating charities, which has included Habitat for Humanity and World Wildlife Fund, to receive small donations
from Lyft riders, who can opt-in by visiting the Round Up Donate tab within settings in the Lyft app
Launched in May 2017, the feature rounds up your trip payments to the nearest dollar and donates the difference.
&We couldn&t be more
excited to be celebrating the $1 million milestone with our friends at Lyft,& Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani said in a
&And the moment is made even more special knowing that this was made possible by the riders themselves.&
Girls Who Code has received a lot
of support from the tech industry, with backing from Amazon,Pivotal Ventures, GM, AppNexus, Google, Dell and more
Uber has also provided financial support.The company donated $1.2 million to Girls Who Code as part of a partnership announced last August
that had Uber former chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John join the organization board of directors
Saint John has since left Uber but remains on Girls Who Code board.
Uber was working feverishly to support non-profits, especially those
focused on diversity, as part of its effort to clean up its reputation following numerous reports that Travis Kalanick, Uber former CEO,
had fostered a culture of discrimination and harassment during his tenure
One of the organizations they tried to donate to was Black Girls Code, but the non-profit turned down the cash, explaining at the time that
they weren&t interested in what they believed was only a PR stunt.
&Their past history and ‘political& nature of maneuvering is and was
troubling,& Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant told TechCrunch at the time.
Black Girls Code has, however, accepted donations from
Lyft via its Round Up Donate feature
Bryant has said it because Lyft mission more closely aligns with Black Girls Code:&We look very closely at prospective partners with that in
mind and pay special attention to those that believe in the power of community to affect change
Through the work they&ve done over the years, we know Lyft embodies these same attributes.&
Black Girls Code was founded in 2011, the same
Both organizations encourage young women to code through programming like immersion summer camps and after-school programs.
Fewer than 1 in
4 computer scientists are women, a number that may only be decreasing
According to Girls Who Code, 37 percent of computer scientists were women in 1995, though that number fell to 24 percent in 2017 and is
projected to drop to 22 percent by 2027.
New data out this week, however, says that the number of young women taking the AP Computer Science
exam rose 39 percent this year, per Code.org.
