Great news!

Facebook has selected Girls in Tech as the recipient of this year’s F8 Refresh annual developer conference donation.

We’re honoured and grateful that Facebook has noticed our efforts to support women and minorities in this field. This is a huge win for us all! So please join us in celebrating it. You can even dance if you like – we won’t deny there’s a bit of boogieing happening at GiT HQ.

Why is Facebook donating money?

The Facebook F8 developer conference is an annual event which has run since 2007. It’s designed to celebrate and inspire developers, creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators that build on Facebook platforms and tools.

A portion of the event’s ticket sales has typically been redirected into an annual donation towards organizations that support minorities in the field. For example, in 2016 Facebook donated to Dev Bootcamp, and in 2017 it donated to Hack Reactor.

Generally attracting around 5,000 of the greatest minds in tech, the conference’s direction took a turn last year when it was cancelled due to COVID-19.

This year, it’s been renamed ‘F8 Refresh’, marking its transformation into a one-day, fully virtual event for developers. With a re-energised focus on the developer community, the event will feature and explore the latest Facebook technologies that directly impact developers.

This donation is an opportunity for Facebook to reinvest in the developer ecosystem by donating and enabling people of color and women to become programmers, and maybe even one day work for Facebook. We’re directly enabling that vision by empowering and educating women and minorities in programming.

Why Girls in Tech?

Girls in Tech is not just a community for women to connect, support and celebrate each other (although it’s about that too). It’s a place to gain practical skills for growing a career in tech.

Our focus on learning and skill-building directly feeds into the future of the developer community – the very community that Facebook wants to diversify. Our resources and programs have been identified as influential in shaping the future of tech – for ‘girls’ and beyond.

Girls in Tech offers education and experiences to help people discover their unique superpower and hone it. We aim to see every person accepted, confident, and valued in tech—just as they are.

With more than 70,000 members across 54 chapters in 37 countries, our global community holds a wealth of potential. We support our members’ growth by offering programs and events tailored to meet the unique needs of each community.

Facebook’s $250,000 donation to Girls in Tech will be used to provide more (and even better) experiences and educational opportunities to help women advance their careers in, or enter into, technology.

What this means for us (and you)

A donation to Girls in Tech is a donation to its members. Each and every one of you will benefit from Facebook’s donation, as we’ll be feeding these funds into the development of our dev programs and learning initiatives.

What does this mean? It means you should get excited – because there are great things to come from Girls in Tech!

You’ll benefit from more amazing programs like:

  • Code G Level 1 – An online course to learn Python.
  • The Girls in Tech Startup Challenge – A virtual startup competition for female founders.
  • The Girls in Tech Conference – a one-day virtual event where participants from all over the world gather to find community and learn how to thrive in tech.
  • Upcoming 2021 programs including the Cybersecurity Fundamentals Global Classroom, the Virtual Mentorship Program and our Digital Career Fair.

We mentioned dancing, and while we’ve certainly been doing our fair share of that in response to this announcement from Facebook, our Founder and CEO Adriana Gascoigne says:

“We are honored to have been selected by Facebook for this donation. The funds will allow Girls in Tech to reach more women and marginalized groups throughout the world with training, education, mentorship, and other opportunities to fuel their passion in technology.”

We want to see more women represented in the developer community, from entry-level positions right up to executive levels. This is a great step towards achieving that.

Tell your friends, share this article, and become a Girls in Tech member to ensure you receive updates on courses and events in your area.