1.0 Program Overview. #UnleashingInnovation
"Fighting racial and gender injustices is a multi-faceted approach, and our fight is within the STEM industry." - Adamaka Ajaelo, Founding Executive Director
Self-eSTEM is a nonprofit that is changing the face and culture of STEM innovation. Our mission is to build the self-esteem of young girls and women from untapped communities, and unlock their inner innovator by providing culturally responsive, STEM literacy, leadership, and technical training required to thrive in the economic and labor markets.
Our pledge is a direct response to our nation's racial and gender challenges, reflecting a direct approach towards dismantling the systemic inequality and racism within our STEM education and career pathway spaces.
#TheAsk: For our pledge, we are seeking a minimum 10 organizations/groups to pledge at least 10% (a minimum of $25,000) of our overall goal of $250,000 by December 31, 2020.
2.0 How are we different from other organizations? #OurSuperPower
We work to change social and cultural norms when it comes to men and women in STEM. We help young women visualize themselves as STEM educators, engineers, programmers, and mathematicians, and become future industry leaders and mentors. It is our superpower.
We provide under-served groups equitable opportunities to pursue — and thrive in — STEM fields, to help enhance their social-economic security. The best part of all of this is that our program is FREE. We completely eliminate the financial burden that normally comes with these opportunities! Additional factors that set us apart are:
- The pedagogy of culturally relevant teaching, which is intertwined in the fabric and DNA of all our programs
- Our team is from the community we serve.
3.0 How Will the Funds Be Used? #BuildingTheNextGeneration and #ProgramExpansion
Funds will be used to ensure that young girls and women who are interested in STEM education and career pathways are not turned away. Donating to our cause will allow us to build team capacity and increase program sizes. We seek to:
- expand our existing Early STEM Immersion Program local reach to three additional Northern California cities to serve a total 500+ low-income girls between the ages of 7 to 17 annually.
- launch our School-2-Career Program within the San Francisco Bay Area to equip 100+ women in early careers (ages 18 to 25) with the confidence, knowledge, and resources they need to thrive and remain within the STEM industry.
4.0 Why Do We Need Your Support? #FacetheSTEMgap and #SupportBlackLedOrgs
There has been much effort to close the STEM workforce gap. However, there is a severe lack of women — especially Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) women — working in those STEM fields. Women make up just 24% of STEM workers in the U.S.; BIPOC women only make up about 5% of STEM workers in the U.S.
However, statistically "the revenues of the Black-led organizations are 45% smaller than those of the white-led organizations, ...despite focusing on the same work." - Bridgespan Research. It is imperative to support our cause as we are doing this transformative work of closing this STEM workforce gap!
5.0 Impact of COVID-19. #Resilient and #Adaptive
COVID-19 has affected our organization’s funding sources by 80% as our annual fundraiser was postponed. In addition, many events with our corporate partners were cancelled/postponed due to shifting company priorities. We have adapted and transitioned all our programs to an online format. Our annual STEM Exploration camp was virtual and had over 115+ campers and 170+ volunteers.
We are still well positioned to achieve our vision, and execute and track against our program initiatives. We're delivering our high quality programs to the groups that need it the most. Closing the STEM workforce gap is challenging and here is your chance to do something about it, driving actionable change by giving back.
6.0 How You Can Support Us? #DonateNow
- Option 1 - Companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
- CSR makes a direct donation of $25,000 or more to Self-eSTEM.
- Option 2 - Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or Member Organizations (MOs)
- ERGs and MOs establish a crowdfunding campaign of $25,000 and collect member donations.
- Option 3 - Individuals/Teams
- Build a team and set a desired fundraising goal ($5,000, $10,000, $25,000, etc.) or donate directly to at our crowdfunding page, Mighty Cause.
- Optional 4 - Alternative Support
- Alternative donation scenarios are available upon request. Reach out to Adamaka (aajaelo@selfestem.org) to connect and share this opportunity with others!
Sponsoring groups will receive recognition in all program materials, news media and social media platforms as a CHAMPION in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
7.0 Who Has Committed to the Pledge and our mission? #ClosingTheSTEMGap
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