BrainBasket Foundation, a Ukrainian nonprofit dedicated to educating information technology specialists, has launched a campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo. It aims to raise $50,000 for its free education program, Technology Nation, and has two months to achieve the goal.
Launching the campaign, the foundation promises to educate 1,000 new IT specialists by launching and equipping 20 new learning hubs across Ukraine over the next eight months.
BrainBasket is targeting Ukrainian diaspora from Canada and the United States. Its campaign has a flexible goal, which means that the nonprofit will receive all the funds even if the campaign does not reach its $50,000 goal.
So far, 30 people have backed the campaign, providing a total of $2,652.
“Our goal is to make the IT industry a driving force behind the country’s economy by training over 100,000 new specialists by 2020,” BrainBasket CEO Vladimir Liulka told Ukraine Digital News.
BrainBasket’s spokesperson Andrii Petrunia told Ukraine Digital News that the organization chose Indiegogo because it’s “a global, internationally recognized platform open to hosting charity projects.”
“We want to demonstrate that Ukraine and its potential in IT is a global matter, as the future developments created by our graduates could benefit anyone in the world,” Petrunia said.
Technology Nation is the free educational program targeting both adults and children. It was launched in late 2016, combining courses on programming from Harvard and MIT and practical exercises led by the experienced IT specialists.
Since its start, the initiative has attracted 1,250 participants and 67 mentors across Ukraine. People have donated 600 computers and other equipment to 40 local libraries. All the mentors agree to work for free, which is why the foundation has opened more learning hubs than it initially planned.
Regardless of the outcome of its Indiegogo campaign, the foundation intends to expand to neighboring countries.
Last year, U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros supported BrainBasket through his International Renaissance Foundation, providing city libraries with equipment for the courses.
The article includes reporting by Ukraine Digital News, an online publication covering the Ukrainian digital scene.
