Why give to The Carpentries?

This week I received a lovely note from a Carpentries community member who wanted more information about why The Carpentries has initiated a fundraising campaign. This provides me with a fantastic opportunity to inform our community about how non-profit projects, including The Carpentries, are structured.

The Carpentries is very grateful to have received grants from various foundations and organisations, including the Sloan Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the California Digital Library, the Moore Foundation, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). While we were awarded $2.86 million in grant funds over the next 3 years, only a portion of those funds are made available for use each calendar year. Earlier this year, as we assessed our finances and upcoming work, we estimated a $130,000 deficit for fiscal year 2021, despite improving the way we budget and taking advantage of several non-profit discounts. In years prior, we were able to rely on membership income to cover this difference, however, membership income as compared to last year at this time is down 55%. To account for this deficit, we explored several revenue generation models and applied for small grants in addition to launching our first fundraising campaign.

The goal of the fundraising campaign is to raise $130,000. We will do outreach to foundations and other large organisations for general support in an effort to raise $100,000 of that total, and we delivered a call to action for individual contributions for the remaining $30,000. Although this is new to us, fundraising through donation campaigns is a key strategy for non-profit organisations, and we are extremely grateful for the positive feedback and financial contributions we have received thus far!

Donate to The Carpentries

Your donation will allow The Carpentries to expand into new geographies and new disciplines, and will help bring workshops to individuals who might otherwise have barriers to participation. Donate directly, or email team@carpentries.org to donate by mail.

Join The Carpentries Philanthropy

If you have not joined the Carpentries Philanthropy mailing list, now is a great time. This list serves as a bridge between the work we have done and the work we hope to do with your help.

Thank you for your support!

In service,