Seattle, WA. Due to COVID-19, ChickTech has transitioned all of its programs online; this includes ChickTech’s K-8 and high school programs, and its ACT-W conferences and events. Although this transition has left ChickTech unable to do its signature in-person events, ChickTech program manager Ivette Cortez has found that “anything is virtually possible.”
“In the past, we needed the space and the finances,” says Cortez. Virtually, programs can be easier to coordinate.
High school students working in VR with ChickTech.
Students code with ChickTech in-person before the pandemic.
ChickTech’s new virtual mentorship program has reached over 150 high schoolers, a handful of which are returning students. According to Cortez, ChickTech’s online platform has created new mentorship opportunities. Before the pandemic, ChickTech struggled to coordinate mentorship opportunities in person, but staffers have found that mentorship is more manageable online.
ChickTech’s ACT-W (Advancing the Careers of Technical Womxn) conferences and events have also grown in the online format. ChickTech expects attendance to double at this year’s ACT-W (Advancing the Careers of Technical Womxn) conference (August 26th-28th). Previous ACT-W conferences have reached about 500 people, but Cortez believes that the virtual format will make the conference accessible many more.
This year’s ACT-W conference will focus on inclusion in the tech field and include speaking sessions, technical workshops, one-on-one career coaching, and a virtual career fair. People from all backgrounds and genders who are in the tech field, or interested in tech can register for the conference here. Proceeds will go toward ChickTech’s high school program
ChickTech is also making strides in the realm of inclusion and diversity. This last week, ChickTech’s board has been in the process of reviewing a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) portfolio, which includes learning hours for staff to develop best practices for working with diverse populations. “We want to continue learning,” says Cortez, “We’re very dedicated to creating a more inclusive and diverse landscape.”
From ChickTech:
Founded in 2012, ChickTech is a Portland, Oregon-based national nonprofit dedicated to retaining womxn (including non-binary and transgender individuals) in the technology workforce and increasing the number of diverse youth pursuing technology-based careers. We currently have over 25 chapters across North America, engaging a community of over 20,000 women and girls.
Seattle, WA. Three Dollar Bill Cinema‘s video production and media literacy program, Reel Queer Youth, will be held online this summer from August 3rd through August 7th. During the program, LGBTQ+ youth and allies ages 13-18 will explore filmmaking and make documentaries using whatever tech and media they have available at home.
Three Dollar Bill Cinema launched Reel Queer Youth many years ago and the program has since reached more than 100 students. “This year will probably be a little different,” says Kathleen Mullen, Three Dollar Cinema’s interim executive director. Due to COVID-19, Three Dollar Bill Cinema is partnering with Northwest Film Forum to offer Reel Queer Youth virtually. The program will include daily Zoom meetings and opportunities for one on one mentorship. Participants will have the chance to explore what they want to say about themselves in the media and build connections with other LGBTQ+ and allied youth and filmmakers.
2019 Reel Queer Youth participants at Kaladi Brothers Coffee
According to Mullen, with the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic going on, “it’s a really important time to talk about media literacy.”
In a letter to Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s supporters, Mullen and Clay Warner, the president of Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s Board, wrote “Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s mission is to strengthen, connect, and reflect diverse communities through queer film and media. We will continue this work and do better to work towards a more equitable, pluralistic, and decolonization framework.” Reel Queer Youth plays a role in this mission by connecting a diverse group of LGBTQ+ youth and allies and arming them with the skills to decide how they want to represent themselves in media.
Last year, program participants worked with professional industry mentors to create documentaries about local LGBTQ+ non-profits
Carter and Dakota, ages 13 and 16, created Three Dollar Bill Cinema, a short film, included below, about Three Dollar Bill Cinema, and how it works to make LGBTQ+ lives visible through film and video.
Registration for Reel Queer Youth is still open to LGBTQ+ & Ally Youth, ages 13-18 who are interested in filmmaking.
From Three Dollar Bill Cinema:
We provide access to films by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ2+) people and their families, and a forum for LGBTQ2+ filmmakers to share and discuss their work with audiences. We curate themed screenings throughout the year and produce programs in partnership with other arts, cultural, and service delivery organizations in the Greater Seattle area.
Seattle, WA. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator donors and partners announced the formation of the International COVID-19 Data Research Alliance to accelerate clinical research on COVID-19. Composed of academic institutions, research organizations, life sciences and technology companies, and philanthropies, the International Alliance was created to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but with the promise for use across other health conditions, including readiness for future pandemics.
Accelerator donors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Mastercard, Minderoo Foundation, and Wellcome, will be founding members of the International Alliance. It will be managed by Health Data Research UK, a national institute for health data science with expertise in harnessing data at scale to improve people’s lives, working in partnership with alliance partners from life science companies, academic institutions and clinical research organizations from around the world. The announcement came on June 26th.
In May at the Coronavirus Global Response Summit, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a commitment of $125 million towards the international collective effort to develop and equitably distribute COVID-19 diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines. This includes $50 million of new funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and $75 million of previously announced funding for therapeutics and diagnostics.
The current pandemic has prompted a great deal of research, but there are few environments where data sets generated by previous studies and trials can be accessed to inform research and development efforts. These data sets could address key questions about the course of COVID-19, how it impacts the body, and what treatments might be effective. In many cases, relevant data sets exist, but researchers cannot easily access or link them for integrated analysis. The International Alliance will provide a variety of ways for researchers to collaborate on data—from pooled to federated analyses—for trustworthy, privacy-protected, and ethical research as determined by a governance board of global specialists in the field.
“In a pandemic, the pathogen has the upper hand. We know very little about it, so access to information becomes an important commodity,” said Trevor Mundel, president of global health at the Gates Foundation. “By entering into agreements on data sharing up front, we can avoid wasting time going down blind alleys, ultimately saving lives by getting definitive answers to key questions more quickly. This grant to form an international data alliance will accelerate efforts and provide a legacy for future collaboration on pandemics. We encourage others to join us and the other founding partners in this important initiative.”
Answering Research Questions About COVID-19
The Therapeutics Accelerator has also funded the development of a COVID-19 Workbench to support the International Alliance by creating a trusted research environment for access to global multidimensional data sets. This will enable researchers to work with the data to answer questions of high importance to the community. These questions, formed into driver projects, will address two key challenges for COVID-19 clinical care, as a start.
Understanding who is at highest and lowest risk and what they can expect from the disease is of paramount importance. The Workbench will enable the use of state-of-the-art techniques to explore characteristics that influence disease progression and impact treatment outcome in patients. It will also work to establish which drug treatments are most likely to be effective and when to administer each treatment during the course of care.
According to the Global Coronavirus COVID-19 Clinical Trial Tracker, there are currently 1,570 ongoing trials studying more than 50 drug interventions. Bringing data from these trials together with this federated workbench provides researchers with a more complete understanding of each intervention’s safety and efficacy. The International Alliance will first focus on creating summaries of the trial data (e.g., overall results, patient subgroups, specific endpoints) and use meta-analysis methods to provide side-by-side assessments of the drugs being studied. This way, researchers will have access to insights from all the available trials at once rather than relying on insights from a single trial at a time. As the International Alliance secures more data, additional research questions will be assessed.
An Analytical Workbench for Scientific Inquiry
The Workbench will connect to regional and national data infrastructures used by International Alliance members, such as data generated by Therapeutics Accelerator-funded trials, pharmaceutical industry partners, the national BREATHE health data research hub in the United Kingdom, SAIL Databank and others to be confirmed in the coming months. The Workbench, developed by Aridhia Informatics, will enable the discovery of data relevant for answering priority questions from its own repository and federated repositories, and will provide a secure location where analysts can work collectively on a target research hypothesis. Data access and use will be conducted in accordance with the governance requirements of individual data controllers from countries around the world, in a transparent and ethical manner. Authorized users will be able to bring their data to the Workbench and collaborate with others in a secure environment. The Workbench will be designed to encourage and enable responsible data use, including transparency, ethical review, privacy, and data protection.
“The UK has established a robust infrastructure for uniting, improving, and using health data for research and innovation. We are excited to build on this experience of our community and partners to support this vital global effort against COVID-19 and future outbreaks,” said Graham Spittle, chair of Health Data Research UK. “Recent controversies about the safety and effectiveness of new treatments in the treatment of COVID-19 highlight the need for the international community to work in partnership to analyze rapidly the results of multiple clinical trials at scale. The International Alliance aims to enable this in a trustworthy way. We look forward to working in partnership with, and learning from, colleagues internationally.”
About the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator
The Therapeutics Accelerator is an initiative launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard to speed up the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling up treatments. Its partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer term.
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Seattle, WA. Skate Like a Girl Seattle will conduct its summer skate camp online for 2020. Chapter co-director Soph Elden says that “since COVID-19 hit, [the organization] decided to switch to an at-home virtual skate camp.” The camp now gives skaters of all skill levels a variety of online tools to improve their skating and connect with mentors from the comfort of their homes. Skate Like a Girl is a nonprofit organization empowering individuals, especially young women, to become strong, confident leaders who promote and implement equity through the vehicle of skateboarding.
Each camp session is a week-long (Monday to Friday) and features a daily opening and closing “circle time” with fellow campers and counselors via video conference. Campers receive skate skill videos designed for their distinct skill level, as well as supplemental challenge worksheets and a camper t-shirt. There is an average one counselor to five camper ratio so campers may receive individualized check-ins with counselors and more personalized instruction.
Here’s a video about the virtual summer program for 2020.
A flyer for Skate Like A Girl Seattle’s At-Home Summer Camp
The summer camp offers classes for skaters of all gender identities, as well as weeks exclusively designated for women and/or queer and trans people of all ages. The camp cost is $129 and there are scholarships that skaters can apply for to ensure that the camp is as accessible to as many people as possible. And if you don’t have a skateboard, helmet, or padding, Skate Like a Girl Seattle can help with that! Campers can reach out to Skate Like a Girl Seattle via e-mail to borrow skate gear through drop-off or pick-up services.
Skate Like a Girl Seattle also provides additional skateboarding programs and activities for people of all skill levels, ages, and gender identities year-round. The organization offers weekly women and trans skating sessions, after school programs, and 12 years and under skating clinics during the school year at All Together Skate Park, located at 3500 Stone Way North in Seattle. In addition to at-home summer camp, Skate Like a Girl is continuing its women and trans skating sessions virtually through Zoom.
Instructors and skaters for Skate Like A Girl’s women and trans skating sessions
In light of the recent Black Lives Matter protests for racial justice, Skate Like a Girl Seattle has been vocal on social media about the significance of continually supporting Black lives now and moving forward. According to Elden, Skate Like a Girl’s messaging “prioritizes social justice.” Elden says that Skate Like a Girl Seattle has recently utilized social media to encourage people to take specific actions to support Black lives, including providing followers with “swipe-up” links on Instagram stories to “sign petitions and get donations matched.” Elden states that Skate Like a Girl Seattle plans to “listen to and follow Black-led causes and organizations” and “celebrate and elevate Black trans people and Black women.” Skate Like a Girl Seattle also supports defunding the police and “reallocating funds to programs like health care, education, and other resources, particularly in Black communities and Black-led organizations.”
Through its dedication to social justice, Skate Like a Girl Seattle plans to continue empowering all skaters in the Seattle community virtually until in-person programs may resume.
From Skate Like A Girl:
Skate Like a Girl is a nonprofit organization empowering individuals, especially young womxn, to become strong, confident leaders who promote and implement equity through the vehicle of skateboarding. We believe that skateboarding is a tool to build confidence, resilience, and foster inclusive community. Our mission is to create an inclusive community by promoting confidence, leadership, and social justice through the sport of skateboarding. Founded 17 years ago, we currently operate chapters in Seattle, Portland, and the San Francisco Bay Area.We value experiential learning and civic participation, by providing opportunities to be involved in the skateboarding community.
Seattle, WA. While December continues to be the largest month for charitable giving, 2018 gave way to the biggest shift in distribution across other months. In 2017, approximately 18.2% of giving took place in December and this shifted to just 17% in 2018, according to a report by Blackbaud. June has continued to be the second largest giving month of the year, which aligns with the end of the fiscal year for many nonprofit organizations.
The digital marketing firm for nonprofits, Blackbaud, released this finding in its 2018 Charitable Giving Report.
In 2018, overall charitable giving in the United States increased 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Large organizations grew by 2.3%; medium organizations increased 2%; and small nonprofits experienced a decrease of 2.3% compared to the same time period in 2017. Since 2016, overall giving has grown 9% and giving to Foundations grew 5% over the same threeyear time period.
Online giving grew 1.2% in 2018 compared to 2017. Large organizations had a decrease of 0.5%; mediumsized organizations grew 3.7%; and small nonprofits grew 0.7% on a year-over-year basis. Since 2016, online giving has grown 17%, and average online gift amounts have continued to increase. The percentage of total fundraising that came from online giving once again reached another record high in 2018. Approximately 8.5% of overall fundraising revenue, excluding grants, was raised online. In 2018, 24% of online transactions were made using a mobile device.
This is the continuation of a growth trend we have measured over many years now. Arts and Culture organizations had the largest growth in both overall and online giving during 2018. Animal Welfare, International Affairs, Higher Education, and Public and Society Benefit organizations also experienced significant growth in overall giving compared to 2017. Public and Society Benefit, Healthcare, and Faith Communities also had growth in online giving in 2018. 2018 continued the longest sustained period of charitable giving growth since the last recession.
There are several key trends shaping charitable giving that are highlighted here. First, charitable giving in the United States is returning to normal levels following two years of significant growth. Second, online giving is entering a new phase where mobile and other digital channels continue to change how donors engage with nonprofit organizations. Finally, giving to Foundations and Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) continues to grow in response to supporter preferences and changes in incentives. A 36-month view of fundraising from the same organizations reveals a 9% growth in overall giving and a 17% increase in online giving. When we take a broader view, spikes in giving during 2017 gave way to more normal growth rates in 2018. There is a tendency to want to identify a single reason for shifts in giving, but that is not how the philanthropic ecosystem works.
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