14 DAY TRIAL // “Hour of Code” has managed to set a new record on Indiegogo as the highest raising crowdfunding campaign, hitting $2.8 million (€2.23 million) out of the $5 million goal (€4 million). The previous funding record on the platform was held by Stone Brewing Co, a craft brewery that managed to attract over $2.5 million (€2 million) in funding.
The campaign was launched back in October, as a nonprofit seeks to make computer science widely available in schools. After four weeks, the “Hour of Code” has already managed to beat the previous record for the amount of funds raised, as The Next Web points out.
The goal is to get to the $5 million (€4 million) by December 14, with the money being used to train 10,000 computer science teachers. Although there’s still some time to go, it sure looks like it has everything it needs to be a successful campaign.
Of course, out of the $2.8 million (€2.23 million) that have been gathered so far, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, John and Ann Doerr, as well as Rich Barton, have donated over $1 million (€0.8 million) to the campaign. Facebook’s CEO even talked about his passion for giving young people the chance to learn about computer science, like had did years before he put the basis of the world’s most popular social network.
Of course, the goal is a tad smaller than $5 million (€4 million), but there’s a catch. People’s donations will be matched dollar for dollar by several big donors. The list features Bill Gates, Feroz and Erica Dewan, Google, Reid Hoffman, Microsoft, Omidyar Network, Quadrivium, and Salesforce. They’ve so far matched $1,424,320 (€1,138,965) in donations.
What's the purpose of it all?
The NGO wants to fix one big issue, namely the fact that 90 percent of schools still don’t teach computer science. “It’s the 21st century. Our schools teach kids how to dissect a frog and how weather works. Today, it’s equally important to learn to ‘dissect an app,’ or how the Internet works. Every young person deserves basic knowledge of how the world works around them and how to build technology that’s changing the world,” the campaign reads.
Training 10,000 computer science teachers and getting 100 million students to try one “Hour of Code” is the final goal of this entire effort. The money will be used to help bring the courses that have already been put together to classrooms.
As with any other crowdfunding campaign, people will get various perks. For instance, for $10 (€8), students will see your name on their course-completion certificate, for $50 (€40), you’ll get some fun “I Heart CODE” glasses, while $80 (€64) will get people a special-edition Code.org hat.