This fundraising push raised almost $500K for the Freire Foundation

A fundraising event in the memory of legendary startup attorney Steve Goodman, attended by some 350 Philly folks — many of them top investors and execs — put $487,000 in the Freire Foundation’s coffers.

The education nonprofit, which focuses on creative college and career prep, put together a student maker faire and fundraising event alongside Comcast NBCUniversal called Summer Uptown last Monday.

“We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the community’s support and commitment to our kids,” said Kelly Davenport, CEO of Freire Schools. “Although here is still much work to be done we are confident that together we can envision and realize a more creative future.”

The Freire schools, spread between four sites in Philly and Wilmington, Del., currently have around 2,000 students enrolled. Founded in 1998, the organization’s take on education is centered around “individual freedom, critical thinking, and problem solving in an environment that emphasizes the values of community, teamwork, and nonviolence.”

https://twitter.com/ComcastNBCUCI/status/1008903792220426246

“[This] gave me confidence that the vision of quality tech education for all our Philly K12 kids is within our reach if we put our minds to it,” said Bob Moul, the co-chair of CS4Philly who led a fundraising effort around the event. “We can figure out the funding, and the ROI for the future of our city is astronomical.”

Here’s a video recap of the evening shot and edited by students of the TECH Freire School: