Want to support Pittsburgh tech? These orgs are fundraising this Giving Tuesday

Want to give back to the growing Pittsburgh tech community?

This Giving Tuesday — the annual global generosity movement celebrated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — several organizations supporting innovation and equity in local tech are asking for donations. While it takes a combination of corporations, public officials and nonprofits to really drive economic growth in a community, these orgs are a great place to start, from helping families access free internet to supporting students in nationwide robotics competitions.

Technical.ly will be updating this list throughout the day. Email pittsburgh@technical.ly to tell us who we missed.

Meta Mesh Wireless Communications

By donating to Meta Mesh’s Every1online program, you can help underserved residents in the region have access to internet through the nonprofit’s wireless internet service provider technology. Executive Director Sam Garfinkel told Technical.ly last month that the org has plans to expand the reach of the program in 2022 after launching it this year. A donation now will help them do that, and support families in need of the service today.

Code & Supply Scholarship Fund

This community and coworking space for Pittsburgh technologists runs a scholarship fund to bring new software professionals to the city, as well as support those already here with opportunities to travel to different tech scenes across the globe. In supporting the scholarship fund, you’ll help to cultivate new perspectives for Pittsburgh tech that will drive innovation in the new year.

Partnership to Advance Responsible Technology

In collaboration with PGH.AI, the PART is running a donation campaign to support both organizations’ missions of increasing transparency, accessibility and yes, responsibility, in new tech. With artificial intelligence in particular, both groups focus on promoting conversations and education around ethical use of the fast-changing tech. A donation to this campaign will help ensure that Pittsburgh is not only a leader in AI and its applications, but a responsible one, too.

Girls of Steel Robotics Crowdfunding Campaign

Girls of Steel Robotics wants to send this year’s team of students to the FIRST World Championships. The organization, supported by Carnegie Mellon University, gives Pittsburgh girls the chance to build robotics and compete in high-level competitions, all while promoting career paths in STEM. The team’s crowdfunding campaign for this holiday season will help cover travel costs and other needs for the trip to the championships.

WIT Pittsburgh

Women in Tech (WIT) Pittsburgh is a community of professionals supporting women working for local STEM companies. With events, scholarships, job postings and other programming, this organization looks to promote equity in Pittsburgh tech. Donations come with options to support scholarships, pay for monthly software costs, show staff appreciation and payment for other bills, but you can also choose your own donation amount.

STEM Coding Lab

Though STEM Coding Lab’s social media pages didn’t announce a formal Giving Tuesday campaign, Technical.ly readers voiced their support of the organization on Twitter. STEM Coding Lab works with students in underserved local communities to increase computer science education and improve digital literacy, and a donation to it will help those students have access to more resources and opportunities to learn about career pathways in the tech industry.

What other tech orgs are fundraising? Let us know via email at pittsburgh@technical.ly.

Sophie Burkholder is a 2021-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.