Girl Develop It is celebrating a major milestone

Girl Develop It is kicking off its biggest marketing push ever.
The national coding education nonprofit, led by Philly’s own Corinne Warnshuis, wants to celebrate the 60,000 women it has taught by sharing their stories and raising $60,000. They’ve dubbed Jan. 12 “GDIDay,” which will kick off a month-long of storytelling and fundraising.
“We are really trying to celebrate this incredible milestone of 60,000 students in five years,” Warnshuis wrote to us via Gchat yesterday. “I mean, it really speaks to how well our program model works and how much demand there is for this type of inclusive and welcoming learning environment. A lot of other orgs trying to do similar work have fizzled out or not lasted in the way we have.”
Philly’s Girl Develop It Chapter is the most active, Warnshuis said, meaning it has the most classes and events of any chapter.
Local technologists like DuckDuckGo’s Gabe Weinberg and Vox Media’s Yesenia Perez-Cruz are among the featured supporters of the campaign.

.@yegg, CEO of @duckduckgo & GDI supporter, learns by doing. Come learn with us! https://t.co/wobbm6uh9Q pic.twitter.com/Ikk6A0BFJt

— Girl Develop It (@girldevelopit) January 6, 2016

GDIDay will also kick off with a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) with Warnshuis at noon.

Get your questions ready! Executive Director, @corinnepw, is doing an AMA on @Reddit_AMA 1/12 @ 12pm EST! #gdiday pic.twitter.com/Hp8L09Ja2L

— Girl Develop It (@girldevelopit) January 4, 2016

How to get involved? You can share Girl Develop It’s message on social media via their Thunderclap campaign and donate here. Any amount helps, Warnshuis said.
“Basically,” Warnshuis said, “if you’ve ever benefited from GDI in any way, donate a few bucks and help us grow is the idea.”
Locally, Girl Develop It has helped propel women into tech careers and gotten more women into open source. They also hosted their chapter leader summit here last fall.