Earlier this week, a new movement known as #ILookLikeAnEngineer hit all the social media platforms to help women break through the female engineer stereotypes. The movement became such a huge hit that the organizers have decided launch a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds so that they can rent billboards to help spread the message.
Sharing details about the project, Indiegogo campaign organizer Michelle Glauser wrote:
“After her company (OneLogin) put up an ad in San Francisco featuring an image of her, engineer Isis Wenger saw a lot of reactions. She wrote about these reactions in her Medium post, “You May Have Seen My Face On Bart.”
As a result, she started the #ILookLikeAnEngineer Twitter hashtag that saw participation from thousands of engineers of all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, ages, and backgrounds. Together, we’d like to put up a billboard in San Francisco showing, celebrating, supporting, and encouraging that diversity.”
For a really simple ad contract with an advertising agency, Titan360, the funding initiative needed to raise $3,500. Within hours, the project successfully reached the initial goal. Glauser revealed:
“If we surpass our goal, we’ll be able to have more ads. If we significantly surpass our goal, we’d like to contribute money towards funding organizations that teach programming to underrepresented groups.”
Those that help fund the project will receive various perks including #ILookLikeAnEngineer merchandise (socks, stickers, t-shirts, temporary tattoos).
In regards to why the campaign is “flexible funding,” Glauser added:
“We chose to use flexible funding in this campaign so that people could have the option of paying with credit cards. In the case we don’t reach our goal (leaving us without enough to get a billboard), the money will go towards funding organizations that teach programming to underrepresented groups.”
The campaign is set to close at the end of August.
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