One of our WPCampus traditions is to use the “previously allocated to swag” portion of our event income to support a nonprofit organization.
Traditionally, we sponsor a fundraising campaign to support a local organization. For WPCampus 2019, we raised $3,000 for Free Geek in Portland, Oregon.
For WPCampus 2020 Online, we decided to recognize and support the vital #BlackLivesMatter movement and those struggling with COVID-19. We chose five organizations and asked community members and conference attendees to submit matching donations.
With a goal of $3,000 in matched donations, we received $2,340 in submissions. Among our trivia and door prize winners, ten elected to donate their winnings towards a selected organization. These donations increased the total amount by $200. We divided the remaining $460 (towards our $3,000 goal) among the organizations.
While we didn't quite reach our goal of $3,000 in matched donations, the WPCampus organization donated $3,000 and overall helped to raise $5,340. We consider the campaign a great success!
Here are the numbers donated to each organization. We invite you to learn more about each organization and continue to contribute to their cause.
- Black Girls Code: $507 from WPCampus, $882 overall
- Black Lives Matter: $817 from WPCampus, $1502 overall
- Feeding America: $327 from WPCampus, $522 overall
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund: $1,062 from WPCampus. $2,012 overall
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): $287 from WPCampus, $422 overall
Thank you to all who donated. WPCampus is a community before its a conference. We are humans before we are web professionals. One of our organizational pillars will always be to do what we can to support and care for each other.
As a side note: we are publishing session recordings from the conference as soon as they are processed. The first one available is an excellent presentation from Joe Dolson: "Update on the Gutenberg accessibility audit”: https://2020.wpcampus.org/schedule/update-on-gutenberg-accessibility-audit/#video
Check the WPCampus 2020 schedule often for new recordings. We will publish a blog post when the process is complete.