STEM Her Way Black Girls Technology Program

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Executive Summary

STEM Her Way Black Girls Technology Program is a nonprofit that opens the world of technology to Black girls ages 11 to 17 with free after-school and summer classes in coding, design, robotics and data, a mentor who is a Black woman working in technology and visits to companies and colleges.

Black women hold a very small share of technology jobs, and the gap begins early, when girls decide what they believe they can do. Few schools offer computer science, and girls rarely see people who look like them in the field.

With this grant we will serve about 80 girls in Year 1 at 2 schools and a library. We do not promise any participant a job, an internship or a college place. We promise real skills, a screened mentor, careful supervision and a community that believes in her.

Our Year 1 budget is about $177,000, growing to about $222,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 5 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Manager and two part-time instructors) and 8 by Year 5.

We are asking the Bright Futures STEM Foundation for $55,000 for the Program Manager, program equipment and company and college visits. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

STEM Her Way Black Girls Technology Program is a nonprofit organization in Georgia. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. To open the world of technology to Black girls and surround them with the skills, mentors and community to stay in it.

What we do.
- Run free after-school and summer technology classes for girls ages 11 to 17.
- Teach coding, design, robotics and data skills through projects girls choose.
- Match each participant with a Black woman mentor who works in technology.
- Take participants on visits to technology companies and colleges.
- Host a showcase and a yearly technology fair for families.
- Lend laptops for use during the program and at home when needed.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We do not charge families, and we do not promise any participant a job, an internship or a college place. Mentors meet participants only at our sites, in public places or at our events. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of engineers, teachers and parents began running Saturday coding workshops for Black girls in a library. The girls kept coming and asked what came next. We kept simple records of who came, what they built and what they said. This proposal asks for support to move from Saturday workshops to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Black women hold a very small share of technology jobs, and the gap starts early, in middle and high school, when girls decide what they can do.

Cost. Coding camps, robotics clubs and computers cost money, and many families cannot add another bill.

Access. Few schools in our area offer computer science, and girls rarely see people who look like them working in the field.

Safety and trust. Parents want to know that mentors are screened, that the program is safe and that their daughters will be treated with respect.

Missed benefits. Girls who never get a first chance may decide technology is not for them and miss the careers and choices that come with it.

What we hear.
- A girl says she thought engineers were all men until she met one who looked like her.
- A teacher says her best student in math had never touched a robot.
- A mentor says the girls are not behind, they are just waiting for an invitation.
- A mother says her daughter now builds apps for fun.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that the right invitation, the right tools and a mentor who looks like her can change what a girl believes she can do.

Products & Services

STEM Her Way Black Girls Technology Program gives Black girls ages 11 to 17 a safe, welcoming place to learn technology and see themselves in it.

How the program works.
1. Sites. We partner with two schools and a library that provide rooms and Wi-Fi.
2. Sessions. Weekly two-hour sessions during the school year and a two-week summer program.
3. Projects. Girls choose paths in coding, design, robotics or data and build a project of their own.
4. Mentors. Each girl is matched with a mentor who works in technology and meets her monthly.
5. Visits. Girls visit technology companies and colleges and meet students and professionals.
6. Laptops. Girls use program laptops, and we lend a laptop for home when it is needed.
7. Showcase. A yearly fair invites families to see what the girls built.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our instructors and mentors are engineers, teachers and designers who pass a background check, complete our training and are paid or supported for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Programs are free. We welcome every girl who wants to take part, whatever her experience, and we offer meals and rides.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Black girls ages 11 to 17 who live near our partner sites and want to learn technology. Eligibility is based on school referral and income guidelines our board sets, and no girl is turned away for lack of experience.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our Saturday workshops we served full rooms and kept a waiting list. Teachers and parents told us that many more girls want to take part than we can serve. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 80 participants at 2 sites. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 200.

Where participants come from.
- Teachers, counselors and school clubs.
- Libraries and community centers.
- Technology employers and professional groups.
- Participants who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Families gain confident young women. Employers gain a stronger talent pipeline. Schools gain partners who support computer science.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a girl with her first working project. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. School computer science classes. Valuable and not available at every school. We partner with schools.

2. Private coding camps. Strong and costly. We offer a free alternative.

3. National programs for girls in technology. Excellent, with limited local reach. We add local capacity and a focus on Black girls.

4. Robotics clubs. Fun and often cost-limited. We provide equipment.

5. Online courses. Flexible, with little personal support. We add mentors and a cohort.

What makes us different.
- Free to every girl.
- Mentors who are Black women in technology.
- A project chosen by each girl.
- Laptops, meals and rides provided.
- A community of peers and a yearly showcase.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with school teachers, employers and other technology education programs to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Schools. We will work with teachers and counselors to share a one-page sign-up form in English and Spanish.
- Libraries and centers. We will post flyers and hold open workshops.
- Families. We will hold a short information night before each session.
- Employers and professional groups. We will invite staff to mentor and to host visits.
- Word of mouth. Many girls will find us through a friend.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Invite engineers, designers and teachers through employers, colleges and professional groups.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, projects finished, mentor meetings held and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Begin weekly sessions at two schools and the library.
- Months 4 to 10: Hold weekly sessions, monthly mentor meetings and company visits through the school year.
- Months 11 and 12: Run the summer program and showcase, survey girls and families, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Sessions are held in school labs and libraries, provided at no cost. Laptops are stored in locked carts.

Safety and privacy.
- Mentors meet girls only at our sites, in public places or at our events, and each meeting is logged.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $9,000 of equipment once at the start: laptops for the program lab (10) ($5,000), robotics kits and design tools ($2,500), projector and locking storage carts ($1,500). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Manager, paid $44,000 a year, runs sessions, mentors and partners. Two part-time instructors, each paid $16,000 a year, teach classes. We add an instructor as we add sites.

Management & Organization

Dr. Camille Rivers, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a software engineer who was often the only Black woman in the room. I will complete the training we require of our mentors so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Manager runs sessions, mentors and partners, and part-time instructors teach the classes. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a software engineer, a high school teacher, a parent, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a former participant. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A college computer science professor, an employer's community lead and a school principal give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $50,000 a year; program Manager, paid $44,000 a year; part-time Instructor, paid $16,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 80 participants at 2 sites.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 110 participants at 2 sites.
- Year 3: About 140 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 4: About 170 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 5: About 200 participants at 4 sites.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 40 percent of our budget, down from about 63 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $55,000 from the Bright Futures STEM Foundation for the Program Manager, program equipment and company and college visits, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Manager salary, $44,000.
- Supplies: Equipment and software for the program lab, $8,000 (other funds add $2,000).
- Travel: Company and college visits, $3,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 49% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $177,000, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $7,200 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $112,000; technology Company Partners $35,000; city and School Funding $22,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $50,000; program Manager $44,000; part-time Instructor $16,000; equipment and Software Licenses about $8,000; mentors and Guest Speakers about $6,000; field Trips and Competitions about $8,000; transportation and Meals about $8,000; instructor Training about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $9,000; about $3,800 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $18,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $5,000 for laptops for the program lab (10); $2,500 for robotics kits and design tools; $1,500 for projector and locking storage carts; $2,500 for attorney review of the consent form, mentor agreement and privacy policy; $1,800 for banners, bilingual flyers and a simple website; $2,200 for background checks and mentor training; $2,500 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($18,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $42,000, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $60,000. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $54,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a technology company, $62,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $177,000 in Year 1 to about $222,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $112,000, $98,000, $100,500, $86,500 and $89,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: technology Company Partners from $35,000 to $63,000; city and School Funding from $22,000 to $46,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $7,200 in Year 1, about $8,000 in Year 2, about $9,000 in Year 3, about $9,500 in Year 4 and about $10,800 in Year 5. We grow from 2 sites to 4 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $54,900, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $7,080 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per girl. In Year 1, our total costs are about $2,123 per girl served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more girl served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $1,058 per girl.

After the grant. City and school funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free technology option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of girls and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $112,000 in Year 1, growing to $89,500 in Year 5.
- Technology Company Partners: $35,000 in Year 1, growing to $63,000 in Year 5.
- City and School Funding: $22,000 in Year 1, growing to $46,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $50,000; program Manager $44,000; part-time Instructor $16,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: equipment and Software Licenses $8,000; mentors and Guest Speakers $6,000; field Trips and Competitions $8,000; transportation and Meals $8,000; instructor Training $3,000; administration and Insurance $9,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $9,000 at the start, then $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $18,000, paid once from $62,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 80 in Year 1, growing to about 200 in Year 5. Sites: 2 in Year 1, growing to 4 by Year 5. Sessions run weekly during the school year, with a two-week summer program.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs