Ada Initiative fund-raising campaign a success

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ada Initiative fund-raising campaign hits target a week early

The Ada Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to supporting women in open
technology and culture, successfully met its first fund-raising target
one week before the planned closing date of June 30th.  The Seed 100
campaign raised over $80,000 from 102 donors of $512 or more in just
24 days.  "This fund-raising campaign was our first real test of
community support for the Ada Initiative and it was overwhelmingly
positive," says Mary Gardiner, Director of Operations.  Valerie
Aurora, Executive Director of the Ada Initiative, says "It's easy for
people to say they support women in open culture and technology, but
when they pull out their own wallets, you know they are serious."

The money raised in the Seed 100 funding round will go towards program
development and project planning, spanning the gap between initial
angel funding and long-term corporate sponsorships.  "Sponsoring the
Ada Initiative is an easy way for any organization to make a
difference," says Luke Kanies, CEO of Puppet Labs, an early Ada
Initiative corporate sponsor. "We want to help create the kind of
culture shift that will make open source development thrive with the
participation of all genders," says Sage Weil, co-founder of
Dreamhost, another Ada Initiative corporate sponsor.

The Ada Initiative focuses on scalable, reusable, and effective
programs aimed at both recruitment and retention of women in open
technology and culture.  On-going projects include making community
conferences more welcoming to women by adopting written standards for
attendee behavior and a survey of women in open technology and culture
with nearly 3000 respondents.  Planned programs include First Patch
Week, partnering with open source companies to mentor university
students through their first open source patch, and AdaCamp, a
conference focused on women in open technology and culture.  For more
information, see:

http://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/

The full list of Seed 100 funders is available at:

http://adainitiative.org/support-us/seed-100-funders/

The Ada Initiative thanks its Angel Funders, Linux Australia, Puppet
Labs, and Dreamhost for their early support, and its first Venture
Philanthropist funder, Google.  Contact the Ada Initiative at
donors@adainitiative.org to discuss sponsorship at the Platinum, Gold,
Silver, and Bronze levels, or donate at the Venture Philanthropist
level of sponsorship on our web site at:

http://adainitiative.org/sponsors-and-supporters/support-...

About the Ada Initiative

The Ada Initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to
increasing participation of women in open technology and culture,
founded by long-time women in open technology activists and
programmers Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner.  The Ada Initiative is
named for Countess Ada Lovelace, widely recognized as the world's
first computer programmer.  The Ada Initiative partners with
organizations and communities to increase the participation of women
in ways that shape the technology, such as open source software design
and development, writing for Wikipedia, and community leadership.

Contact details:

Email: press@adainitiative.org
Phone: +1 (415) 779-5914
Website: http://adainitiative.org/
Current press: http://adainitiative.org/press/

Materials:
All Seed 100 funders listed by order of contribution:
http://adainitiative.org/support-us/seed-100-funders/

The 2D Goggles signed print, one reward for seed funders:
http://adainitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/lovel...

A portrait of Ada Lovelace, one reward for seed funders:
http://adainitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/adalo...

About Sydney Padua, creator of the 2D Goggles print reward:

Sydney Padua is an animator and cartoonist based in London. Her web
comic "2D Goggles: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage"
began in 2009 and centres on the adventures of fictionalised computing
pioneers Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage as they fight crime.  2D
Goggles began as a one-off comic written for Ada Lovelace Day, founded
by one of Sydney's friends, Suw Charman, and grew from there.  The 2D
Goggles web site also features many blog posts about the process of
creating the comic, including links to primary sources and analysis of
comic design.

Sydney's home page: http://sydneypadua.com/

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage:
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/series/

About Colin Adams, creator of the Ada Lovelace portrait reward:

Colin Adams is a freelance illustrator working out of the San
Francisco Bay Area in California. Colin has a passion for geek and
computer culture, working on everything from steampunk accessories to
video game character design to magazine illustrations. Colin conceived
and drew the current LinuxChix logo, a woman driving a robotic penguin
nicknamed "Robotux" (later remixed as the Unicorn/Robotux logo for
Haecksen).

Colin's work can be seen at: http://www.colinadams.com/

Robotux logo: http://www.linuxchix.org/sites/all/themes/linuxchix/image...
Unicorn/Robotux logo:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LHeDOWhialc/S6qcUW2xQLI/AAAAAAA...