International Women’s Day: Female Innovator Spotlight

Lauren Allen

Today, March 8, Blackbaud is joining the global celebration of International Women’s Day to promote and raise awareness for gender equality. This means collectively working to build a gender-equal world, free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.To celebrate, we’re shining a spotlight on several female entrepreneurs in the tech industry who are also using their product solutions to make waves in the social good community! The Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program was designed to support diverse early-stage tech startups, use their solutions to help solve problems for social good. To date, we have supported 55 founders from 33 startups, with 23 of those founders being women!

Several of these amazing founders shared what it means to them to be a female leader in the social good technology industry. Kris Gocke, Crumb “As the founder of a social good tech company, I’m honored to serve and hopefully inspire other women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams—changing the world for the better, one venture at a time.” Lucy Bennett-Baggs, Force for Good “Being a female leader of a tech business that also gives back to society is both empowering and energizing. I’m privileged to have built a career full of purpose and I want to inspire the next generation of women to do the same.” Jasmine Chigbu, GrantEd “It means leading unapologetically with passion and conviction, knowing that women and girls can and will be the future of social good technology.” Sonya Tareke, Team Real Talk “Few life experiences have been more fulfilling for me than finding fellow female founders where we are all becoming the future leaders society needs!” Nicole Spracale, Thrivacy “By forging a path that is not always easy or well-received, yet staying true to your beliefs and purpose, you will make the road that much more smooth for those who come next.” Ashlee Ammons & Kerry Schrader, Mixtroz “Being not only female leaders but black female leaders means we can inspire and make history x2!” Jenny Xia Spradling, Freewill “We don’t need to compromise our values to hold power. Grab power to influence the world towards your values.” Laura Malcolm, Give in Kind “Leading a social good technology company is a unique opportunity to know that every hour I put in can directly be reflected as a positive impact in the life of someone else.” Aviva Rosman, BallotReady “Being a female leader means challenging biases about leadership and cultivating an inclusive company to make democracy work the way it should.” Jenn Graham, Inclusivv “As a woman founder leading a certified b-corporation, it feels so good knowing that we are walking the talk in creating a more inclusive and sustainable world.” Sevetri Wilson, Resilia “When women lead we are able to not only break barriers but influence even more women to build tech in the space.” Sonia Nigam, Change “It’s empowering to be innovating at the frontier of social good technology, and showing other young women that they too can confidently lead in tech.” Kimberly Moore, Go Together Inc. “Leading Go Together, I knew we had an opportunity to change the trajectory of a child’s family by removing a barrier to education. Breathtaking. Do well and good.” Renee Zau, Donation Match “It’s important to see women successfully creating out-of-the-box solutions for their own challenges, overcoming stereotypes and fears, and leveraging technology to spread their impact further.” Yemi Adewunmi, Civic Eagle “It motivates me to know that my work is impactful in numerous ways; that I’m not only building—from the ground up—a tech company that positively serves communities but that I am also setting an example for other women and girls to design their own solutions to challenging problems.” Erica Barnette, Thrivacy “To me, being a part of the social good technology industry is beyond empowering and shows that truly anything is possible with a good heart.” Blackbaud is proud to play a small role in supporting the accomplishments of these amazing women who are paving the way for future generations to come. To learn more about the Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program, visit www.blackbaud.com/social-good-startup-program.