Welcome to Tech by Choice's Paid Open Source Initiative, an innovative program that aims to support diversity in the open-source community by empowering underrepresented developers, designers, product managers, tech leaders, and more. Tech by Choice DAO is fundraising to launch our TBC Together program to turn more tech consumers into tech creators through our mentorship-focused, stipend-backed, open-sourced Web 3 integrated program.   Yes you read that right! Our initiative is designed to providing paid work opportunities to underrepresented people looking to grow in tech.

The Problem Companies advertise entry-level openings but prioritize people with experience leaving bootcamp grads and self-taught individuals out. People in this position look to open-source projects to build experiences. Many individuals from underserved communities have additional responsibilities (being caregivers or needing to work multiple jobs), leaving them without the privilege of working without compensation. 

Our Solution Through our TBC Together program, our members build their skills by working on stipend-backed open-source web 3 integrated projects. By the end of this program, members will have working projects that they can add to their portfolio paired with a mentorship that will last beyond the project.  

What we’ve done so far Through funds used for our last gitcoin round we’ve been able to knock out creating the infrastructure we need to get our community up and running.

• Created our open source educational hub that covers the following topics
  • Basic web 2 STEAM education
  • Web 3 basics
  • How to implement Web 3 solutions for social good
  • How to work with ENS's Sign-in with Ethereum
  • The importance of documentation
  • How to be better leaders
  • How to use industry standard tools
  • How to take a product to production
  • Navigating interviews and acceptances letters
• Built and launched our membership portal to facilitate onboarding for people
• Created and launch a psychology backed mentorship matching platform
• Hired our first community manager to help keep enactment going
• Launched our monthly newsletter
• Opened our cohort open source application

Our Impact During the beta role out of this program, we redesigned and launched a new website for Tech by Choice. From that initial cohort, 3 people landed a job, and one of the mentors received a promotion from leadership built through this program. Through the next cohort, we plan to see similar results at scale.

About Tech by Choice Tech by Choice is a 3-year-old nonprofit DAO on a mission to increase tech diversity by ensuring underestimated individuals know they can enter, stay, and thrive in all iterations of tech.

To achieve our mission, we offer low to no-cost tech skill-building events, workshops, and classes to anyone that identifies as a person of color, woman, LGTBQIA+, or disabled, no matter their immigration status or religious background; our only requirement is that our members are 18+.

Our Pillars Tech by Choice has a large mission and uses the following pillars to help our org stay focused. You can read more about our focus here.

Enter By understanding personal and career goals, we help underrepresented adults find roles best suited for them in tech.

Stay Marginalized groups face additional barriers both inside and outside of work. Through workshops around mental health, financial literacy, and more - we help others break through these barriers to reach their desired goals.

Thrive Landing a dream role in tech isn’t enough. Through community support, mentorship, and workshops - we ensure that our members have all the tools they need to thrive in their tech journey.

What makes us different? We are diverse by design, not by choice, to build collision of URMs The core leadership team is filled with Black women with industry experiences We understand Tech is more than just code, and so are we (marketing, technical writing, mental health, financial literacy, etc.)

Our Team. Tech by Choice strives to be a flat organization where members are encouraged to lead, take part in official organization matters, and build their confidence as leaders.

Our board and leadership team is filled with people who have expertise in Design, Tech Leadership, Technical Documentation, and more. Combined, our team has worked at companies like GitHub, Netlfix, Meta (Facebook), and Startups, and some started their own businesses.

You can view our team here (https://techbychoice.org/team)

What we've already done.

• Received our nonprofit status organization
• Established our Los Angeles, California Chapter
• Established our Oakland, California Chapter
• Hosted over 1700 hours of the community-driven programming
• Grown to 1,827 community members
• Hosted a hackathon that helped 11 Minority-Owned businesses thrive online during the start of the pandemic in 2020
• TBC Together beta cohort completed our community-driven rebrand and launched our new website.
• This cohort helped 3 out of the 4 cohort members land a job
• One cohort member received a promotion based on the skills they gained during this program
• Hosted an Empowered By Tech conference
• Host monthly Resumes & Portfolio reviews
• Figma featured us for our focus on learning through play as adults through our TBC & Chill events