Funding Our Future: Moonshot's First Giving Campaign!
From October 2 to November 10, Moonshot ran its first ever giving campaign. We are so grateful that, with our matching pledges, we raised $20,560! Thank you for your contribution and everything you’ve done to support Moonshot’s mission and vision. We’re powered by community, and we appreciate you.
Why the Campaign?
Moonshot edVentures has been invested in diversifying Colorado education since 2017, and we’re not stopping. We have big dreams for not just our organization’s future but that of our educators and our students. We’ve previously raised money directly for our Fellows and their ventures (such as in 2022 for our Shoot for the Moon Challenge when we raised $73,640!) but for the first time, we ran a giving campaign for Moonshot itself.
We set a goal of $10,000. With matching pledges from generous partners, we were able to secure a 2:1 match, raising a total of $20,560!
We were honored that Moonshot Fellows advocated for our campaign as well!
Funding Our Future
This campaign gives us permission and flexibility to support more Fellows in new ways, experiment with programming, and push the envelope of what’s possible.
As you know, every dollar in education makes a difference. For example:
$3,000 pays for Moonshot Fellows' Saturday Camp Pilots for 100 Colorado Youth
$1,500 pays for 20 Moonshot Fellows to run their first youth pilots in the Explore phase
$250 covers 2 sessions with an accounting, HR, or legal expert for a Fellow
Hear from Moonshot Fellows (and their Employees and Volunteers) on the way that Moonshot has impacted their journey and communities:
Our Impact So Far
In 2015, Christine DeLeon wrote down the idea for Moonshot on a post-it note. In the years since, Moonshot has empowered 100 education leaders in metro Denver to start schools, join local government and advocacy organizations, and affect change. We’ve done a lot we’re proud of (you can read last year’s impact report here), and we’re not stopping yet. Some of our milestones:
We are proud to share that >90% of Moonshot Fellows have stayed in education, and many cite Moonshot as a critical reason why.
Of our 100 Fellows, 85% identify as people of color and 70% identify as women, trans and/or nonbinary.
Every year, over 5,000+ students directly benefit from programming and learning spaces created by Moonshot and Moonshot Fellows.
CDL successfully transitioned out of her role as CEO in 2021 and Kat Ling succeeded her as CEO. Our organization has continued to grow -- we’re now a team of 6!
What’s Next
On November 9, we held our first-ever Community Showcase that featured all six cohorts of 100 Moonshot Fellows. It was an incredible experience; we’ll share more on that soon. The journey continues in 2024 — our application for Cohort 7 of the Moonshot Fellowship opens in January!
Meet Miles Iton (Moonshot Fellow, Cohort 6) and get to know his venture, Lo-Fi Language Learning, and how he’s creating unique opportunities for learners in Taiwan, Colorado, and around the world.