Madrona Venture Group is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, and it is doing so with two large gifts to non-profit efforts that support STEM education efforts in Washington state.
Madrona is announcing this morning that it is donating $10,000 to the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship as part of this fall’s Geeks Give Back campaign, presented by GeekWire and Bank of America. The effort provides scholarships to low and middle-income high school graduates to pursue STEM or healthcare degrees, with the goal of fostering the next generation of developers, scientists and mathematicians in the state.
Madrona also is donating $10,000 to Code.org to help support the training of computer science educators in the state.
“It’s both important to our investment strategy, but also to this economic engine that I think has been so powerful over the last 20 years in creating jobs,” said Madrona’s Tom Alberg in announcing the gifts.
GeekWire and Bank of America announced the Geeks Give Back campaign earlier this month at the GeekWire Summit, with the goal of raising $500,000 for the WSOS.
As part of the campaign, Seattle angel investor and philanthropist Gary Rubens agreed to match all donations raised through Geeks Give Back this fall, up to $125,000. The state of Washington also matches all funds raised.
With the gift from Madrona — the largest to date — the campaign has raised over $160,000. For more information on the effort, visit the Geeks Give back campaign page here or read coverage of the fundraising drive on GeekWire.
Last year, more than 780 scholarships were awarded across Washington state through WSOS.
Fifty two percent of all scholarship recipients are the first in their family to attend college, and more than 60 percent of scholarships go to women.
Madrona, the Seattle venture capital firm that has bankrolled companies such as Amazon, Redfin and Isilon Systems, has long been a supporter of STEM education in the state.
The firm is the presenter of the Madrona Prize at the University of Washington’s computer science department, and Alberg previously served as co-chair of the fundraising effort for the university’s campaign to raise funds for a new computer science building.
“We’re really interested in how do we expand STEM education and the teaching of it both at the high school level and at the university,” said Alberg.
