Bridge Foundry (including RailsBridge) becoming an independent non-profit!

[Sarah Allen]

For many months now, Bridge Foundry has been exploring the idea of establishing an independent non-profit organization. We’re excited to announce that we’re moving forward!

A bIt of history: in 2013, we decided to rename RailsBridge to be Bridge Foundry (and kept the RailsBridge name for the Rails workshops). We had this idea that we would be stronger if the other folks using our open source materials would join together in a single organization, and we have found that to be true. Your work has inspired and informed workshops for other languages and ideas from new groups have strengthened our shared services.

 

Why go independent? We will have more opportunities to fundraise and to tell a clear story about how Bridge Foundry’s central operations are related to the many Bridges and Chapters in our network. We now have an effective program board which includes representatives for all the Bridges, as well as an advisory board, and well-documented operations guide.

 

Why now?  Since 2013, Bridge Foundry has partnered with School Factory for its 501c3 operations and we have benefited from its help and guidance.  School Factory will be closing down, which prompted us to accelerate our timeline.

 

What does this mean to you?

• Short term: no change. Opportunity to help with the transition if you are interested.

• Mid term: (likely later in summer) We expect that we will need to set up new PEX cards after we set up a new bank account, and from your perspective, the same Bridge or Chapter balance will appear unchanged (just coming out of a different account).

• Long term: we expect to be well-positioned to advance the mission more effectively.

 

If you have immediate operational questions, please contact Mary (opera...@bridgefoundry.org). If you are curious about how the transition is being managed, see our Transition Project Dashboard for more information. If you want to help with the transition, please reply to me directly.  

 

Happy independence day!

 

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Sarah Allen

@ultrasaurus

Current: Bridge Foundry, Program Director

Interim President of not yet incorporated Bridge Foundry