Make a Maker, Build a Fixer
Our goals are simple, yet incredibly impacting—Help people in these group learn a skill, help create more opportunities to serve more people, and help individuals succeed. We do this through four primary funds:
Make It Scholarship Fund
Scholarships that allow our students to offset tuition to receive training from generous industry partners in the maker space, such as Impact NW, Worksystems Inc, Oregon Tradeswomen, and Heritage School of Interior Design. Programs have been prototyped over several years, with your help, people of all ages and backgrounds in our target communities will be able to learn new skills that they can use to get a job or start a business in the design and manufacturing sectors. From digital design like 3D rendering to hands-on work such as fabrication and manufacturing, our constituency will learn the 21st century skills needed to get high-demand jobs in the Portland market.
Make It Startup Fund
Currently, our makerspace partners host a number of startup businesses that are prototyping and testing locally made consumer products. We seek to facilitate access for our students/graduates to professional services such as web development, financial projections, accounting, and marketing services can help fledgling businesses survive the early stages of growth.
Make It Tools Fund
Our partner organizations support many makers from diverse backgrounds. Many of the makers do not have the appropriate equipment and tools to start of expand their businesses. The Make It Tools Fund will provide grants and funding to our partners and clients to purchase tools and equipment to help grow their businesses or assist in
obtaining employment.
Make It Workforce Fund
We will work with partner organizations such as ADX Portland, PCC MakerSpace, Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center, Worksystems Inc. and Impact NW to expand workforce training programs, and build programs that not only focus on hands-on training, but on “soft skills” such as punctuality, basic shop safety and teamwork. The goal of this fund is to create programs that will allow graduates to immediately apply for job openings that pay a good living wage, include further on-the-job training and solid benefits such as paid college tuition.
Our foundation couldn’t function without the help of generous sponsors. If you’d like to talk with us or learn more, please contact us.