Becoming Uncommon

When we set out to build this non-profit, our original idea was to create a youth-oriented, STEM-focused, charity. Essentially, we wanted to make sure that kids from some of the most disadvantaged parts of the world were getting the same access to coding and robotics that their peers in wealthier parts of the world were.

The name SPROUT Coding really worked with the brand we were going for. “SPROUT” sounded youthful & playful, and we could think of plenty of great metaphors that worked with the name and what we were trying to accomplish. As an acronym, SPROUT stood for Science Programming & Uncommon Technologies. Our founding mission was to expose kids to all sorts of amazing & mysterious technology!

Since those early days, we’ve evolved a lot! Most importantly, in our ambitions. Our goal is no longer just to give kids access to technology, but to create the infrastructure and build a pipeline for underprivileged youths and young adults to learn the skills they need to have meaningful careers in tech. Careers that mean escaping poverty forever. 

We’re doing this now through our Innovation Hubs - the super funky, bright colored, glass windowed, plant covered and solar powered shipping container offices we build in the low-income communities we serve. At these Hubs is where we run our free, 12 month Technology Bootcamps - our main focus being to prepare the young adults for their new careers in tech. 

The fun part about our education model is that a part of the Bootcamp experience is teaching and giving back. The young adults in the program form teaching teams and everyday they offer a free after school coding lesson at the public schools in the community. This experience, while so valuable for the kids who are getting their first ever coding experience, is also incredibly rewarding and important for the professional & personal development of the young adult. 

So...we’ve built some super different spaces and have a cool education model; we certainly are unique in our communities, but does that really warrant the shift to Uncommon.org?

One of the things that makes our organization truly uncommon is our business model. Typically, nonprofits rely on grants and donors to sustain their operations. Because we are teaching inherently monetizable skills, our belief is that we can create revenue streams that will help sustain our growth and take some of the burden off of the more traditional fundraising efforts. 

Today we’re designing, building and marketing websites for clients. When you choose us for your development needs, not only will it be an amazing learning experience for our students and developers who get to add the projects to their portfolios and can point to real work they’ve done in future job interviews, but 100% of the profits are used to further our EdTech mission! 

We think that’s pretty different. If you needed to build a website and one company took the profits and divided them amongst shareholders, and the other took the profits and used them to teach more low-income kids how to code, who would you choose?

We certainly won’t ever forget our roots with SPROUT, but we’re excited for this next chapter with Uncommon.org.