Indiegogo partners with Dell and Girls in Tech to support female entrepreneurs

Today Indiegogo announced a pledge to “offer extra support for women-run crowdfunding campaigns” for one year. The initiative starts now, on International Women’s Day.

Materially, Indiegogo is partnering with a number of organizations to host events “focused on supporting female entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground.” Those organizations include Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, Girls In Tech (U.S. and U.K.), Blooming Founders, Trep Life, and Lipstick and Politics, Indiegogo says. The company says it will also offer optional “one-on-one consultations” and “campaign mentoring from Indiegogo’s dedicated support team.”

Indiegogo says the initiative was created to diversify who runs successful campaigns on the platform — so far, 47 percent of funded campaigns on Indiegogo are run by women. Although some Indiegogo campaigns are not entrepreneurial, and that statistic may be dated (it was pulled in 2014), it far exceeds startup industry trends.

Indiegogo isn’t alone in its ability to thwart industry norms. Women are more likely to find success on Kickstarter than men, for example, according to a 2014 study.

In addition to raising awareness and promoting the platform, the success of Indiegogo’s pledge seems to depend on its ability to grow the number of funded campaigns run by women on the platform. That’s something we’re not able to measure, as the company declined to share an exact number with us. However, the company says it will share campaigns started due to the initiative here.