Drupalistas Spent Our Entire Swag Budget. Where did the Money Go?

This April at DrupalCon Nashville, in addition to wanting to meet colleagues and soak up the great talks, we wanted to create a forum for the international Drupal community to do good. That’s why we used our sponsor booth wall as a space for attendees to promote nonprofits that work for causes that matter to them. During the con we used our social channels to define the #Drupal4Good hashtag as shorthand for “Drupal is a platform for social change-makers,” and to put our money where our hashtag is, we donated our swag budget to all of the nonprofits that attendees promoted on our booth wall. By the time the con was over, our visitors had sent our swag budget to over 150 nonprofits. Get our thoughts behind the booth and see who the community gave to.

Why Not Just Give Away T-Shirts?

We’re proud of the work we do, and we love it when people wear our T-shirts. But we wanted our donation booth and the #Drupal4Good conversation to get people excited about what we’re excited about—amplifying the messages of socially impactful organizations—and T-shirts don’t cut it. Before we were Kalamuna, we each worked with causes that mean something to us. We’ve worked with political campaigns and arts organizations and every other kind of endeavor that means something to the human soul. And at some point, we decided to apply our skills in technology, communications and design to these causes—to work on something bigger.

Office Manager Ken Lo used the project to send money to Black Lives Matter.

Our project manager Kristin Sartain in front of our donation wall on day 1 of DrupalCon. Our goal was to fill the entire wall with attendees’ messages to their favorite nonprofits by the end of the week-long conference.

Who DrupalCon Nashville Gave to

It came as no surprise to see, yet again, that Drupalistas also connect with something bigger. In all, we sent 200 charitable donations through our booth, sending $2,000 to nonprofits around the world. Participants promoted their organizations on their social channels, using the hashtag #Drupal4Good. Check out some of their posts:

The National Alliance on Mental Illness builds better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. Thanks to Robert Shell for sending some $$ their way.

YES! to Black girls coding. Thanks Selena Strain for giving to Black Girls Code.

Victoria Chapman gave to Safe Passage in Northampton, MA-based org that builds safety and justice for survivors of domestic violence and their children.

Thanks Precious McKoy for giving to SHIELD Mentor Program, a Greensboro, NC-based group that organizes mentorship for youth.

Black Lives Matter. Thanks Marc Drummond for supporting this crucial organization.

Big thumbs-up to Mike Milano for giving to The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends our civil liberties in the digital world.

10 Most Donated-to Organizations

1. The Electronic Frontier Foundation

1. Planned Parenthood

2. Black Lives Matter

3. Girls Who Code

4. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

5. Black Girls Code

6. American Civil Liberties Union

7. Nature Conservancy

8. Habitat for Humanity

9. March for Our Lives

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who participated in #Drupal4Good. Special thanks to DrupalCon for providing a forum for this to happen. We hope our action inspires folks to keep doing work for causes that matter to them.

From left to right: project manager Kristin Sartain, sr. architect Hawkeye Tenderwolf, booth helper + friend Jacqui, and our office manager, Ken Lo.