Kiteworks and The Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Supporting students from historically underprivileged backgrounds

With education taking a significant hit during the pandemic, the risk of an irreversible education divide between vulnerable students and their peers has increased.

Kiteworks, a private cloud solutions company focused on secure file sharing and collaboration, aimed to address this challenge by supporting the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), which assists c.300,000 students attending the 47 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the United States.

Kiteworks supported TMCF in two ways:

• Supporting the COVID-19 Historically Black Universities Emergency Fund, which provides technology support and reimbursement to students
• Contributing to the STEM Scholarship Fund, a needs-based scholarship program geared toward STEM students.

The initiative had an immediate impact, enabling TMCF to process additional equipment requests and allow students to remain in school without an additional debt burden. Additionally, the scholarship program provided a pathway for students in the HBCU network to progress into employment with companies such as Kiteworks.

Positive impact:

• 225 students provided with scholarship support and access to essential technology