$300K Kauffman grant will keep no-cost LaunchCode coding classes in KC another two years

Sourced in community building through enhanced access to resources, a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will allow LaunchCode Kansas City to continue its training program for at least two additional years, the program announced Thursday.

“It’s very exciting. We know that it’s, in part, through the vision of the Kauffman Foundation that LaunchCode could start up in Kansas City [in 2015] and that vision continues now — to help us build and grow,” Jeffrey Mazur, LaunchCode executive director, told a crowd during the graduation ceremony for the program’s most recent class.

Jeffrey Mazur and Kevin Kickham, LaunchCode

In total, the Kauffman grant will provide LaunchCode with $300,000 to help sustain the program, explained Kevin Kickham, director of institutional giving at LaunchCode.

“There are bootcamps out there that charge people — we don’t charge a dime,” Kickham said. “We are tremendously grateful that the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation believed in that mission and made it possible to get started.”

Click here to learn more about and to apply for coming LaunchCode classes.

A “cornerstone” of the program, LaunchCode might not exist if it weren’t for the open minds at Kauffman, Mazur said.

“We’re forever grateful for their deep and generous support,” he told the crowd in acknowledgement of the impact the grant could have on emerging tech talent in Kansas City.

Additionally, Mazur announced VMLY&R as the largest hiring partner of LaunchCode Kansas City.

Click here for more about how the ongoing partnership has impacted graduates.

“Without the folks who hire people from our program, the whole thing collapses,” Mazur said.

Such an acknowledgment is a reflection of the full-service marketing firm’s commitment to serving as a compiler for coding talent in the metro, he said.

Five of LaunchCode’s fall 2018 graduates began work at VMLY&R this week, the company said.

Thursday’s ceremony graduated more than 80 coders from the no-cost program — the first group since LaunchCode began a new on-campus partnership with Rockhurst University in 2018, LaunchCode said.

Rockhurst will continue to host LaunchCode classes, the university announced during the ceremony.