Our Efforts

Our mission is to support vulnerable boys and girls in STEM, from age 8 until they land their first job. We support them through multiple actions and efforts, focusing on areas not currently covered by the public administration.

We provide funding to NGOs (after-school programs, robotic courses for kids, IT materials/hardware), sponsor educational programs (summer camps, bootcamps, technical education or superior studies). Additionally, we support the students during the entire process, by mentoring and helping them get their first internship or job.

Collaboration with NGOs

Tere are many well-structured organizations actively supporting STEM students in need. We acknowledge their experience and collaborate with them through cash donations, so that they can improve or extend their support to even more people. By 2023, FriquiFund has donated ~130k€ to the following NGOs:

1. AEIRaval (Associació Educativa Integral del Raval): Support vulnerable youngsters in Raval and other neighbourhoods in BCN in pursuing studies and finding initial jobs with both sponsorship of study-related costs and coaching.
2. IRES (Click program): Support vulnerable youngsters in Sant Martí in BCN in pursuing tech studies and finding initial jobs with both sponsorship of study-related costs and coaching on social, psychological and educational topics.
3. MigraCode: Code academy for refugees and migrants via a free 8-month bootcamp for web development or security & IT support.
4. Scientia (Girls Gems program): Robotics-for-kids program addressed to 8-to-12-year-old girls (and boys!) enrolled in highly-complex schools in the greater BCN.
5. BarcelonaActua: Committed people who connect to help cover social needs in our neighborhoods.
6. eXplorium: Transversal learning of science, technology, engineering, and maths, through experimentation and gaming.
7. Factoria F5: Building the first network of solidarity, inclusive and free digital schools in Spain, dedicated to offering programming and web development opportunities to people in vulnerable situations.
8. Lutravioleta: Activities and events to bring the female footprint closer to the world of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics: STEAM.

Mentoring and Internships

Lots of members in FriquiFund have IT, engineering or science-related professional careers. This provides us with the knowledge and workforce to run a Mentoring program, and an Internships program. We started these programs mid 2022. By the end of 2023 we are mentoring 21 students.

Mentoring: We guide students and help them in the process of deciding their future, finding internships and professional opportunities, applying for a job or preparing for job interviews. A mentor is assigned to the student and one-to-one sessions or calls are scheduled to discuss any topic of interest of the student. In the following links more information can be found regarding the mentoring program and how to apply for it:

• Mentoring (English version)
• Mentoría (Spanish version)

Internships: FriquiFund has a close relationship with Barcelona tech companies through its members. This enables us to connect students with internship opportunities, and the other way around. By the end of 2022, we have successfully organized 6 internships in Barcelona companies.

Others: Finally, our ambition is to provide help in any STEM-related area. We are aware that a challenge some of our students face is not having access to IT material. In this area, we facilitate hardware donations to NGOs and students (7 PCs so far).

Related Initiatives

There are many initiatives, NGOs, projects and companies that work in related areas. Every year our members vote on which of their projects to fund.

You can find here the full list of initiatives we know of!