Our Crowdfunding Groups
Our crowdfunding campaign has ended. You can still support the #BlackinChem Fund by clicking here.
You can directly support Black researchers in the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Ensure all Bruins have opportunities to gain education and experience that empower them to become the leaders we need now and in the future.
Your contribution, no matter the size, directly supports our Black students and community by providing the funds they need to advance their opportunities at UCLA and beyond.
Education can play a role in building racial equality and fair inclusion of Black voices, while inaction perpetuates inequality and the silencing of Black voices. Black Americans account for 6.5% of the California population but for only about 1% of professors in the UCLA physical sciences division and 3% of graduate and undergraduate students at UCLA. The division urgently needs to recruit and support Black academics.
WHAT IS #BLACKINCHEM?
#BlackInChem was organized by seven graduate students, postdocs and professionals from around the country, including our own Samantha Mensah of UCLA (pictured.) The movement launched with a week of virtual events that facilitate networking, sharing stories and exploring the challenges faced by people of color while studying and working in chemistry and related fields.
#BlackInChem encourages everyone to engage, amplify and support Black researchers.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Through this #BlackInChem initiative, we are supporting and empowering the next generation of Black scientists. We are working to endow a lectureship series that will highlight Black excellence in research.
Help us by amplifying Black voices and celebrating Black excellence in chemistry.
Being a Black scientist can feel quite lonely. When you look around the lab, there aren’t many people who look like you. Our primary goal for fundraising is to have 50 supporters that step up and say, “You aren’t alone.”
Thank you for supporting #BlackInChem at UCLA and for empowering the next generation of scientists, leaders and innovators. Together, we will promote a broader pool of talent to foster greater scientific accomplishments that benefit our society and the world.
While we have elected to utilize a participation goal for this campaign, signifying the importance of sharing and uplifting this project through as many supporters as possible, our ultimate goal is to raise $100,000 that will endow an annual Black lectureship series that will be open to the public and will celebrate Black scientists for years to come.
Your leadership gift of $10,000+ will tremendously help our mission to endow the lectureship series, ensuring that the sense of community and the celebration of research excellence continues year after year. To learn more about giving at a leadership level to support this endeavor, please contact Joy Kruger at: 310-363-9557 or jkruger@support.ucla.edu.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE UCLA FOUNDATION'S DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS FOR DONORS.
For current UCLA Bruins... who want to support other Bruins! Donate $8 in honor of the 8-Clap and feel the true Bruin spirit.
As of 2016, the top 75 U.S. chemistry departments (in NSF rankings of chemistry research spending) had 2,196 total professors, but only 51 Black professors. That’s 2.3%.
Help cover some of the costs of hosting a world-renown Black scientist for the inaugural event (virtually) and toward future in-person events which will help us reach and collaborate with a broader community.
In 2016, there were only 656 Black U.S. citizen or permanent resident chemistry graduate students.
Honor UCLA's graduating class with your gift made in support of the scientists of our future.
Covers the cost of one lecture—including honorarium, travel expenses, and catering to create a sense of community and the celebration of research excellence.