SLCCE
SLCCE
A roadmap for SLCCE’s transition from a single collegiate chapter into a national 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit.
Living document · Version 2.0
Copyright SLCCE Inc. 2026
Students Leading Collaborative Computing Education (SLCCE) is a mission-driven nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that every student, regardless of socioeconomic status, can engage with computing education and college-preparatory resources. This plan charts SLCCE’s five-year transition from a single collegiate chapter with localized impact into a national 501(c)(3) educational organization operating across multiple regions.
Over the next five years, SLCCE will pursue four strategic goals: expansion into critical STEM regions across the country; full-scale operations supported by staff and facilities; diversified capital campaigns that enable sustainable growth; and the expansion of programming into broader STEM disciplines beyond introductory computing.
The plan is deliberately sequenced so that infrastructure precedes expansion. Safeguarding and compliance are established before programming scales; governance and financial oversight mature in step with chapter growth; and no paid position or facility is committed before its funding source is secured. A first-year Community and Stakeholder Needs Assessment will ground subsequent decisions in evidence, and an impact-measurement framework will hold the organization accountable to outcomes rather than activity alone.
This is a living document. Its targets and timelines reflect SLCCE’s best current judgment and are expected to evolve as the organization learns from its needs assessment, its chapters, and its partners. Bracketed items marked in this document indicate decisions or figures to be finalized by leadership before adoption.
SLCCE’s theory of change is direct: when passionate college students and community members are equipped with high-quality, accessible curriculum and placed into under-resourced classrooms, students who would otherwise lack exposure to computing gain the curiosity, confidence, and preparation to pursue STEM pathways. By pairing boots-on-the-ground chapters with centrally developed, validated curriculum and durable community partnerships, SLCCE converts local volunteer energy into measurable, equitable, and lasting change in the communities that need it most.
SLCCE aims to ensure that every student, regardless of socioeconomic status, has the opportunity to engage with computing education and college-preparatory resources, empowering them to pursue careers in STEM fields and become leaders in their communities.
Through a network of student volunteers, industry professionals, educators, and additional partners, SLCCE will create an inclusive ecosystem that bridges the gap between underrepresented communities and opportunities in computing.
SLCCE is guided by three core values: authenticity, dedication, and wonder.
As part of its mission to develop transformative and impactful programming, SLCCE will conduct an extensive Community and Stakeholder Needs Assessment during its first year. This study establishes the evidence base for national expansion and the baseline against which future impact is measured.
The primary objective is to synthesize quantitative data and qualitative insight to guide SLCCE’s expansion. Specifically, the assessment will enable the organization to:
Completing this study will equip SLCCE with a comprehensive understanding of the current K–12 STEM education landscape in the United States, allowing the organization to pinpoint how and where it can best serve. Information will be gathered from a wide range of sources, including publicly available metrics from educational organizations, focus groups and listening sessions, and surveys distributed to administrators, teachers, community organizers, and others.
The assessment will build understanding across several key areas: target communities where socioeconomic conditions limit STEM opportunity; the academic landscape from the perspective of students, teachers, and administrators; collegiate hosts near target communities suited to become chapters; ethical applications in engineering to mirror in workshop content; and organizations and companies that may complement SLCCE’s work or serve as financial resources. SLCCE intends to publish portions of this study upon completion.
Over the next five years, SLCCE will transition from a single campus chapter with localized impact into a national educational nonprofit, expanding its reach through a comprehensive suite of services collectively designated the SLCCE Ecosystem. While the work itself remains constant, the organizational strategy enables systematic scaling of impact through targeted geographic growth and deep institutional relationships in high-need communities nationwide.
Collegiate chapters are an integral part of SLCCE’s ecosystem. Chapters mobilize passionate college students and community members to deliver high-quality programming directly to nearby classrooms. SLCCE will ensure chapters have the resources and infrastructure to sustain long-term local partnerships, scale their workshop operations, and remain deeply aligned with the organization’s mission of advancing STEM equity. Chapter activity centers on three initiatives:
Initial expansion will establish chapters within North Carolina, targeting universities and colleges near at-risk schools and districts. While maintaining its North Carolina presence, SLCCE will identify, evaluate, and initiate expansion into additional regions. To this end, SLCCE will establish chapters in at least three distinct regions by Year 3, for a total of four chapters. Each active chapter will host at least two workshops per semester. By Year 5, this footprint will mature into full-scale regional operations with multiple chapters per territory, scaling workshop frequency to four per semester for established chapters and four per year for newly founded ones.
Beginning in Year 3, SLCCE will convene an annual leadership conference that brings chapter leadership teams together for training, alignment, and community-building. The conference’s travel, venue, and staffing costs are accounted for within the annual operating budget.
As an educational organization, SLCCE is defined by the quality, relevance, and accessibility of its curriculum. Bridging the STEM gap requires curriculum that is accessible, adaptable, and engaging enough to spark curiosity in learners. SLCCE’s curriculum is built on four principles:
Responsibility for curriculum development and distribution shifts from chapters to national SLCCE, executed across phased milestones: core optimization, in which current curriculum is reviewed, polished, and published; needs assessment and infrastructure setup, in which a team is established to develop and revise curriculum in additional STEM fields; and advanced field development and validation, in which materials are developed internally, peer-reviewed by K–12 teachers and industry professionals, and published.
Shifting curriculum ownership from chapters to national SLCCE requires operational infrastructure that must be resourced rather than assumed:
SLCCE’s expansion requires internal organizational growth to support its mission. The organization will systematically build out its corporate, structural, and administrative capacity across five phases. Governance and support infrastructure are sequenced to keep pace with, and where possible precede, program expansion.
To fund geographic expansion and the transition to full-scale operations, SLCCE will reduce reliance on erratic individual donations and replace it with a diversified, self-sustaining capital architecture built on three pillars.
SLCCE Kits are at-home STEM exploration kits that complement the organization’s open-source lesson plans, alongside at-scale kits for classrooms and communities.
Because SLCCE Kits are a physical product line rather than a simple donation stream, the plan requires a one-page business case before manufacturing begins. That case will define the unit economics (cost to produce versus price), the upfront capital required and its source, fulfillment and distribution logistics, product-liability and sales-tax obligations (see Section 9), a break-even estimate, and a named owner. Kits will not be positioned as a primary near-term revenue replacement until this case is validated.
SLCCE will develop state-level donor galas and pursue institutional venture philanthropy to anchor major-gift and campaign revenue in each region where the organization operates.
Chapters will sustain institution-level activities through a mix of self-funding mechanisms, including Double Good fundraisers, university appropriations, campus-level fundraisers, local grants, and parent-organization appropriations. SLCCE will develop and share documentation enabling chapters to execute these efforts consistently.
Sound governance is the legal and ethical backbone of SLCCE Inc. The structures below are sized to the organization’s current stage and designed to scale deliberately, so that oversight capacity grows in step with programmatic reach.
The Board of Directors holds fiduciary responsibility and ensures the organization operates in strict accordance with 501(c)(3) regulations as defined by the Internal Revenue Service.
To ensure long-term operational health, SLCCE will stand up three subcommittees on a staggered schedule rather than all at once. To maintain lean governance, no more than three board members may sit on any single subcommittee at a given time; remaining seats may be filled by non-board subject-matter volunteers or advisors. All subcommittees are subject to review and reevaluation every three years to confirm they remain relevant, productive, and aligned with the organization’s goals.
To satisfy IRS expectations under Form 1023 and the annual Form 990, and to protect organizational integrity, SLCCE adopts the following policies:
The Advisory Board is a high-leverage, non-voting body providing specialized industry, technical, and academic insight to the National C-Suite and Board of Directors. Because members carry no legal or fiduciary liability, their focus is purely strategic: opening institutional doors, validating curriculum expansions, and anchoring SLCCE’s credibility in new regions. A founding cohort of three to five advisors is seated in Year 3, expanding to full size by Year 4, so that advisory capacity is available during expansion rather than after it.
Advisory members accelerate the strategic plan through three pillars: curriculum validation and industry alignment, through annual peer review of SLCCE’s workshops as the organization expands into new STEM disciplines; institutional network activation, acting as regional ambassadors who introduce SLCCE leadership to CSR funders, foundations, and district decision-makers; and C-Suite mentorship, pairing experienced advisors with volunteer executives by functional alignment to protect leadership from burnout. Candidates may be nominated by any active Board or C-Suite member and are confirmed by majority vote of the Board. An advisory seat may be dissolved at the end of a two-year term, or sooner by majority vote, if an advisor becomes unresponsive or their expertise no longer aligns with organizational priorities.
The National C-Suite executes the strategic plan under Board oversight. Roles are provisional and will be confirmed as the organization staffs up:
C-suite roles begin as volunteer positions requiring approximately 20 hours per week. A role converts to a compensated position only when a funded salary line exists and the Board approves. Conversion is triggered when either of the following thresholds is met: unrestricted revenue exceeds a Board-set threshold, or the role sustains more than a Board-set weekly-hour ceiling for two consecutive quarters.
No role is committed as paid before its funding source is secured.
SLCCE monitors its own operational health as deliberately as it monitors program delivery. Executive workload is tracked against the volunteer model so that sustained overload becomes an early-warning signal rather than a cause of attrition; volunteer retention and hours are measured across chapters; and the diversification of revenue is reviewed regularly to confirm the organization is moving away from single-source dependence. These indicators are reported to the Board and inform decisions about when to convert volunteer roles to paid positions and when to establish new offices.
SLCCE’s expansion depends on variables outside its full control, funding cycles, university approvals, volunteer capacity, and partner readiness. The following contingencies protect the mission when a milestone slips:
SLCCE places college-age volunteers and community members in direct contact with K–12 minors and distributes kits and supplemental coursework to students and households. This section establishes the minimum safeguards that must be in place before any programming is delivered outside the flagship chapter, and the compliance obligations that scale with national and multi-state growth. It operationalizes the organization’s commitment to ethical impact. Legal specifics referenced here must be confirmed with counsel and the relevant university risk office and are not settled by this document.
Every individual who interacts with minors on SLCCE’s behalf must be screened and trained before their first student-facing activity. These requirements apply uniformly to every chapter and are a condition of remaining in good standing.
Participation requires documented parental or guardian permission rather than assumed consent, collected before a student joins a workshop or receives an at-home kit and coordinated with the host school or district where one is involved. SLCCE will collect participation consent covering the activity, its risks, and emergency contact information; a separate, opt-in media release for any use of a student’s image, work, or likeness; and will offer these materials in the primary languages of the target community, consistent with the organization’s equity mission.
SLCCE’s needs assessment, workshops, and any online kit coursework will collect information about minors. A written data-privacy policy will define what is collected, why, who may access it, how long it is retained, and how it is deleted. Two federal frameworks shape this and should be reviewed with counsel: FERPA, where SLCCE handles student education records on a school’s behalf under a written agreement; and COPPA, where any website, app, or online coursework directed to children under 13 collects personal information. State student-privacy laws may add requirements in each state of operation. The policy defaults to collecting the minimum data necessary, storing it securely with restricted access, and publishing a plain-language privacy notice to parents.
Physical events with minors and a physical product line each carry liability that volunteer goodwill does not cover. Coverage is secured in step with the activities that create the exposure:
| Coverage | Triggered by | Target timing |
|---|---|---|
| General liability | In-person workshops and events with minors | Before first non-flagship workshop |
| Product liability | SLCCE Kits shipped to households and classrooms | Before first kit sale or distribution |
| Directors and Officers (D&O) | A formal Board assuming fiduciary duty | At Board formation (Year 2) |
| Cyber / data | Collecting and storing minors’ data online | Before online coursework or data collection at scale |
The plan’s fundraising strategy, including a donor event in every state where a chapter exists, activates obligations that most single-state nonprofits never encounter. Soliciting donations in a state generally requires registering as a charity there, and operating there may require foreign-entity registration. These are recurring and administrative:
These safeguards are sequenced so that no capability launches ahead of the protection it requires: screening, consent, and event insurance in Year 1; D&O coverage and a finalized privacy policy at Board formation in Year 2; safeguarding onboarding extended to every new chapter and registration in each new operating state in Year 3; product liability and sales-tax compliance ahead of scaled kit distribution in Year 4; and a full audit of all safeguarding, insurance, and filings as part of the Year 5 review. A single accountable owner, provisionally a C-suite officer with a compliance portfolio, supported by the Finance and Audit Committee, holds this responsibility; until that role is staffed, it sits with the national lead.
SLCCE’s five-year goals measure activity: chapters founded, workshops held, donor events, and kit markets. Those measures are necessary but insufficient, the organization could achieve every one and still have no evidence that the opportunity gap in computing is narrowing. This framework adds the outcome and equity measures that show whether the mission is being achieved, tied to the Year 1 needs assessment that establishes the baseline.
An output counts what SLCCE does; an outcome measures what changes for students as a result. A chapter can deliver four workshops a semester while reaching only students who already had strong STEM access, leaving the actual gap untouched. Measuring outcomes and equity keeps SLCCE honest about its mission and produces the credible evidence funders, districts, and the planned published study will expect.
| Stage | For SLCCE |
|---|---|
| Inputs | Volunteers, curriculum, kits, partners, funding |
| Activities | Workshops, mentorship, at-home kits, college-prep resources |
| Outputs | Students reached, workshops held, chapters and regions active |
| Outcomes | Gains in STEM confidence, interest, skills, and college-going intent among served students |
| Impact | A measurably narrower opportunity gap in computing for underrepresented communities |
SLCCE tracks four tiers of metrics. Targets are set against the Year 1 baseline rather than guessed in advance.
SLCCE does not need a separate measurement apparatus. The Year 1 needs assessment establishes the baseline, and lightweight instruments embedded in normal programming capture change over time: short, age-appropriate pre/post surveys at workshops as the primary outcome instrument; aggregate, consent-based demographic capture through partner schools; and periodic facilitator and partner-teacher reflections for qualitative context. All collection involving minors complies with the safeguarding standards in Section 9, minimum necessary data, parental consent, and privacy-protective aggregation.
SLCCE reports a chapter activity snapshot each semester to the national team and chapter leadership; an annual outcome and equity dashboard to the Board and Advisory Board; and a milestone-based impact section within its published study. The Chief Program and Curriculum Officer owns measurement, with academic members of the Advisory Board validating instruments so that results are credible enough to publish. Until that role exists, the national lead owns it. Once the Year 1 needs assessment is complete, concrete targets will be set for each metric, including:
SLCCE pursues four strategic goals over five years:
| Year | Plan |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | Identify all target regions, including at-risk schools and districts within each. Begin founding a second North Carolina chapter. |
| Year 2 | Maintain and strengthen the North Carolina presence. Make expansion into a second region a major focus, establishing at least one chapter in another region by year-end. |
| Year 3 | Hold a presence in at least three identified regions, for a total of four chapters. Active chapters host at least two workshops per semester, and each leadership team attends the inaugural annual SLCCE leadership conference. |
| Year 4 | Support newly established chapters in securing a local foothold, partnering with public and private school systems and funding sources, and scale workshop operations to reach more students. The annual conference continues. |
| Year 5 | Maintain a presence in all three regions with multiple chapters each; the annual conference continues. Chapters operating three or more years host four workshops per semester; newer chapters host four per year. |
| Year | Plan |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | Bring on interns to support grant writing, marketing, and lesson-plan development. Design the C-suite framework and begin considering Board appointments. |
| Year 2 | Fully staff the C-suite and establish the Board of Directors. Found the Finance and Audit Committee. The C-suite operates on a volunteer model (~20 hrs/week), each executive holding a mission-aligned portfolio. |
| Year 3 | Appoint a leader to oversee chapter growth, establishment, and daily operations (staff or new C-suite role). Seat a founding Advisory cohort. Establish the Operations and Fundraising committees as complexity warrants. |
| Year 4 | Establish offices under critical C-suite executives, ensuring chapters are maintained, mission-aligned, and sustained. Expand the Advisory Board to full size. |
| Year 5 | Assess how existing executives and directors align with the next five years, and begin drafting the next five-year plan while sustaining offices and progressing on growth metrics. |
| Year | Plan |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | Hold at least one donor event; build the SLCCE Kit distribution plan and complete a Kit business case before manufacturing; make merchandise available; publish chapter fundraising documentation. |
| Year 2 | Hold one annual donor event and two smaller events; sell SLCCE Kits into at least one market; widen merchandise availability, especially through local chapters. |
| Year 3 | Maintain donor events and merchandise; expand SLCCE Kits to new markets; hold at least one donor event per chapter state; begin exploring chapter grants and apply to at least one venture-philanthropy opportunity. |
| Year 4 | Maintain all prior efforts; begin planning profitable partnerships (staff onboarding, application cycles, district need statements); apply to at least three venture-philanthropy opportunities. |
| Year 5 | Hold at least two donor events per state with an SLCCE presence; maintain Kit, merchandise, and grant operations and venture-philanthropy relationships; secure at least one sustaining funding opportunity. |
| Year | Plan |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | Polish current workshops for chapter distribution. Review operations for needs in other STEM fields. Establish a team for workshop development and revision. |
| Year 2 | In selected fields, develop workshops and materials internally. Complete peer reviews by teachers and industry professionals and publish. Work with chapters to validate and revise. |
| Year 3 | Establish a team focused on SLCCE-Inc. program opportunities, including district and organizational partnerships. Begin outreach and planning at that scope. |
| Year 4 | Continue developing and expanding workshops and programs as needed. Complete program evaluations and review opportunities for continuous development. |
| Year 5 | Institutionalize the curriculum-validation cycle and evaluate expansion into additional STEM disciplines, informed by workforce demand and chapter feedback. |