As a nonprofit, our success depends on us being able to fulfill our mission which is to increase representation end empower underrepresented groups in information security and cyber through skills training and access to low-cost resources in an inclusive environment.

Low cost at BlackGirlsHack has historically meant free. We've trained thousands of humans in a wide variety of topics, and for our training programs and study groups there has never been a cost.

Until now.

Anyone who works in the nonprofit world knows how hard it is to do the work we do, especially with limited resources. I started BGH to help reduce the financial barriers to entry because there should not be a cost that keeps you from achieving your full potential (or world domination). Unfortunately we occasionally have people who take advantage of "free" by signing up for things that they never complete which not only has a monetary cost, but an impact and opportunity cost as well.

The fact is that people do not value the time and effort that is put in while the resources are free. That combined with a reduction in donations have led us as an organization to move towards a model where there are nominal costs associated with the programs; especially the ones that we have to pay out of pocket to provide.

So if you're on our newsletter mailing list or regularly check out our events page for our latest offerings, you'll notice things start to pop up with pricing involved. This does not impact the people who are in our Red and Cloud based cohorts that are in flight. They can tell our new members about how "back in their day" they were able to get 6-8 industry certifications at no cost.