Startup Santa 2016 Raises 79,320 Books, Totaling $396,600

Clint Betts -

Children In Utah Needed Books, Startup Santa Helped

We launched Startup Santa because low-income families in Utah have only one book per 300 children; because two out of every three Utah children living in low-income families and attending third grade don’t read at a proficient level; because 35 percent of Utah children who are poor, living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and not reading at a proficient level by the time they’re in third grade do not graduate from high school; because 347,000 Utah children live at or near the poverty level, and 234,00 of those children are at-risk of intergenerational poverty.

In 2015, Startup Santa’s inaugural year, we raised 13,644 books and $68,220. We obliterated those numbers in 2016 thanks to the power and generosity of Utah’s startup and tech community. Startup Santa 2016 raised 79,320 books for children living in low-income families and $396,600. We are completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of those numbers and the real impact that’s going to have on the lives of so many Utah children this holiday season.

As mentioned yesterday, paramount to our community’s continued success and prosperity is our duty to ensure the Silicon Slopes don’t rise while the rest of Utah falls or remains stagnant. We have a responsibility to care for and lift up those around us whether they work in tech or not. Startup Santa demonstrates the power and influence our community can wield to do good and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. We will not leave these kids or their families behind. We won’t allow it to happen.

We’ll be making some big announcements in early 2017 about how we’re going to build off of the momentum of Startup Santa to continue working to help solve this problem. In the meantime, on behalf of the United Way and Title I schools across the state, thank you (THANK YOU!!!) to all of the companies and organizations who participated in Startup Santa 2016.

The Startup Santa 2016 Winners

  • Overall Books: Domo — 28,080
  • 251+ Employees: Domo — 28,080
  • 101–250 Employees: Traeger Grills — 18,541
  • 26–100 Employees: Podium — 4,851
  • 1–25 Employees: NaviTrust — 2,669

The Startup Santa 2016 Top 10

  1. Domo — 28,080
  2. Traeger Grills — 18,541
  3. Tanner — 6,073
  4. Podium — 4,851
  5. Lucid — 3,889
  6. LandDesk — 3,443
  7. NaviTrust — 2,669
  8. WildWorks — 1,834
  9. Pluralsight — 1,818
  10. My Tech High — 1,316

See the full leaderboard at StartupSanta.org