Planned Parenthood is the latest established nonprofit to turn to Silicon Valley for help after an influx of donations and a desire to get more technical know-how.
The 100-year-old nonprofit is joining the seed program normally meant for young companies at 500 Startups, a top Silicon Valley accelerator
As part of the deal, Planned Parenthood will be enrolling its Spot On app team, which develops a birth control and period-tracking app, in 500 Startups' seed program to learn a little bit about "growth hacking" and how to get more people to use its app.
500 Startups is also writing a $100,000 check to the organization.
"This is a new endeavor for us," said Rebecca Woodcock, an entrepreneur in residence at 500 Startups, in an email to Business Insider. "We are excited about applying our growth hacking techniques to organizations with missions we believe in like Planned Parenthood."
Planned Parenthood's decision to learn a little bit from Silicon Valley is a move similar to what the American Civil Liberties Union did earlier this year. The ACLU chose to join a different startup bootcamp, Y Combinator, and presented at its Demo Day in front of investors to solicit donations in March.
For now, Planned Parenthood doesn't plan to pitch at 500 Startups Demo Day, but that could always change in the future.
"We are looking at this partnership as a long-term relationship where we will start with growth hacking the Spot On app, then do the same for other digital assets, or donations, or other needs that Planned Parenthood may have in the future," Woodcock said.
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