Hacking with Swift Live 2020 raises $38,000 for charity

Make apps, make friends, make a difference

Paul Hudson July 16th 2020 @twostraws

Hacking with Swift Live 2020 just finished, delivering four days of packed tutorials and workshops walking through all the major new features for SwiftUI, UIKit, and more. Even better, because all our profits go to charity we were able to donate $38,000 to an incredible cause – folks made friends, learned lots of new Swift skills, and made a difference to the wider world.

I’m hugely grateful to everyone who bought a ticket to the event, and the feedback so far has been really positive. Over four days we really got to know each other even though it was a remote event, and it’s amazing to see folks leaving with new friends. Thank you so much for coming!

I’m also really grateful to our two sponsors: Bitrise came back for a second year as platinum sponsor, and several members of their team came along to the event. Instabug also joined as silver sponsor for the first time, and it was great to have them on board.

Both those companies could easily have used that money to show adverts on Google, Twitter, or other services, but they instead chose to make a significant charitable donation in order to support a community conference like this one. Thank you so much!

Just like last year, we donated all our profits to Special Effect, who do remarkable work to help bring joy, laughter, creativity, and confidence into the lives of disabled children and adults. With the pandemic still raging many charities are having a hard time raising funds, so we’re glad to play a part in helping continue their awesome work.

This event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the organizing team: Chris Rivers, Daniel Leivers, Ian Lockett, and my wife Ildiko. We all work really hard to bring this event to you and don’t get paid a penny – we send everything we can to charity.

So, that’s another year wrapped up, and we even managed to raise 25% more than last year while delivering our best ever event. Thank you to everyone who took part – perhaps we’ll get to meet in person next year!