Hack Club

Last updated
Hack Club
The Hack Foundation
FounderZach Latta
Jonathan Leung
Type 501(c)(3) organization
81-2908499
Purpose STEM education
Headquarters Shelburne, Vermont
Members80,000 [1]
COO
Christina Asquith
Tech & Creative Lead
Max Wofford
Staff120 [2]
Website hackclub.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg , the.hackfoundation.org

Hack Club is a global nonprofit network of high school computer programming clubs [3] founded in 2014 by Zach Latta and Jonathan Leung. [4] It now includes more than 1,000 high school clubs and 80,000 students. [5] It has been featured on the TODAY Show, and profiled in the Wall Street Journal . [6]

Contents

History

Hack Club was founded in 2014 by Zach Latta and Jonathan Leung. At that time, Latta was a 16-year-old who had graduated high school early and was employed by Yo. Latta would win a 2015 Thiel Fellowship for Hack Club in June of that year, at which point he did not plan on attending college. [4] In 2016, Latta and Leung would be placed on Forbes 30 Under 30 list for education. At that point, Hack Club was in a total of 52 schools, 12 US states, and 5 countries. [7] At the time of a profile of Latta by Business Insider at the end of January 2016, Hack Club had established clubs in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Estonia, and Zimbabwe. [4]

In March 2020, Hack Club relocated from Silicon Valley to Shelburne, Vermont. [8] In April 2020, the Hack Club facilitated an AMA (Ask Me Anything) between its members and Elon Musk. The event was originally planned to last 30 minutes, but Musk was impressed enough with the participants to allow it to extend for over an hour. [9] [10] In 2021, the organization accepted a $1 million donation from Musk. That same year, the organization had clubs in 400 different schools. [8] In January 2022, Hack Club had over 20,000 students in clubs located in over 22 countries. [11] In July 2025, the number of students jumped to over 70,000. [12]

Organization

Hack Club consists of several local clubs ran by students in their own schools. These clubs are provided up-to-date curriculum, leadership and community-building training, and software tools by Hack Club. [3] [4] The organization provides grants for hardware such as microcontrollers, circuit boards, sensors, or motors. A Slack instance is also provided for all members across different clubs to communicate with globally. [8] Latta has described this methodology as a "club in a box." [3]

Programs

Hack Club's primary focus is its clubs program, in which it supports high school coding clubs through learning resources and mentorship. It also runs a series of other programs and events.

Some of their notable programs and events include:

Funding

Hack Club is funded by grants from philanthropic organizations and donations from individual supporters. In 2019, GitHub Education provided cash grants of up to $500 to every Hack Club "hackathon" event. [21] In May 2020, GitHub committed to a $50K hardware fund, globally alongside Arduino and Adafruit, to deliver hardware tools directly to students’ homes with a program named Hack Club Summer of Making. [22] Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to help expand Hack Club in 2020, [23] donated another $1,000,000 in 2021, [24] and an additional $4,000,000 in 2023. [25] In 2022, Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner donated $500,000 to Hack Club. [26]

References

  1. "A Home for High School Hackers – Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
  2. "Team - Hack Club". Hack Club. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Shatzen, Christina (2016-08-02). "Hack Club: Empowering Students to Tap Into Their Coding Super Power". Fast Forward. Archived from the original on 2024-07-16. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jackson, Abby. "Meet the 18-year-old who's skipping college to start a club for 'hackers'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  5. "Hack Club" . Retrieved 2024-11-23.
  6. Jargon, Julie (2019-10-01). "Teen Hackers Try to Convince Parents They Are Up to Good". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  7. "30 Under 30 2016: Education". Forbes. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Barton, April. "National coding group relocates to Vermont, bringing teens money from Elon Musk". Burlington Free Press. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  9. "Lost Amid Musk's Tweets, This Amazing Interview With High School Hackers". InsideEVs. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  10. "Hack Club AMA w/ Elon Musk". YouTube. Hack Club. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  11. Gaiss, Kevin (12 January 2022). "Shelburne-based Hack Club helps teens get interested in computers". WCAX . Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  12. McMahon, John (4 July 2025). "Shelburne kids coding nonprofit continues to see growth". WCAX . Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  13. "Watch Elon Musk's AMA with Hack Club Students". 17 May 2020.
  14. Hack Club AMA w/ Vitalik Buterin, 3 February 2022, retrieved 2022-06-07
  15. Hack Club (2024-01-12). Hack Club AMA w/ Sal Khan (Founder of Khan Academy) . Retrieved 2024-05-16 via YouTube.
  16. "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". 28 May 2020.
  17. "🚂 the Hacker Zephyr". GitHub . 10 December 2021.
  18. "🌁 Assemble". GitHub . 10 December 2021.
  19. "The Neighborhood program closure message, as shown on GitHub".
  20. ""HackClub YSWS program catalog"". Archived from the original on 2025-06-20. Retrieved 2025-07-12.
  21. "GitHub and Hack Club team up to bring more computer science resources to high schools". The GitHub Blog. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  22. "Introducing Hack Club's Summer of Making". The GitHub Blog. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  23. "ElonMusk and The Musk Foundation donated $500,000 to Hack Club". Tech News | Startups News. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  24. "Elon Musk's $1M Donation". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  25. "Hack Club HQ". HCB. 2024-08-25. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
  26. "Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner are Giving $500K". Hack Club. Retrieved 2022-06-07.