Raspberry Pi Foundation
Strategy 2018–2020

Introduction
This is the strategy for the Raspberry Pi Foundation for 2018–2020. It explains our mission, what we stand for, andour goals. Like all good strategies, it is a work in progress and we will keep it under review as we learn fromexperience.
This is the second time we have published our strategy. The first time was in January 2016, and you can find that
document here.
We are a young and fast-growing organisation, and we’re learning a lot about how we can make a difference.
In the second half of 2017, we spent time reflecting on what we had learnt and analysing how the external
environment had changed. We had lots of conversations with our trustees, members, staff, and other stakeholders,
including members of our community.
The result is a strategy that feels much clearer. There are no big changes in direction, but hopefully a greater senseof clarity about our ambitions and how we will achieve them.
We hope that this strategy resonates with you and that you feel inspired to get involved. If you have any feedback,questions, or ideas, please send them to info@raspberrypi.org with “strategy” in the subject of the email.

Our story
The Raspberry Pi Foundation was established in 2008 as a UK-based charity with the purpose to “further theadvancement of education of adults and children, particularly in the field of computers, computer science and relatedsubjects”.
The catalyst for starting Raspberry Pi was a drop in applications for the Cambridge University undergraduate
computer science degree in the early 2000s. That was a symptom of a much broader challenge. For decades,schools had taught how to use computer programs, not how to make them. At the same time, digital technologies
had become less hackable. The result was that, whether at school or at home, too many of us had become digitalconsumers rather than digital makers.
Our co-founders were inspired to create a product: a low-cost programmable computer that would introduce young
people to computing. Between launching our first product in February 2012 and December 2017, we sold over 17
million Raspberry Pi computers.

Our story
We use the profits generated from our commercial activities to fuel our wider educational mission. We have built a
portfolio of educational initiatives that include content, clubs, programmes, competitions, and training, and they are
helping millions of people learn computing and digital making.
While we love Raspberry Pi computers, the Foundation’s educational activities are device- and platform-neutral. We
want to help people use whatever technologies they have available to learn how to create.
Code Club and CoderDojo both started as independent nonprofits in response to the same set of challenges thatinspired the co-founders of Raspberry Pi. They both achieved incredible success in building volunteer-led movements
to help young people learn how to create with technology.
In 2015, the Raspberry Pi Foundation merged with Code Club. That was followed in 2017 by a second merger withthe CoderDojo Foundation, which included the Coolest Projects events.
Together the Raspberry Pi Foundation family represents one of the largest sustained global efforts to help youngpeople learn computing and digital making.

Our mission
To put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world.

Our reason
So that more people are able to harness the power of computing and digital technologies for work, to solve problems
that matter to them, and to express themselves creatively.

What we stand for●●Learning through making
Accessible to all

How we work●●●

Focused on impact
Community-led
Open and collaborative

Our long-term goals●

To make computing and digital making accessible to all through providing low-cost, high-performance single
board computers and free software.

●

To provide engaging, rigorous, and free educational resources that are used by millions of people to learn
computing and digital making skills.

●To actively engage millions of young people in learning computing and digital making skills through a thriving
network of volunteer-led clubs, exciting competitions and events, and partnerships with youth organisations.

●To mobilise and support a huge community of educators, volunteers, and parents who want to help young
people learn computing and digital making skills.

Our curriculum and pedagogy
We describe our mission in terms of computing and digital making. Those are broad terms that can mean different
things to different people.
Our focus is on helping people learn the skills, knowledge, and mindsets that will help them make things and solve
problems using computers.
We take inspiration from the work of Seymour Papert, constructionism, and the maker movement.
Our curriculum includes programming, design, physical computing, and manufacturing, with underpinning goals of
helping people learn computer science concepts and computational thinking skills and practices.
We measure our impact through reach (measured by the volume and diversity of people who benefit from ouractivities) and learning outcomes achieved (measured against our curriculum and transferable skills likecomputational thinking).

Learning through making●We believe that the best way to learn computing is through making something that you care about andsharing it with others. We call that digital making, and we think everyone should have the opportunity to do it.

●

Learning computing can sometimes be challenging, but it should also be fun. Our approach is deliberately
playful, but we take our mission and learning goals very seriously.

Accessible to all●We think that everyone should have the opportunity to develop the skills and confidence to make things withcomputers. That’s why we make Raspberry Pi computers as affordable as possible, and why our educational
programmes focus on people who don’t otherwise have opportunities to get involved in computing and digitalmaking.

●We’re passionate about making computing relevant and accessible to young people from all backgrounds.
We’re particularly focused on gender and socio-economic background.

●We are part of the open education and open source movements. We share our knowledge and resources
under Creative Commons licences because we believe that will lead to greater impact. We use freely available
and open-source software in our educational programmes to remove barriers to participation.

●We work hard to make sure that everything we are involved with - from our workplace to the networks ofvolunteer-led clubs we support, and from our events to our online forums - are safe spaces where people
from all backgrounds feel respected and valued.

Focused on impact●We care about our mission and we are focused on making a positive impact on the world. We are transparent
about how well we’re doing. We know our numbers and we use them to focus on where we can do better.

●

We are experimental. We test our ideas at a small scale, improve them in response to feedback, iterate
quickly, and stop doing things that aren’t working.

●We are a learning organisation and that means we make time to reflect on what we’re learning and how wecan apply it. We actively seek out research and lessons from others, and we share what we are learning withthe world.

Community-led●

We are part of a global community of young people, parents, educators, volunteers, makers, and businesses
who share our mission and who bring it to life through their actions. We take our inspiration from what they
do, and a big part of our job is to grow that community and support it to achieve more.

●

We are active participants in the community, as learners and mentors, as organisers, and as communitymembers.

●We recognise that we serve lots of different groups of people and we work hard to make sure that weunderstand and design for their different needs. We spend time with them, understanding their experienceand how well we are supporting them. We work hard to get meaningful feedback.

●We use data to inform all of our decisions and we make sure that our communities understand and consent
to any use of their personal data.

Open and collaborative●

As an organisation, we are one team with shared goals. We assume good intent and we look out for eachother.

●

We’re generous with our time and expertise. We welcome feedback, even when it’s difficult to hear, and wegive honest feedback to each other.

●When we enter into partnerships, our partners become part of that team, and we commit ourselves toachieving shared goals.

To make computing and digital making accessible to all through providing low-cost,high-performance single board computers and free software.
●

Through our wholly owned trading subsidiary (Raspberry Pi Trading Limited), we create low-cost,high-performance single board computers that are widely used by makers and hobbyists, business andindustry, and for formal and informal learning.

●We work hard to make all of our products as affordable and general-purpose as possible.

●We invest significantly in free software for the Raspberry Pi computer, including providing a suite ofprogramming environments and tools for education. Our software is also available free for PCs and Macs.

To provide engaging, rigorous, and free educational resources that are used by millions ofpeople to learn computing and digital making skills.
●

We will offer the most compelling, relevant, and rigorous educational content that helps people learn
about computing and digital making.

●Our content will be structured in pathways from complete beginner to advanced level on our curriculum,
designed around the needs and interests of users.

●

Our content will be delivered for free forever online, with premium publications and offline versions
available for those who want them. We will work with our community to translate as much of our content
as possible.

●

Alongside the content that we develop ourselves, we will publish high-quality community-generatedcontent.

●

We will develop compelling incentives that encourage young people to engage and progress with theirlearning, including, but not limited to, badges, competitions, and informal accreditation.

To actively engage millions of young people in learning computing and digital making skills
through a thriving network of volunteer-led clubs, exciting competitions and events, andpartnerships with youth organisations.
●

We will create the world’s largest network of free, informal computing clubs through Code Club andCoderDojo, mobilising tens of thousands of volunteers to support young people to learn in safe, engaging,and fun environments.

●

We will use high-profile competitions and events to engage young people, including establishing Coolest
Projects as the main “science fair for digital making”.

●We will partner with organisations that run large-scale programmes engaging young people to make ourcontent relevant for their audiences. We will also partner with organisations that help us engage young
people from harder-to-reach groups, e.g. girls, young people with special educational needs, or young
people facing significant economic disadvantage.

To mobilise and support a huge community of educators, volunteers, and parents who want tohelp young people learn computing and digital making skills.
●We will develop free, high-quality online and face-to-face courses for educators, parents, and volunteers
who want to help young people learn about computing and digital making.

●We will work with partners in key markets to develop high-quality professional development and support
for educators who teach computing and computer science.

Get involved
We are part of a movement that aims to empower people to shape their world through digital technologies. If you’rereading this strategy, the chances are you’re part of that movement too. Here are some of the ways you can getinvolved.
Share
We’re constantly inspired by what we see from the community. Whatever your level of skill, share what you’relearning with others. Write a blog, share your code on GitHub, post a video of your project, or attend a community
event. If you’re making a learning resource, publish it using an open licence.
Support
Wherever you can, support other members of the movement. A share or like on social media can mean a lot. If youcan, provide advice and encouragement on forums or at events. Help improve someone else’s code, and if you see
someone struggling with a problem that you’ve already solved, share your learning.
Volunteer
Code Clubs, CoderDojos, and Raspberry Jams are designed so that you can make a big difference with just a small
amount of your time. Check out what’s already happening in your area and offer to help. If nothing’s happening
already, there’s lots of support available for you to get something started.

Keep in touch
There are lots of ways to stay in touch with the work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Visit our websites:
www.raspberrypi.org
www.codeclubworld.org
www.coderdojo.com
Connect with us on social media:@raspberry_pi@codeclubworld@CoderDojo
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