EXPERIENCE THE CREATIVE POWER OF STUDENTS (& PLAY WITH ROBOTS)!

Join NYC FIRST on May 20 for our Igniting Ingenuity Benefit, honoring Michael Dubno and David Siegel. At this unique Benefit event, you’ll tinker with robots, enjoy great food and cocktails, and engage with students who are changing the world at our STEM Centers and robotics leagues.

You’ll support our vision for a new STEM-based civic infrastructure that empowers young people from every background and from every part of this great city, advancing excellence and equity.

We can’t wait to celebrate with you.

Join NYC FIRST on May 20 for our fourth annual Igniting Ingenuity Benefit, honoring Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein. At this unique benefit, you'll tinker with robots, enjoy great food and cocktails, and engage with students who are changing the world at our STEM Centers and robotics leagues.

You'll support our vision for a new STEM-based civic infrastructure that empowers young people from every background and from every part of this great city, advancing excellence and equity.

We hope you can join us on May 20, 2026! Click the links below to support the event, or email michelle@nycfirst.org for more information.

We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
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Join Us In Honoring
Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D.

Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D.

Founder of SMASH
Founding Partner of Kapor Capital
Co-Chair of the Kapor Center

Freada Kapor Klein is an entrepreneur and activist focused on organizational culture and diversity. She co-founded the first organization in the U.S. to address sexual harassment in 1976, and SMASH.org in 2003, which provides the resources and support to ensure that underrepresented students of color thrive in STEM fields.

As a Partner at Kapor Capital, Freada invests in seed-stage tech startups that create positive social outcomes. She is Co-Chair at the Kapor Center, which strives to make the technology ecosystem and entrepreneurship diverse and inclusive. Freada serves on startup and non-profit boards including the NAACP National Board of Directors. Freada and her husband, Mitch Kapor, are co-authors of Closing the Equity Gap, which identifies how to create wealth while simultaneously addressing the inequalities in startup investing.

Mitch Kapor

Founding Partner of Kapor Capital
Co-Chair of the Kapor Center

Mitch Kapor is a pioneer of the information technology industry. He founded Lotus Development Corporation and designed Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer app” that drove adoption of the IBM Personal Computer in the 1980s.

He co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation and served as founding chair of the Mozilla Foundation. With his wife, Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D. he co-founded Kapor Capital, which invests in technology startups that close gaps in access, opportunity, and outcomes for low-income communities and communities of color.