Ron and Cyndi Gula created the Gula Tech Foundation to amplify the impact of cybersecurity nonprofit organizations. The Gula Tech Foundation operates a $1,000,000 competitive grant process for cybersecurity nonprofits multiple times a year. Each grant competition has a unique cybersecurity focus. Grant winners receive a financial donation and will have the opportunity to participate in an all-expenses-paid marketing program to elevate public awareness of their organization.
The competitive grant process involves submitting information about your cybersecurity nonprofit, your plan to support the focus area of the grant program, a voting phase conducted by our grant advisory board, and a public announcement and implementation phase. For grant recipients, the public announcement and implementation phase includes presenting your nonprofit at a Gula Tech Foundation award ceremony, being featured on the Gula Tech Cyber Fiction show, and general exposure to the Gula Tech Adventures network of investors, startups, and entrepreneurs, as well as executing on the grant itself.
The next grant topic will support nonprofits that demonstrably raise public awareness about cybersecurity, which is the main focus of Data Care. The Foundation will distribute $1,000,000 in grants across seven winners - $250k for 1st, $200k for 2nd, $150k for 3rd and four $100k grants for four runner ups. The award ceremony for the next grant will be on May 20th at the 2021 RSA Conference. The grant application form opens March 22nd, 2021 and ends April 9th, 2021.
January 2021 Grant Program - Empowering African Americans
The January 2021 grant program focused on nonprofits which increase African American engagement with cybersecurity. The three winners were Black Cybersecurity Association (1st place, $500k grant), NPower Inc. (2nd Place, $300k Grant) and Girlsecurity (3rd Place, $200k Grant). A recording and transcript of the March 9th 2021 awards ceremony is available here.
Dmitri Alperovitch
Executive Chairman at Silverado Policy Accelerator; Co-Founder & Former CTO at CrowdStrike
Bryson Bort
CEO, Scythe and ICS Village Co-Founder
Tony Cole
CTO Attivo Networks and former NASA Advisory Council, former (ISC)² Board of Directors
Renaud Deraison
Co-Founder and CTO, Tenable
Patrick Duggan
COO New Context, former Director Cybersecurity National Security Council, and Retired Green Beret
Guy Filippelli
Managing Partner, Squadra Ventures
Katie Gray
Partner, Investment Team at In-Q-Tel
Britta Glade
Senior Director, Content & Curation, RSA Conference
Aaron Hughes
GVP and CISO Albertsons Companies and Former DASD Cyber Policy
Jacob Hsu
CEO, Catalyte; former CEO for Symbio, Thunderchief, and Trilogica.
Jamil Jaffer
Founder, National Security Institute and Senior VP IronNet Cybersecurity
Meg King
Science and Technology Innovation Program Director at the Wilson Center
Amélie Koran
Cybersecurity Expert, conference speaker and former CTO and CIO
Andrew Lustig
Corporate Partner and executive at Cooley LLP, Co-founder of MissionLink, & counsel to dozens of leading cyber companies
Jeff Man
Information Security Evangelist at Online Business Systems
Heather McMahon
National Security Expert and Army Veteran
Philip Niedermair
Managing Director of Strategic Alliances at Whiteford Taylor Preston
Debora Plunkett
Board Chair, Defending Digital Campaigns and former Director of Information Assurance, NSA
Tom Quinn
CISO T. Rowe Price
Tony Sager
Senior VP & Chief Evangelist, Center for Internet Security
Douglas Simon M.D.
Managing Director Private Client Group at Alex Brown/Raymond James
Michael Tanji
Global Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff at Global Cyber Alliance
Kiersten E. Todt
Managing Partner, Liberty Group Ventures and Managing Director, The Cyber Readiness Institute
JC Vega
Executive Security Advisor, Co-founder Army Cyber Institute, US Army Colonel retired
Steven Witt
CEO, Anno.AI & Co-founder Culper Connect
Alberto Yépez
Co-founder and Managing Director, Forgepoint Capital