How These Tie-Dyed Cupcakes Are Helping Send Girls to School

Photo: Gillie Houston for Yahoo Food

At tables in school common areas and workplaces across the country, people are peddling cupcakes for a cause. Make that tie-dye cupcakes. Slice open one of these handheld treats and you’ll find colorful swirls of sweet dough, dyed in vibrant primary colors to form psychedelic designs. However, beyond the swaths of frosting and sprinkles, these cupcakes represent much more: A 12-year-old Peruvian girl named Yessenia getting the education she needs to further her future, or Fatou, a young woman from The Gambia who graduated high school and moved on to college with the help of one organization — and their colorful baked goods.

Six years ago, before the first tie-dye cupcake was ever sold, She’s the First founder Tammy Tibbetts had a vision for an organization that would harness the power of first-world technology to help girls in low-income countries get the education they deserve. “I saw the opportunity to mobilize my generation to use their social media to crowdsource funds for scholarships,” Tibbetts said. Tibbetts is just 29 but has already won a host of accolades for her charitable work: the Diane von Furstenberg People’s Voice Award, Fast Company League of Extraordinary Women, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for education, and TIME’s 30 Under 30: World Changers, to name a few. She grew up in central New Jersey and studied journalism at the College of New Jersey. She worked and interned at publications like JANE, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Seventeen, where she was the magazine’s first social media editor, but felt her heart was leading her in a more charitable direction.

Photo: She’s the First via Instagram

Tibbetts became the founding editor of DonateMyDress.org, a directory of prom dress drives around the country, which would act as a springboard for her future charity work. Then, in 2009, while living in NYC, Tibbetts launched She’s the First, a grassroots media campaign to raise money and awareness for the need to provide scholarships internationally for girls to become the first in their families to attend and graduate high school, with her co-founder Christen Brandt, now Director of International Operations for the organization.

That campaign has evolved into the acclaimed non-profit organization it is today. She’s the First has funded the educations of nearly 600 girls in 10 countries around the world through various fundraising efforts — some more delicious than others. “It really took off from being a purely social media campaign into being this incredible, award-winning non-profit, because as we started to provide these scholarships in schools around the world, we were also attracting students who wanted to have fundraisers and help out,” Tibbetts said.

What does this have to do with brightly colored cupcakes? One of the She’s the First fundraisers was held by Lindsay Brown, a student at Notre Dame who thought it would be fun to hold a bake sale fundraiser with her favorite tie-dye cupcakes and the colorful treats were an instant hit. “People at other schools saw the pictures on social media and asked for the recipe. Soon the tie-dye cupcake became a kind of symbol that we could build a community around,” Tibbetts said.

Photo: She’s the First via Instagram

The first official Bake a Change bake sale was held in 2010 at various She’s the First chapters across the country. Students across 175 participating college and high school campuses got to baking, using the simple combination of boxed cake mix and food dye to make a lasting change for girls across the world. Cupcakes were the perfect fit to further their cause, Tibbetts pointed out, because of their universal appeal. “A 5-year-old could make them, or a 25-year-old could make them. All you need is a $1.50 box of cupcake mix and a jar of frosting and the profit can be so significant. Plus, no one will turn down a cupcake — especially when it’s for a good cause.” Of those profits, 100 percent go directly to providing scholarships for girls. Since the inception of the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Offs, the Bake a Change campaign has singlehandedly raised over $100,000, enough to sponsor 165 girls’ educations.

Each year, She’s the First has had more and more teams sign up. Last year, 200 teams participated in the seven-day sale, and this year they’ve expanded to three weeks and already have 215 teams on board. Tibbetts said their goal in 2015 is to have 300 teams holding bake sales across all 50 states, and to expand into more office places and professional settings. “We want to expand our demographic reach, and let people know how easy it is to do,” Tibbetts said of the sale, which kicked off on Oct. 11, the International Day of the Girl. “This year, we’re really eager to see what we can do over three weeks and in more campus chapters and workplaces,” Tibbetts said.

Anushya, a She’s the First scholar sponsored by the 2013 #BakeAChange campaign in India. (Photo: She’s the First via Instagram)

For Tibbetts and everyone involved in the She’s the First’s Bake-Off, it’s the balance between fun and philanthropy that makes the program so rewarding as a whole. “Seeing on the one hand how much fun our supporters have doing it, and on the other the money that comes in and the direct impact it creates is really special,” Tibbetts said. “We get to show our supporters that these are the exact girls you’re sponsoring when you buy a cupcakes. It’s very fulfilling to see that something so easy can truly change someone’s life.”

The sponsored girls also get in the on the cupcake fun. “They’re very aware of the campaign, and when we travel we bake cupcakes with them. It’s really fun for them to be a part of the community,” Tibbetts said. This community has certainly been fostered across the country and the world through She’s the First’s use of social media to connect the bake sale teams across the nation. With the hashtag #BakeaChange, different She’s the First chapters are able to share images of their sales, from rainbow cupcake close-ups to team members manning the sale tables, holding up signs and dressing in cupcake costumes to advertise their sweet cause.

Girls at a She’s the First partner school in Nepal baking tie-dye cupcakes. (Photo: She’s the First via Instagram)

“There are a lot of hard problems to solve in the world, and global education inequality is one of them — but this campaign gives everyone something they can do easily that actually makes a difference,” Tibbetts said. “If we can start there to provide girls the tools to become the future leaders of their countries, that’s going to the set them on the path to create lasting change in their countries that will help fulfill our vision of girls and boys everywhere having access to quality education.”

That vision is being fulfilled, slowly, one rainbow cupcake at a time. “Whether they’re baking, eating, or going to school because of the cupcakes, everyone is really on the same page in wanting to create education equality,” Tibbetts said. “It’s not just something you’re doing for these girls, but something you’re doing with them. They work so hard and just need to be given the chance.”

And, it’s not too late to get involved. Tibbetts and everyone involved in the Bake a Change campaign, which runs until Nov. 1 — which happens to be She’s the First’s sixth birthday — welcomes teams to still sign up at shesthefirst.org/cupcakes. After that, the process is simple. Bake, sell, donate the earnings, and maybe post a cupcake picture along the way to become part of the #BakeaChange community. “Whether you raise $50 or a couple hundred dollars, every bit really does make a difference,” Tibbetts said, pointing out that $400 will cover the basic educational needs of one girl. “As long as you can use an oven, you can make a change.”

To find out more about She’s the First’s mission, visit their website.

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