
Facebook has invested $1 million in CodePath.org, a non-profit that provides computer science education to female and minority students at universities around the country.
The investment announcement comes one day after the company was publicly criticized by Mark Luckie, a former employee who said Facebook has "a black people problem."
"CodePath.org is doing something unique — by offering free, remote computer science courses that will serve from freshman to senior year," said Christian McIntire, Facebook's lead for computer science education initiatives, in a statement provided to CNBC. "They have the potential to help build one of the largest pipelines of high-performing, diverse software engineers for the industry."
Since launching its university program three years ago, CodePath.org has taught 1,700 students across 30 universities. The investment from Facebook will allow the organization to quadruple the number of students taught per semester, CodePath.org Founder Michael Ellison wrote on Wednesday.
"The funding will also allow us to create courses that target underrepresented minorities and women during their freshman year and expand our number of college partners," Ellison wrote.
Although CodePath.org is "an excellent program," this investment will not doing anything to change the way those groups are treated once they are hired by Facebook, Luckie told CNBC on Wednesday.
"Facebook needs to step up and talk about the things it's doing internally to create an inclusive space rather than just fixing the pipeline," Luckie said. "What my post called them out on is not being addressed so far, and the lack of response from non-black executives is very telling of the problems I outlined."
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