Two Toasters is hot – so hot that a bucket of ice dumped on the heads of its executive team members might not be a bad way to cool off.

But there’s no trendy, YouTube and Facebook viral video “Ice Bucket Challenge” going on at the startup’s headquarters in Durham.

Founded in 2008, profitable since 2009, Two Toasters has turned mobile apps development into the No. 787 ranking on the latest Inc. 5000 list. (Read our WRAL TechWire Insider report: Revenues have soared 579 percent over the past three years.)

To celebrate, two Toasters’ team decided to “pay it forward” by raising money for an issue the company believes to be addressed:

The lack of girls in computer science.

$5,000 is the goal to donate to Girls Who Code.

The Two Toasters’ Crowdrise site is up and running; the company will match that amount. Nearly $1,000 has been raised in the first 24 hours.

Did you know that the percentage of female computer science graduates has dropped to 12 percent from 37 percent in 1984? So reports the Girls Who Code website.

Holy cow.

The Skinny asked Two Toasters CEO Rachit Shukla about the fund-raiser.

“I would not have been able to get my start without support from local entrepreneurs and mentors,” he explains. “Now being in a position to give back I feel that it’s my commitment to have an impact on those just getting there careers started in tech.”

The Toasters crew then decided to focus on gender and diversity – a huge problem at technology companies as acknowledged by Twitter, Google, Facebook and others,

“There’s a huge disparity in gender parity in the tech space and Girls Who Code is very much making a difference in this area,” Shukla points out.

“On a selfish level we want a diverse work environment and we can either sit on the sidelines or support initiatives that are meaningfully trying to change the balance.”

And if the $5,000 goal isn’t met, Two Toasters will contribute anyway.

“We think this is much bigger than Two Toasters and hope that people recognize that this an important initiative and hope that our $5,000 is the minimum threshold for commitment,” Shukla says.

In addition to the Crowdrise site, Two Toasters is approaching its customer base to help. 

“We are also asking our clients to join us in our $5,000 matching so that the community’s donations can have an even larger impact,” the CEO says. 

No buckets. No ice.

Just the payback knowing that your donation is going to a worthy cause.

How’s that for an ROI?