The state of Texas is attempting to crowdfund forensic testing of rape kits, and the program appears to be taking off.

An initiative giving Texas driver’s license applicants the option to donate $1 or more toward testing rape kits has already raised nearly $25,000 since it began in early January, officials say.

About 8,900 people had donated as of Wednesday afternoon, contributing nearly $25,000 within weeks, Amanda Arriaga, division director of the Driver License Division at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Thursday.

Texas legislators, led by Dallas Rep. Victoria Neave, passed the bill to add the option to donate to rape kit testing in April 2017. The law went into effect

September.

“Rape kits are not just a number or a box sitting on a shelf,” Neave said. “Every rape kit has a story. Every rape kit that sits on the shelf has the potential to catch a rapist. Every single rape kit represents a survivor who deserves to have that kit tested.”

Since then, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Department of Motor Vehicles have been working to set up a system to accept the donations.

Money from the donations will go into a dedicated evidence testing account, Neave said. The funds will then be available to qualifying crime labs for sexual assault-related testing and granted on an application basis.

The criminal justice division office of the Governor will oversee and administer funds.

Neave said a GoFundMe account will be available beginning in February for Texans who wish to donate for rape kit testing outside of DMV operations. The account is being set up in conjunction with the Wendy Davis-led political group Deeds Not Words.

Lavinia Masters, a victim advocate and survivor of sexual assault herself, was emotional when speaking about what this initiative means to her.

“I’m overjoyed,” Masters said. “This has been a fight. I was raped at 13. My kit, 21 years later, sat on a shelf. To find out, after 21 years, that nothing had been done was disheartening.”

Since 2011, Texas has required law enforcement agencies to test sexual assault evidence kits within 30 days. When the measure took effect, 19,000 untested rape kits were documented across Texas. There has been no statewide data on untested kits since.

Rob Cañas, a domestic violence court judge, spoke about the value of rape kits and the trauma of providing them.

“Having prosecuted numerous rape cases myself, I understand the power of DNA evidence,” Cañas said. “This powerful evidence comes with a price. Because it is so powerful, and victims have to go through so much to get this evidence, we should always want kits to get tested in the most efficient manner possible. Victims deserve no less.”

To help agencies test the backlog of rape kits uncovered in 2011, the Texas legislature provided $11 million to the DPS. However, the money was allocated solely for rape kits from before 2011, and new kits continue to add to the number of untested ones each day.

In 2017, Texas provided an additional $4.2 million toward testing rape kits. Each kit costs more than $1,000 on average to test. Neave said testing all of the state’s rape kits will cost millions.

“I’m very hopeful that this legislation will bring justice to survivors of sexual assault who are waiting for a long time to get their kits tested,” Neave said.