Impact 2020

Black Lives Matter: TechSoup Supports Racial Justice

We have to be willing to do the hard work to put an end to brutality, to racism, to inequities.

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others have shocked and outraged people around the world. They are three names of hundreds, of thousands. Some known, some lost over the last 400 years. They are humans inside a history of systemic racism that enables discrimination and protects the violation of human rights. Systemic racism that silences the voices of so many.

TechSoup has been outspoken about condemning racial inequities, both internally and with the organizations we serve.

Internally, staff had difficult conversations that led to the formation of Building Respect, Inclusion, Diversity, and Global Equity (BRIDGE). This employee resource group held numerous events in FY 2020, focusing on a better understanding of the issues and ways each TechSoup staff member can personally make a difference.

Rebecca Masisak, CEO, and Marnie Webb, chief community impact officer, issued a public statement about TechSoup's accountability and responsibility to end the oppression of Black people.

TechSoup also continued to amplify voices of NGOs representing people of color on our social media channels including Black is Tech Conference, Equality Can't Wait, CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, Hustle Crew, and Pledge 1%. And staff at TechSoup reached out to nonprofits working for racial justice to give them early access to the COVID-19 Recovery Fund.

Democracy and freedom in civil society across the globe are linked to the issue of dismantling institutional racism. For FY 2021, TechSoup will continue to contribute to that change both internally and publicly, in whatever way it will provide the greatest value.

CEPI and NGOSource: Helping Funders Support COVID-19 Vaccine Research

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organizations launched at the World Economic Forum annual conference in 2017. The organization invests in vaccine-based solutions that will protect some of the most vulnerable people in the world and help prevent future pandemics. CEPI partners with multiple governments, private funders, pharmaceutical companies, and health institutions to develop vaccines for nearly 20 diseases.

With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, CEPI has worked quickly and collaboratively with global health authorities and vaccine-creation partners. Funding has been created for nine programs to rapidly develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

CEPI estimates it will cost U.S.$2 billion to develop a COVID-19 vaccine within the next 12 to18 months. With the help of NGOSource, the organization has raised more than U.S.$1billion toward this goal.

NGOsource’s repository model drastically reduces the time and cost of due diligence exercises required by U.S. funders that intend to support international grantees. By leveraging NGOsource's program, six different U.S. funders were able to rapidly and efficiently access an equivalency determination for CEPI, allowing them to immediately make general support grants to CEPI, with minimal effort on CEPI’s part.

FITS Connects Latin American NGOs with the Power of the Global Network

Learning how new tools work has always been a big hurdle for organizations with outdated computers or those with little to no expertise with information and communication technology. Some are struggling to organize massive data. Others are just looking for a better way to organize the office and to work remotely.

The Festival of Innovation and Social Technology (FITS) was established by TechSoup Global Network Argentinian partner Wingu. Its aim was to bring Latin American NGOs into a unified space to achieve their goals together with the power of technology. Originally launched as an annual event in Argentina, FITS expanded to Chile in June 2020 and was available online to attendees for free.

More than 8,000 attendees from 18 countries across Latin America represented the social sector, local government, schools, and volunteer organizations at the one-day event. Participants learned about the latest models for remote work and shared ideas and best practices with each other to boost their social impact through digital transformation.

"I've put all my heart into the Festival of Innovation and Social Technology," said Lina Tangarife, general manager and partner at Azaí Consultants, who helped organize the event in Colombia. "It's been an honor to organize this event and its previous versions. They democratize technology access and knowledge for organizations, helping them gain the skills to improve their operations and their community impact."

Friends of Youth and the TechSoup NGO Marketplace: Providing Hope to Vulnerable Young People

Friends of Youth is committed to ensuring that every young person has the opportunity to succeed. Over the past 70 years, Friends of Youth has grown into a leading organization providing access to quality services for underserved youth and families.

Since 2007, Friends of Youth has relied on Cisco for its networking infrastructure. As a growing organization, it has benefited from Cisco's routers and access points, and the flexibility they offer. Friends of Youth has used VPN connectivity to tie its infrastructure between various locations. Cisco's support engineers have been invaluable, guiding Friends of Youth's one-person IT department to make the hardware fit the organization’s needs.

"We've been very fortunate to basically purchase commercial-grade routers and access points, keeping our network equipment up to date, secure, reliable, and most of all, affordable," said Rey Robles, the IT administrator for Friends of Youth.

When the pandemic hit, Friends of Youth, similar to many NGOs around the world, suddenly needed to operate remotely. With the infrastructure in place, thanks to Cisco's adaptable networking systems, staff were able to smoothly adapt to working as a remote organization. Staff could access the information they needed easily and securely, without it being stored on-premises.

The low cost of Cisco products through TechSoup has ensured that the majority of the organization's budget can go directly towards supporting youth, young adults, and families. These funds provide clients with essentials, including food and shelter; as well as help them find stability, growth, and the skills and resources to get back on their feet.

"By ensuring the majority of our budget goes to directly supporting young people, we can provide resources and services to more young people, working toward ending homelessness and supporting youth in crisis," said Robles.

HRAC and TechSoup Africa: Greater Efficiencies and Cost Savings for Ghanaian NGO

Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) is a research and advocacy NGO that works to advance and protect human rights in the Republic of Ghana to enhance democracy, good governance, and accountability.

The organization grappled with technology issues that not only limited its visibility to the people it serves and to funders, but also hindered its work. "We did not have a centralized system for our work," said Bright Bampoe, HRAC's information and communications technology officer. "We used free software versions resulting in the loss of precious data and information. On top of that, the cost of technology tools and software was excessively high."

Once Bampoe learned how nonprofits like HRAC were working with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and the TechSoup donation program to leverage technology, he immediately registered and began requesting cloud computing software, including Microsoft 365 and Azure. The organization also took advantage of many of WACSI's trainings to enhance online collaboration.

"Working on documents is now easier, and systems are now more stable. Documents are now better protected and safe," he said. "There have been great improvements in the delivery and presentation of project milestones and information. Reporting is much easier and faster."

MARI and TechSoup Asia-Pacific: Training Civil Society Organizers to Use Technology for Change

With the opportunity of an emerging democracy in Malaysia, USAID launched the Malaysia Reform Initiative (MARI) to support civil society organizations that are pushing for political and democratic reforms.

TechSoup Asia-Pacific was invited by MARI to design and conduct a pilot training for organizations that work for political and democratic reforms. Working with TSGN partner Kitabisa, a fundraising platform in Indonesia, TechSoup Asia Pacific designed a series of training modules for participants, with two tracks based on the participants' level of expertise.

The training modules were designed to help NGOs understand target audiences, design effective messaging and graphics, and analyze social media insights to design campaigns that resonated with their intended audiences.

To increase exposure to tech industry practitioners, TechSoup also curated an "Open Marketplace," where experts in various fields came to share their knowledge, tips, and techniques. Topics ranged from data analytics to digital content in advocacy, Google's G Suite, grants and fundraising, and photography. TechSoup's partner Yayasan Salam provided support and information on TechSoup Malaysia's updated eligibility criteria.

Okta for Good and Validation Services: TechSoup Makes It Easier for Okta to Do Good Globally

For today's companies, running a corporate philanthropy program has become the rule, not the exception. But corporate giving isn't easy, especially when there’s a need to determine that NGOs receiving support are, in fact, what they claim to be. Validating organizations can cause major headaches for staff and bring a corporate philanthropy program to a halt.

This was the issue that Erin Baudo Felter, executive director of Okta for Good, and her team encountered when trying to expand their donation program. “When you try to validate nonprofits independently, it's a very time and resource heavy process,” she said. "This kept our program restricted to only the U.S. and Canada. But in order to gain the knowledge required to scale our program around the world, we needed a better solution."

Okta partnered with TechSoup Validation Services. "As soon as we launched with TechSoup Validation Services, our program was able to become truly global," Baudo Felter said.

Drawing on TechSoup's database of more than one million registered nonprofits, Validation Services works with its 60 partner organizations in the TechSoup Global Network to support the process of validating NGOs for programs like Okta. This allows companies to better focus resources on the delivery of their corporate giving programs as opposed to the intricate — and critical — task of validating an NGO in a foreign country.

"With the Validation Services partnership, any time we deliver a donated piece of technology to a nonprofit, our team knows that the organization is really fulfilling a mission," Baudo Felter said. "Whether they're located in the U.S., Brazil, the U.K., Japan, or somewhere else in the world, this partnership allows our team to be confident that the organizations we work with are making a real impact on their communities."

Pandemic Response: TSGN Rises to the Challenge of the Global Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic forced NGOs across the globe to navigate the challenges of working and providing services remotely. TechSoup was no exception as we rapidly moved our own operations around the world to remote environments to ensure minimal interruption to our mission.

Around the world, the entire TechSoup Global Network (TSGN) rose to the challenge as well. In Italy, TechSoup Italia quickly moved all training online and established a popular weekly live chat. Our German partner, Haus des Stiftens, responded by conducting a pandemic-focused webinar, training 1000 attendees how to move to remote work. In Hong Kong, the 180 staff members of our network partner HKCSS distributed 1 million face masks across the city.

TechSoup immediately deployed a battery of new training and resources to help. We began with a series of webinars; and established more interactive forums, guides and how-tos that can be easily accessed on a COVID-19 specific landing page.

“TechSoup has been providing some of the best webinars I've attended since this pandemic started. The information is thought provoking and not a sales pitch -- just a wealth of resources and best practices.” — Anonymous webinar attendee

In order to meet the needs of organizations as they respond to this ever- changing crisis,TechSoup established the COVID-19 Recovery Fund to cover the administrative costs of acquiring necessary technology, implementing solutions, and accessing training for their staff members. Through the fund, led by generous contributions from VMware, Microsoft, and the Brach Family Charitable Foundations, and supported by additional corporate partners,TechSoup is increasing support for small U.S. organizations that lack the technology tools and support they need to take their services online.

SAFE SHELTER COLLABORATIVE: Helping Agencies Find Shelter Faster for Survivors

Through a secure, browser-based dashboard, the Safe Shelter Collaborative uses community-informed technology to provide faster access to agencies that need to secure, safe shelter for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault in the United States. Led by TechSoup's Caravan Studios division, the Safe Shelter Collaborative brings together organizations and individuals — such as shelters, victim-assistance specialists, funders, and community members — who want to help survivors find a safe place to stay when they need it most. It is funded by the Office for Victims of Crime, a part of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In FY 2020, 153 agencies in 17 states used the Safe Shelter Collaborative to find shelter faster for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault. In addition, when a shelter bed is not available, participating agencies can seek donations toward the cost of hotel rooms for survivors from individual donors via the SafeNight mobile app. Donors simply download the SafeNight app to their mobile phones, select an agency to support, and respond to alerts for donations. Since its inception in 2013, more than US$53,000 has been donated through the SafeNight app.

In FY 2020, program team members launched a community listening project, which collected information about usage of the Safe Shelter Collaborative and current needs, which fueled improvements to the technology and program.

World Economic Forum at Davos: TechSoup Gives a Voice to NGOs for a Cohesive and Sustainable World

TechSoup was honored to accept an invitation to the January 2020 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting is the world's premier platform for cross-sector dialog on global challenges, trends, and agendas. The 2020 meeting, marking World Economic Forum's 50th anniversary, focused on harnessing technology to accelerate progress toward the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

CEO Rebecca Masisak, and other TechSoup Global Network members, joined and led a series of workshops and speaking events. They were able to provide a unique, sector wide and grassroots-up perspective of civil society. The group used the forum to highlight the sector's needs and the possibility to engage all of civil society — not just those who can afford to participate in Davos — through an entity like TechSoup.

"We are committed to engaging with world leaders and expressing the voice and value of global, grassroots civil society, which remains largely unrepresented at such a forum. It is critical that we do so, harness and engage the talent, breadth, intelligence of our entire community in order to build toward the SDGs." - Rebecca Masisak, CEO, TechSoup

Masisak participated on panels including "Human Rights and Technology Design" and "Frontier Technologies for Sustainable Development" and was a lead debater in the New York Times Oxford debate on Big Tech and Regulation. To best represent the 1.2 million NGOs TechSoup serves, TechSoup chaired two working groups on civil society.

TechSoup and the Global Network will be developing its relationship with the World Economic Forum, leading the working groups Civil Society and the Future of Work and Digital Infrastructure for Civil Society and participating in more events at the intersection of technology, government, and philanthropy in FY 2021.