Imagine this scenario: you’re a principal in a budding startup with a strong volunteer base, a crystal-clear mission statement and some very powerful backers ready to throw their full support behind your philanthropic cause.
What’s missing from this equation?
The answer is tech support: computers, printers, software, wireless capabilities and everything else needed to run your non-profit like the business it needs to be to ensure success.
Enter techsoup.org. Founded in 1987 as The CompuMentor Project, the 501 (c) (3) is the ultimate partner for non-profits big and small, providing invaluable support in the form of tech products and support—as well as vital learning resources—donated by service partners with some very big credentials (read: Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Intuit and Symantec and dozens more.)
Once registered and qualified by techsoup.org, non-profits can easily and effectively take advantage of everything they offer: the “connector across sectors” donates not only hardware such as computers and like, but also gives away a wide variety of free and donated software and support solutions, including tools for: accounting; web design and management; phone service; cloud computing; donor, grant and fundraising technology; telecommuting; communications and much more. There are also a host of discussion forums and blogs available for connectivity and advanced learning.
Today, techsoup.org is an international network serving a host of domestic non-profits as well as more than 120 countries around the world, including those in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. And utilizing their social-enterprise network business model, their global network includes Fundacja, a separate regional hub based in Poland that serves the activities of non-profits in 16 European countries.
Domestic non-profits can easily avail themselves of the group’s offerings by registering at techsoup.org, as can philanthropic-minded companies seeking to support a variety of cause-related organizations.
But no matter a non-profit’s specific passion or movement, techsoup is, and no doubt will long be, a go-to source for those seeking technological aid and support in our vastly-expanding technological landscape.
