By Todd Cohen
Makers of hardware and software are frustrated. They contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in products every year to nonprofit groups - only to find they aren't prepared to use it.
That's about to change.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation are about to team up with Microsoft Corp., for example, to help ensure that nonprofits that receive tech products are ready to put them to work.
Microsoft also has changed its own guidelines for giving away software, requiring that nonprofits show they are equipped to use it - with a tech plan and training, for example.
"We want to make sure that nonprofits are really looking closely at their technology needs and how it can be used to support their mission and is being incorporated into their organizational purpose," says Jane Meseck Yeager, Microsoft's program manager for community affairs.
Meseck Yeager is a partner in the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology, a group of leaders who want to help nonprofits integrate computers and the Internet into the way they work.
The National Strategy partners (including me) hope to help create a "Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network," or N-TEN, where nonprofits can find and exchange resources and connect with other organizations and people, and where the general public can connect with nonprofits.
N-TEN would include an online "Tech Exchange" where nonprofits, makers of hardware and software, and groups that provide tech help to nonprofits could find one another and work together.
A key job of the Tech Exchange would be to link donations with tech planning, assistance and training for nonprofits.
Rob Stuart, director of the Rockefeller Technology Project and a partner in the National Strategy, says manufacturers probably would donate more products if they knew they'd be used effectively.
The arrangement between Hewlett-Packard and the Packard Foundation that Microsoft is expected to join illustrates how the Tech Exchange might work.
H-P will donate equipment to 60 nonprofit child-care centers on the West Coast. Each equipment package will be worth $5,000 and include a computer, digital camera, scanner, fax machine and two printers. The company also will encourage employees to volunteer with the organizations.
Microsoft is expected to provide basic "productivity" software, such as word processing and databases.
And the Packard Foundation will fund a "circuit rider" from the San Francisco-based Support Center for Nonprofit Management who will provide hands-on tech support to the child-care centers and help secure other resources, such as training and software purchasing.
In another developing partnership, H-P and the Packard Foundation are working with the Rockefeller Technology Project to provide equipment and tech support to conservation groups. Based on tech assessments that a Rockefeller circuit rider would conduct for groups receiving grants from the Packard Foundation, H-P would donate hardware that those groups need.
Both collaborations reflect the experience of still another effort. For five years, in partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and other funders, H-P and mapping software publisher ESRI have pioneered efforts to link product donations to conservation groups with tech training and assistance through the Conservation Technology Support Program.
Microsoft, meanwhile, continues to distribute software through CompuMentor and Gifts in Kind International - with no requirements for training.
National Strategy partners hope that the new Tech Exchange would provide a single online marketplace where nonprofits could find circuit riders or other providers to help assess and plan their tech needs and provide training. Nonprofits also could use the Exchange to find manufacturers willing to donate products based on the results of the tech assistance.
And because the Exchange would be part of a larger nonprofit Web portal, nonprofits could use the site to find free software tools to help measure their use of technology and its impact on their services.
The National Strategy is working to help develop a nonprofit portal and the assessment tools.
Ultimately, the Tech Exchange could become a place where nonprofits could begin to form strategic alliances with tech manufacturers and with foundations that could lead to more innovative and productive use of technology.
"We'd like to see an approach that makes it a lot easier for lots and lots of companies to become involved in the project of building technology capacity," says Marshall Mayer of the Rockefeller Technology Project.
Mayer hopes to see an industry-sponsored conference of hardware and software makers and nonprofits that provide tech help. He also wants to enlist tech companies in a campaign to donate at least 5 percent of their products to nonprofits.
"We'd like to see an approach that makes it a lot easier for lots and lots of companies to become involved in the project of building technology capacity," he says.
Barbara Kibbe, director of organizational effectiveness for the Packard Foundation and a National Strategy partner, says a Tech Exchange would make it easier for manufacturers and funders to pool their resources and help ensure that nonprofits know how to use the products they receive.
Nancy Thomas, national contributions manager for Hewlett-Packard, says hardware, software, training and ongoing support all are critical elements of a complete technology "product."
"All those have to work," she says, "before any kind of successful use of technology is going to happen."
Friday: Creating a virtual Technology Community Foundation.
Previous columns in the series on the National Strategy:
Doing good by plugging in (3/5/99)
Lending a hand to an invisible market (3/12/99)
Microsoft opens window on nonprofit technology (3/17/99)
Building an online tech co-op for nonprofits (3/19/99)
Coordinating tech assistance for nonprofits (3/24/99)
Forging tech tools any nonprofit can use (3/26/99)
An online marketplace for nonprofits (3/31/99)
A compass to measure how nonprofits use technology (4/2/99)
Todd Cohen can be reached at
tcohen@mindspring.com
