* How you can get involved in supporting your United Way with IT products or services
You’re probably very familiar with the fund raising campaigns conducted by your local United Way organization each year. United Way is an umbrella organization that helps many nonprofit organizations in communities all across America. Many of those nonprofits couldn’t operate if it weren’t for the money they receive via United Way.
You’re probably very familiar with the fund raising campaigns conducted by your local United Way organization each year. United Way is an umbrella organization that helps many nonprofit organizations in communities all across America. Many of those nonprofits couldn’t operate if it weren’t for the money they receive via United Way.
Did you know that the United Way also accepts corporate donations of used computer equipment for disbursement to the NPOs? The donated equipment is often as important as money when it comes to operating a small nonprofit agency.
Through my volunteer work in the Houston community, I have had the opportunity to see first-hand how important computer donations to the United Way are. Mike Joplin, vice president of Information Technology for United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast (UWTGC), leads a team of professionals that has started many innovative programs – with stellar results, I might add. In the past four years, UWTGC has collected and redistributed nearly $12 million worth of computing equipment to NPOs in our community.
Non-Profit IT Forum
“Coming into this job from industry,” says Joplin, “one of the things that stood out the most to me was the lack of technology information available to nonprofit IT personnel. They had almost no contact with industry experts to understand current and future technologies and how they could be leveraged to make their organizations more efficient.”
Joplin remedied the situation with a lunch roundtable in his office. It started with six people and has grown to a monthly event called the Non-Profit IT Forum. In four years’ time, the forum has attracted more than 4,000 attendees. “We bring in an industry expert to talk about new technologies and how they could apply to the agencies,” says Joplin. “We’ve hosted the ‘who’s who’ of the computer industry, including Cisco, EMC, Fortigate, Gateway, HP, Microsoft, SBC, Time Warner Telecom, and many others. Our audience, which would never have the singular market presence to pull in these vendors, is collectively a big enough group to attract the vendors and get information they would otherwise not be exposed to. The vendors get an appreciative audience for an hour and a half. It makes a win-win for all involved.”
Gifts in Kind
The majority of the nonprofits in the region are “technology poor” when it comes to networking and computing resources. Joplin’s team runs a local Gifts in Kind program and actively solicits corporate partners to donate. What is “last year’s technology” for a large corporation can have many years of useful life left at an NPO.
“This program solves a couple of problems,” says Joplin. “For the corporate donors, we provide a means to unload old equipment. Disposing of it can be either a hazard or a costly endeavor. Instead, we take the equipment off their hands and redistribute the goods to agencies in need. What is not usable is disposed of within EPA guidelines. We also engage a group of IBM retirees to wipe disks clean, solving other problems of licensing and confidentiality.” For UWTGC, some of the biggest and best corporate donors include Anadarko, Exxon Mobil, and United Space Alliance/NASA.
“Over the past four years we have redistributed servers, racks, UPSs, network switches and routers, desktops, laptops, monitors, and printers with a street value of nearly $12 million. This equipment makes a real difference in making our community a better place.”
“My favorite example is a regional drug and alcohol clinic,” Joplin says. “They treat court-mandated clients such as DUIs, and this requires gathering and uploading data to the state. With their old 486 machines running Windows 95 and dial up networking, it cost them approximately 45 minutes of idle time per client. The United Way assisted them in replacing everything from the internet connection down to the mouse on their desktop with more modern equipment. The end result is that, with the same staff, they can handle an additional 60 or so clients per month.”
Technology Assistance
Many NPOs do not have the technical expertise to develop an IT plan for their business. Joplin’s IT team has been instrumental in doing complete makeovers for several agencies. Starting with an initial consultation to understand what they’ve got and what their needs are, the team drives a plan that can make use of donated equipment, low cost licensing, and volunteer or low cost labor to provide installation. The result is a healthy computing environment to support their business goals. UWTGC has done this for several agencies, replacing literally everything and bringing them up to “industry standard” quality computing.
Here are a few success stories:
* The Bridge (a women’s shelter) had a small DSL-connected workgroup of outdated machines, and UWTGC brought them up to a Windows Server 2003 network with Active Directory, along with Windows XP desktops and a Cisco network.
* Eye Care for Kids received a Windows Server 2003 network with Active Directory and three desktop computers to get them started in their new facility.
* Fort Bend Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse replaced old dial-up connected “flakey” machines with Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory, with Cisco networking and T1 to the net.
* Good Neighbor Health Clinic updated from dated finicky workgroup PCs to all new state of the art PCs running Windows 2003 and new clinical practice software which helped them to achieve status as a federally qualified health care center. With great negotiating and leveraging resources, UWTGC was able to stretch a $100,000 grant into $300,000 of tangible computing equipment that helps the clinic operate more efficiently.
Internship Programs
Cooperatively with ITT Technical Institute, UWTGC has an internship program in which Joplin’s team gets federal work-study interns in their final year and uses them to help provide technical support to nonprofits in need. According to Joplin, “We have been running it for four years and have had great success. The interns get exposure to technologies they won’t necessarily see in school and build their resumes in the process. We get technical help – which we mentor and manage – for free. It’s another win-win program.”
ITT’s senior classes also must perform a capstone project in order to graduate. In the past, this has been a simulated network on a simulated campus. Leveraging equipment from the Gifts in Kind program, licensing from techsoup.com, and students in the capstone class, UWTGC has been able to put entire computing environments together at four non-profits to date. Joplin says they will be expanding the program to a second ITT campus soon.
Other community services
Joplin says his IT team offers other services to the NPOs in his community, including”
* Free consulting to some agencies that are constructing new buildings to assist them in designing the proper network infrastructure, HVAC, etc. in their new facilities to properly support IT.
* Low cost or no cost Web and e-mail hosting to agencies and other United Ways
* Low cost technical support to agencies big enough to need IT support, but too small to afford it.
So how can you get involved in supporting your United Way with IT products or services? Consider the following:
* Sign your company up to donate retiring equipment. It’s old to you, but it’s a godsend to someone else.
* Volunteer your time and expertise to provide technical support, consulting or installation services.
* Offer to speak at a technology forum for NPOs to help them understand how computing technology can improve their business processes.
Think of it this way: it takes a village to support a village. The NPO you help today might be the one that provides a service to you tomorrow.
