By Anneliese M. Bruner

Today’s fast-paced technology environment can be overwhelming to non-profit organization leaders. Amid the ever-expanding universe of hardware and software options, organizations increasingly need someone at their disposal to help figure out which technology tools and strategies will best assist them in advancing their institutional mission and goals.

Fortunately for those organizations that may not have the in-house financial or technical wherewithal to make strategic decisions about technology, there is now a growing crop of service providers committed to lending a hand.

There are tech tools and solutions for just about any need an organization might have, regardless of whether their core mission requires serving a constituency of like-purposed organizations, coordinating volunteers or improving the circumstances of individuals in a local community. Basic functions such as maintaining financial records, meeting reporting responsibilities, project management, training, fund raising, outreach and more are usually more effectively managed when supported by appropriate technologies.

Technology can also be used creatively, as is the case with KLCC’s Digital Storytelling Project, to advance a group’s goals.

“Initially, when we started using digital video technology, we just thought it would help us keep a record of our work,” says Francisco Guajardo, director of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development, a KLCC host agency in Session I. Llano Grande pioneered the use of digital storytelling in connection with KLCC work. “We had no idea, then, of the other potential applications,” Guajardo says.

Today, Llano Grande uses DV technology in a variety of ways (see the September 2005 edition of the Bridge for more information on Llano Grande’s digital storytelling training institute). It has become a powerful tool in the organization’s community change arsenal because it not only allows them to tell people but show the conditions that need to be changed. Llano Grande has incorporated the use of other technology tools into its institutional culture as well.

Photo by: Steve Stapleton

One organization that is helping nonprofits make informed decisions about technology is The NPower Network. Born of an alliance between NPower Seattle and Microsoft Corporation, NPower performs its work through a national network of 12 local non-profits that helps other non-profits access affordable, state-of-the-art technology. Their services include performing integrated technology needs assessments, making available discounted products, Web and database design, and ongoing tech support.

Appropriate to its mission of providing top-notch assistance to the nonprofit sector, and courtesy of a grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, NPower partnered with TechSoup/CompuMentor, two other technology organizations dedicated to non-profits, to carry out a project specifically for youth-serving organizations. Grantees of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation received guidance from the partnership in the areas of donor management software, budgeting for growth, and database creation and management aimed at helping them track clients and outcomes.

"[Their help has] been amazing," says Craig Kennedy, vice president of operations for My Turn, a Brockton, Mass., youth-serving grantee of the Clark Foundation. "We didn't know what we didn't have, what technology could do for us, where we could be. They pulled hardware and software resources, helped us get it donated, and helped us ask [technology] vendors the right questions."

CompuMentor works with organizations in the non-profit and education sectors. Specifically, it targets schools with student bodies from low-income and underserved populations. It also services such entities as foundations and corporations that want to ensure accountability in their efforts to assist schools and non-profits.

One of CompuMentor's online business segments, TechSoup, answers specific questions and needs. A repository of relevant information, TechSoup is organized into five main areas:

• How-to, where there are articles and downloadable worksheets for non-profits to use in creating workable technology plans within budget.
• Free community discussions where non-profits can tap into a pool of experts in non-profit technology.
• Products, which features free downloads, lists of recycled hardware providers and links to other sources for hardware and software.
• Service directory of technology consultants organized by zip code with special listings for New York City, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
• News and events.

TechSoup creates a workable intersection between the non-profit and technology sectors. Its Web site is accessed by users from more than 190 countries.

TechSoup Stock, a related entity, operates as a discount technology clearinghouse distributing technology donations from corporate providers engaged in "technology product philanthropy service." It offers more than 240 products from 25 providers at the lowest possible cost, a modest administrative fee. There is a two-year allotment for Microsoft software of six titles with 50 licenses per title. TechSoup Stock has saved the non-profit sector in the neighborhood of $400 million through more than 1.7 million technology donations.

These and other support services are helping non-profit organizations discover ways technology can maximize efforts to fulfill their missions.

"[Technology] is definitely a vehicle to ensure consistency in the way we operate, the message [we as] an organization put out there," says Llano Grande's Eric Davila. He handles the data management needs and the digital media programs at the Center and views technology as a critical infrastructural element of Llano Grande's communication effort. "It's like a name-brand presence. If we miss opportunities to communicate consistently and effectively, we miss out on a lot."

-Information on the non-profit-assisting organizations mentioned in this article is available on their Web sites: compumentor. org; npower.org; and techsoup.org.

To learn more about the Llano Grande Center, visit them online at www.llanogrande.org.