Nonprofit Technology Resources: Tech Soup
The nonprofit sector is a rewarding industry to dedicate one’s time and talent. Notable on many levels, these organizations strive to address areas of social need at diverse scales of size. Whether an organization’s programming affects targets on an international, domestic, state, city, or neighborhood scope, all work and efforts will require technological systems to properly maintain and grow the agency’s impact.
Unrestricted funding sources fuel the innovation ventures for nonprofits. Many times, grant dollars are tied to particular budgetary line-items such as staffing, professional contractors, insurance, utilities, travel, printing etc., leaving very few dollars left for the technologies necessary to build out communication platforms, budgetary monitorization systems, purchase computers/ routers / mobile hotspots, data warehouse softwares, visualization tools and much more. Despite their social entrepreneurship, nonprofits may not have the expanded budgets to purchase these top dollar technology tools, furthering the digital divide that leads to ongoing inequities. Rest assured, there are solutions.
TechSoup.org is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build a dynamic bridge that enables civil society organizations and social change agents around the world to gain effective access to the resources they need to design and implement technology solutions for a more equitable planet. These services are provided exclusively for nonprofit and civil society organizations.
Upon submission and approval of your organization’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Employer Identification Number (EIN) or (equivalent information depending on the country your organization resides) to TechSoup.org, your agency will gain access to hundreds of discounted technology products and services offered by today’s most cutting edge providers. An example of these providers include: Zoom, Box, Intuit (Quickbooks), Mobile Beacon (Mobile Hotspots), Tableau, DocuSign, Microsoft, Cisco, Wix, Amazon Web Services and many more.
As a nonprofit owner, this resource is a game changer. Where a for-profit customer would pay $840 annually for Quickbook Online Pro (Accounting Software needed for IRS-990 filings and annual fiscal monitorization), our organization pays $75 annually. Where a for-profit customer would pay $900 annually for Tableau (A powerful data visualization tool used on the output end of the extract, transfer, load process), our organization acquires this software at $55 for a 2-year subscription.
Now, isn’t that useful and economically feasible? I think so.
If you're working in the nonprofit / civil society sector or considering developing your own organization to address a need within the community, please do look at TechSoup.org or any similar agencies offering the same type of service. Your work is critical to the success of people. Let organizations like TechSoup remove a costly technology barrier, progressing your mission forward.
Here is the link below:
For more information, feel free to reach out to Dominic Dominguez, MA Sustainability & Development Candidate at: dldominguez@smu.edu.
Written By:
Dominic Dominguez | dldominguez@smu.edu