Over the past year, technology became more crucial to the nonprofit sector than ever before. As many organizations pivoted to entirely online operations due to COVID-19, many organizations were forced to reevaluate their status quo and adapt new ways of doing things across the board.
At TechSoup, we equip changemakers with transformative technology solutions and skills they need to further their mission, and we have been front and center helping nonprofits transform their operations and learn new systems during the pandemic. Whether your organization is looking for affordable technology, tech support, or new ways to leverage tech, there are many reasons to check out what TechSoup has to offer. Here are four of the big reasons to join TechSoup if you are not yet a member — and it's totally free to sign up.
1. Affordable Tech for Nonprofits
TechSoup is probably most known for filling the gap between nonprofits and technology by offering product donations and discounts from top technology providers, just for nonprofits and libraries.
David Dubinsky, CEO of Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center, recently visited the TechSoup Community Forum to update our community on how the pandemic affected his organization. With a focus on providing recreational, vocational, and educational opportunities for people with disabilities via programs and services that encourage self-expression, Dubinsky realized they quickly had to pivot to remote communications despite having no preparation.
After getting in touch with TechSoup, Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center was able to quickly adapt to a system that worked remotely. After upgrading their technology and obtaining laptops and tablets through the TechSoup catalog, they found a way to keep their operations running even through the pandemic. Not only that, the shift helped their community advance its skill set. Dubinsky recognizes that they "now have more than 250 adults and 80 kids that are way more technology literate than they were a year ago," and "are eternally grateful to [TechSoup] and their partners for the lifeline."
Not only does TechSoup help nonprofits get access to technology, we also help for-profit businesses support nonprofits. TechSoup partners with businesses such as Microsoft, GrantStation, Adobe, Zoom, and more, to give away their products or offer them at a discounted price in order to make them more accessible for nonprofits around the world. Through these partnerships, organizations can get the tools and help they normally would not be able to obtain from these businesses.
99 Balloons, a nonprofit focused on changing the story of disability through training, awareness, and programming, struggled to create affordable and impactful visual assets to share its mission and story. Sarah Harriman, executive director at 99 Balloons, says that "thanks to Adobe and TechSoup, we have access to Adobe's world class products that have allowed us to create stories, images, and publications, as well as do a complete rebranding and website redesign, to share our mission and change the story of disability. This simply would not have been possible without the help of TechSoup and Adobe."
Whether you're looking for hardware or software, we're regularly updating our offerings and adding new products. Learn more about our tech marketplace.
2. We Help with Tech Support
TechSoup also offers nonprofits both short- and long-term tech support. The TechSoup Customer Support team is available by phone or email to assist nonprofits with the product catalog, account issues, organization eligibility, and more. What many members don't know, though, is that the support team is available in many different ways online.
TechSoup member Florida Prosperity uses the many different channels TechSoup offers to connect with support. It recently had an expired coupon code and instead of calling or emailing, they decided to reach TechSoup via Twitter. In just a few short moments, we were able to forward their request along and get their issue resolved in a timely manner.
You can also see Floria Prosperity in the TechSoup Community Forums, along with many other organizations, discussing tech and needing specific help from TechSoup. The Community Forums constitute a valuable hub of information from the TechSoup team, as well as expert information from professionals all over the world.
Whether you're in contact with us over phone, email, on social media, or in our forums, we make sure we are easily accessible for our community. TechSoup offers a range of services to help nonprofits better implement and manage technology. From emergency tech support to strategic planning to fully managed IT services, our offerings are designed to meet the needs of all types of organizations. Learn more about our Services for Nonprofits.
3. TechSoup Is a Community
In the TechSoup Community, no nonprofit is alone. While we do offer many tech benefits for nonprofits, we also host an entire community across many online platforms for nonprofits to engage with other organizations in similar situations.
We have nonprofit tech professionals offering advice and answering questions inside the TechSoup Community Forums regularly, where nonprofits are able to post their own questions and engage with others. TechSoup is also listening and engaging with other nonprofits daily on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Additionally, TechSoup regularly finds ways to collaborate with members in our community, such as our recent Instagram takeover with Black Girls Hack, where they took over the TechSoup Instagram account for a week and shared their own content. On the Twitter account, TechSoup also hosts monthly chats where we invite the community to come on Twitter on a specific day and time to discuss a specific topic together.
Whether it be an impact story in our blog, virtual event, Twitter chat, or Instagram takeover, the TechSoup Community is continuously working to engage and collaborate with nonprofits to help further their mission.
4. Educational Content
TechSoup provides a variety of educational content to help members learn how to use technology better. TechSoup's social media team regularly shares educational content from other sources, in order to make sure the community is getting access to all the training and information it needs. The Caring for Colombia Foundation, for example, recently stopped by to thank us for sharing email templates provided by LinkedIn. Not only is the social media team pushing out educational content on a daily basis, but TechSoup is also regularly publishing educational blog posts, providing fresh content around the topics of Donor Management, Libraries, Accounting, Marketing and Communications, and more.
Additionally, TechSoup also offers courses, expert-led tech training sessions designed for nonprofits and libraries, where anyone can enroll to dig deeper into specific skill sets. The TechSoup courses cover topics such as Grant Writing and Management, Email Marketing, Google Analytics, and more. The Microsoft Digital Skills Center is another valuable resource, where we collaborated with Microsoft to provide great skill-building content from subject matter experts at Microsoft with TechSoup's deep understanding of how nonprofits use technology.
TechSoup also hosts monthly live webinars and virtual events to discuss tech use for nonprofits, such as our Tech Tip Series, to keep our community up to date with the latest tech hacks.
We upload all webinar replays and other TechSoup-produced content to our YouTube page for nonprofits to revisit on their own time and share with their own communities. You can check it out here.
TechSoup continues to be a valuable resource for nonprofits across the globe. Whether your organization is looking to acquire tech, learn how to use tech, or be a part of a community to learn and grow in tech, our community can help. Learn more at www.techsoup.org/.
Top photo: Shutterstock
