May 29, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
At Rosie’s Place, a shelter for homeless women in Boston, staff members used to compile information on clients in writing. Every three months, employees spent hours synthesizing all the scraps of paper into a report for donors on how many women were helped by the organization’s services. Today, the charity has a computerized client-tracking system, created at almost no cost as part of its participation two years ago in the Harbinger Partners Technology Pioneers Program. Staff members estimated that the new system saved them 34 workdays the first year it was implemented.
Since its inception in 2001, Harbinger Partners, a nonprofit group, also in Boston, has helped 18 local charities assess their technology needs by conducting surveys of employees and interviewing them in small groups. The results are compiled in a detailed report and together Harbinger Partners and the charities select one project from the list to be accomplished by corporate volunteers who work with technology. The project is usually something the volunteers can do in 20 to 30 hours, and Harbinger ensures that the project matches the volunteers’ expertise.
The program generally assists charities that have annual budgets of $500,000 to $2-million and no full-time technology employees, says Zachary E. Goldstein, program manager. Charities apply to participate in the nine-month program, and if accepted, pay a small fee toward the cost of it, usually between $500 and $2,000, depending on the size of a group’s budget.
The program plans to follow up with participants after a year, and again after three years, to evaluate its impact.
The Technology Pioneers Program expects to help 14 groups in Boston next year. The application deadline is July 15. For more information and to get an application, go to http://www.harbingerpartners.org.
