Charities Get Help With Y2K Problem

July 29, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute

Efforts are under way to help charities in Chicago and Washington deal with potential year-2000 computer problems.

The year-2000 problem arises because much of the computer hardware and software programs still in use today identify years by the last two digits, and those older systems may malfunction when faced with the year 2000, which they tend to confuse with 1900.

In Chicago, the IT Resource Center is offering courses that teach non-profit employees how to assess their computers and software for year-2000 problems. Non-profit groups can send two employees to the class free.

The center will also conduct year-2000 assessments for charities. The initial assessments are free for members of the center; other groups must pay $250 for such a visit.

The center’s Y2K activities are financed by grants from the Chicago Community Trust, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Polk Brothers Foundation.

The Y2K Buddy Project, in Washington, is training volunteers to help local charities test their computers and software for potential year-2000 problems and develop plans to fix them. To qualify for assistance, charities must be social-services groups with annual budgets under $2.5-million.

The project is run by the Metropolitan Washington Human Services Coalition and financed by the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact IT Resource Center, Six North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1405, Chicago 60602; (312) 372-4872; itrc@npo.net; http://npo.net/itrc or Steve Kane, Y2K Buddy Project, (202) 274-3316; http://www.y2kbuddyproject.org.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.