Program Helps Charities Develop Savvy Plans for Getting ‘Wired’

By GRANT WILLIAMS

The Jack Douglas Center, a program in San Jose, Calif., that provides

daytime care for adults with behavioral disorders, knew it needed new computers and technical advice on how to better serve its clients and become more efficient in its operations.

With the few computers the group had available for clients to use, officials had seen how much interest adults at the center had in surfing the Internet, visiting Web sites, downloading music, and sending e-mail messages to family and friends. But only one of the program’s 75 participants had access to a computer at home.

So the center turned to Wired for Good, a project in San Jose run by the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits. The project offers groups like the Jack Douglas Center the opportunity to join an intensive six-month program that helps charities come up with a concrete plan for using technology based on their needs, and gives them an inside track to attracting in-kind gifts of computers and related tools from corporate donors.

Wired for Good says its mission is to harness the corporate energy and sophistication of Silicon Valley to provide nonprofit organizations with the technology knowledge, planning, and resources that will enable them to continue to bring high-quality services to area communities.

Drafting a Plan

Charities that are accepted for the Wired for Good program form a technology-planning team within their organizations.

Members of the team attend nine workshops on topics such as business strategies, network services, software applications, security, and computer support and maintenance, as well as come up with realistic budgets. The workshops are taught by corporate technology professionals and consultants who volunteer to help.

After completing the workshops, each team develops a plan for using technology to help it achieve its program goals. Staff members from the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits and technology consultants who volunteer their time review the plan and offer suggestions aimed at ensuring that the nonprofit organization aligns its technology use with its mission, determines what and how the technology will be deployed, and defines how the technology will be supported over time.

When both the reviewers and the charity are satisfied with the changes and final arrangements, the plan is certified by Wired for Good. Charities with approved plans are eligible to receive equipment donations, services, and discounts from participating technology companies through the Wired for Good program.

“The educational opportunity offered by the program was fantastic,” says David Yates, operations director of the Jack Douglas Center, which has a budget of $1-million. “It got our staff involved, including the executive director, and got us all on the same page,” he adds. “And we were able to kick around with the class participants just what we really needed to do, how we were going to do it, and what we needed to pay for it. Before, we just didn’t really know about those kinds of things. We’re a very small agency.”

Stamp of Approval

Joni Podolsky, program director for Wired for Good, says the project’s stamp of approval carries weight with technology companies and other donors.

“One thing that is becoming more standard is that funders really won’t pay for technology unless an organization has a technology plan,” says Ms. Podolsky. “Cisco won’t do that, Microsoft won’t do it. And it makes sense because companies want their donations to be of good use.”

In fact, Cisco Systems and the Microsoft Corporation are among the corporate contributors to Wired for Good, which was formed in 1998 as a partnership between the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits and Smart Valley, a now-defunct nonprofit organization that, among other things, helped wire local schools.

Wired for Good’s first step was to “benchmark” the state of technology in Silicon Valley by conducting a survey of charities. In the end, 216 local groups shared their experiences and advice.

Using the survey results and the lessons learned, Wired for Good published a 114-page “Technology Guide Book for Nonprofits” that is still available. The program hopes to revise the handbook by the end of the year, as well as publish a second guidebook specifically on technology planning. (For information about Wired for Good and its publications, go to http://wiredforgood.org.)

Wired for Good started its first educational class for charities in 1999. Eight charities were accepted, and six groups graduated with approved plans.

Of the two organizations that did not, one nonprofit group needed more time to develop its plans and is expected to get Wired for Good’s approval soon.

The other won’t, Ms. Podolsky says, because the small organization ended up being more interested in installing new technology as a “quick technological fix” rather than in getting immersed in a “systemic organizational plan” for the future.

Among the success stories Wired for Good has racked up so far: A charity called Hospice of the Valley learned how to improve the technology that allows its nurses and caseworkers to keep better track of patient information.

“Because the hospice deals with the dying,” says Ms. Podolsky, “they have a lot of reporting to do to state agencies and others. By being able to do the documentation using technology, they will spend less time doing the reporting and have much more time to work with their clients. And that is critical.”

Most of the 12 nonprofit organizations in Wired for Good’s second class recently graduated, and a new class has just started. Wired for Good has held monthly meetings of graduates “to continue the learning and support that we’ve all provided each other,” says Ms. Podolsky.

And the organization is thinking about ways it can hold follow-up workshops to make sure that the technology plans developed by charities are working out.

Above all, Wired for Good emphasizes to its participants the need to resist “the tendency to give technology more credit than it is due, that it can be a panacea for curing the world’s problems,” says Ms. Podolsky.

“Your organization’s mission, goal, and strategies are how you are going to change the world,” she adds. “Technology is just a tool that’s going to help you do it.”