Foundation Nepal: Nonprofit technology and cloud computing

Eamon Stack, CEO of ENCLUDE

A few weeks ago, my colleague Sylvester and I developed a cloud computing solution for a charity based in Galway, in the beautiful West of Ireland. The charity, Foundation Nepal, is a mission-driven organization whose founders, Nicky Deasy and Amber Walsh Olesen, are its primary driving forces. Foundation Nepal was founded five years ago after Nicky and Amber went on a visit to Nepal.

They were both financial accountants at KPMG at the time and were on a walking holiday where they were confronted by the chronic poverty encountered in the rural villages of Nepal. Appalled at the plight of so many women and children, they knew that they had the skills to change this awful reality and they started to work the moment they returned to Ireland.

The quality and impact of the work at Foundation Nepal has attracted the attention of Irish Aid and other funders as they have grown to a staff of eight in three years. However, they reached an unexpected ceiling in their growth: as they expanded their operation, they used the technology they were familiar with, including Hotmail, Microsoft Word, and Excel. But as they continued to grow, it became clear that they needed the ability to collaborate and manage their programs and operations in a way that would allow for greater scale and efficiency.

Working with ENCLUDE they were able to identify an affordable solution. The approach was to create appropriate technology support at three levels:

1. Foundation Nepal needed to build a solid foundation with Windows 7 and Office 2010 on all desktops and laptops, software donated by Microsoft through the TechSoup donation program

2. They needed to sort out their communications: email, instant messaging, SMS, and phone, with Microsoft Office 365 (received at a nonprofit discount); and

3. Most importantly they needed an integrated solution for project and client management, financial management, and document management.

After five days of work with ENCLUDE, Amber at Foundation Nepal presented the new solution to her colleagues. The new cloud-based integration integrates the organization's website and CRM database with Microsoft Outlook, using Office 365’s Exchange Online in the background. Amber demonstrated how Windows 7 automatically logs her into email, instant messaging, and the organization's new Microsoft SharePoint intranet. The new system was easy to use and mostly cloud-based and so is much easier to maintain.

Cloud computing offer charities like Foundation Nepal three things:

1. A single, shared, organization-wide ICT system that is scalable, secure, and accessible 24/7;

2. It removes barriers to growth - as it gives access to technology that is "up to the job" [fit for purpose] and scalable;

3. It enables charities to achieve levels of efficiency and effectiveness which are expected nowadays - giving them tools that allow for impact assessment and reporting.

From a Nonprofit Leader Perspective

Why did Foundation Nepal find itself in an ICT cul-de-sac? My experience is that nonprofit leaders too often feel poorly-equipped to make important technology decisions. Leaders are afraid: they feel intimidated by the jargon-laden presentations from technology salespeople and feel a lack of mission-focus from some of their IT staff and consultants. The big problem is not one of technology - it is one of trust.

It seems to me charities are crying out for someone to help. Someone who understands what they do and value; someone who will present them with real choices and not hundreds of options; and someone who will empower them to maximize their organizations resources to attain technology that supports their vital work.

Technology Leadership

Cloud computing offers a major opportunity to bridge the gap between charities and the ICT solutions they need. But technology alone is not the answer. I have proposed the following formula:

Technology + Trust = Transformation

Technology (cloud solutions) + Trusted Adviser (TechSoup partner) = Transformation of the ICT capacity of a nonprofit organizing.

When Nicky of Foundation Nepal saw her new system, she did not say "Wow!" In fact, she was quite familiar with the solution set from her work in KPMG. Her reply was "We should have had this system four years ago when we really got started."

Those of us in the wider TechSoup Global network are in a key position to meet an urgent need for Charities. Technology itself is not the primary roadblock to the adoption of appropriate ICT solutions. It is the lack of competent and trusted advisors to support charities as they adopt those solutions. Now is the opportunity to give charities the trusted technology leadership they deserve, which they need to effectively deliver on their missions.

Eamon Stack is the chief executive officer of ENCLUDE , which is TechSoup's NGO partner organization in Ireland. ENCLUDE provides hands-on technology solutions and software donations for Irish charities.

Eamon is a software engineer who is skilled in helping charities migrate to various cloud solutions that are appropriate to their IT staffing and budget. He has spent much of his career doing front-line community development among deprived communities in Ireland and Latin America, mostly with the Jesuit Order. He co-founded ENCLUDE in 2006 to address the challenge that most Irish nonprofits are on the wrong side of the digital divide.

More resources:

Microsoft has a global software donations program that brings the benefits of affordable software to nonprofits around the world. Does your favorite nonprofit know about the program? Find out more here.