Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog: Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog

Rosalyn in Nairobi, Kenya is a 40 plus year old mother who has a business of manufacturing shoes from recycled tires which she sells over the web around the world. Ma Jianlu, a farmer in the remote Loess Plateau in China is selling eggplants online which he has grown on his small greenhouse. Since 2003 Microsoft through its Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills Program has helped over 160 million people around the world to get access to basic and intermediary level IT training leading to both economic and social empowerment. Through over 1500 non-profit partners and 60,000 Community Technology Centers the program has supported, youth, women, the elderly and people with disabilities get training at no-cost or very low cost. In the United States we have reached over 23 million people through our programs to date. A good example is Michelle Hartman, unemployed at age 63, she had little or no computer skills, but needed to obtain those skills to meet the requirements of local employers. After successfully mastering several Microsoft Office applications, a prospective employer offered her $4 more an hour that they had planned to pay because of her upgraded skills.

In 2009, when the economic downturn began hitting it’s full stride, Microsoft launched Elevate America, incorporating a number of programs and resources that share a common focus; providing technology skills training, and resources to help people find employment. Through the Elevate America state voucher program, we distributed nearly 900,000 no cost Microsoft e-learning and certification vouchers for the unemployed and underemployed in partnership with 32 States, and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. In the words on of one the person who has participated in the state voucher program, Sandy Mills of Missouri, “I missed the computer wave...but now I’m catching it. And, it’s amazing what the general software programs can do now. I remember when it was all customized software, which was complicated and expensive. Now these more powerful programs are out there. Being able to learn them is a real excitement for me.” The aspiration of Elevate America is to help 2 million people over the next 3 years get IT training so that they are prepared for the jobs of the 21^st century workforce.

In February 2010 we launched the Elevate America veterans initiative to support returning veterans and their spouses successfully transition to civilian jobs. In partnership with a coalition of veterans serving organizations including, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), The American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of America, United Service Organizations (USO), and the Wounded Warrior Project we announced a competitive Request for proposals (RFP) process that will fund eligible nonprofit organizations interested in contributing expertise, cash and in-kind resources to give U.S. veterans and their spouses the skills and resources they need to be successful in today's workforce. The response we received to this RFP has been very positive and we are in the final stages of the selection process. We are very excited with the number of organizations that are providing holistic services in support of our veterans and their successful transition to the civilian workforce.

Elevate America community initiative

Continuing our commitment to skills training and workforce development in the United States, last week we announced that we will invest $10 million ($4 million in cash and $6 million in software donations) in nonprofit organizations that truly embody Microsoft’s commitment to help people from communities gain the skills they need for success in the workforce. We are looking for innovative solutions to get people trained with the critical 21^st century skills required to get back to work in long term, family wage employment. It is estimated that within 10 years, 77% of all jobs will require some level of IT proficiency. Through this RFP, it is our goal to open up opportunities for organizations and their partners who are providing proven, comprehensive and innovative training and job placement services to get people back into the workforce.

Through a competitive funding process, Microsoft will award cash, software and other resources to eligible IRS registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations and their partner organizations which may include: workforce agencies, community colleges, labor organizations, and other nonprofit organizations. Over the next two years, grant recipients will be funded to provide individuals with the support needed to help people find employment. Successful applications will include collaborative partnerships between two or more organizations in the nonprofit, workforce development, labor and education sectors. We are looking for organizations with a demonstrated track record of serving underserved communities especially women and young workers, in job training and job placement. The services provided by successful applicants to ensure a fully supportive experience for participants will include technology skills training, job placement and strong employer connections and may also include career counseling and other support services such as childcare, transportation and housing.

Microsoft has a long history in supporting IT skills training and we are committed to working with nonprofits that share our mission and zeal to improve through IT skills training the ability of the underserved community to get into the workforce. As Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire stated when Elevate America launched in the state, “This is an example of what we need to emerge stronger from this recession. When this downturn ends, we will need more skilled workers ready to enter the job market. Microsoft’s generosity will provide thousands of men and women the skills they need to work with the software that runs our businesses. This will help strengthen our economy and increase our state’s global competitiveness.”

Click here for more information on the Elevate America community initiative.

Today we are launching the Elevate America community initiative, a new grant program that will support nonprofit organizations offering employment services, including technology skills training and job placement, in local communities across the United States. To support this initiative, we are committing $4 million in cash, $6 million in software and technology skills training curriculum over the next two years.

We are inviting nonprofit organizations to respond to our request for proposal (RFP) , detailing their plans for partnering with us on proven, successful, scalable programs that respond to the 21^st century skills training and employment needs of people across the country.

The deadline for submissions is October 8, 2010 at 5pm Pacific Time with the successful projects being announced in January 2011.

Since 2003, Microsoft has been partnering with nonprofit organizations through our Unlimited Potential initiative to support technology skills training in underserved communities across the United States, with programs that have reached more than 27 million people to date. Through the Elevate America community initiative, we will continue to seek partnerships with organizations that support underserved communities, with a special interest in those that focus on the needs of women and young workers (ages 18-25) who have greater barriers to employment and re-employment than the broader population.

This is the latest extension of Elevate America, which was launched in February 2009 to provide people across the United States with no cost and low cost access to the technology skills they need to find employment. Since the program’s launch we have worked with 32 states and the District of Columbia to distribute nearly 900,000 no cost Microsoft training and certification vouchers. In March 2010 we announced the Elevate America Veterans initiative, focused on helping U.S. veterans and their spouses to transition from military to civilian employment.

How can you respond to this RFP?

Interested organizations are encouraged to review the full RFP and related information on our website to ensure their organization meets the full criteria for consideration.

To be eligible, all proposals must include at least one organization that is eligible to receive cash funding from Microsoft as defined by the following criteria:

• Qualify as an IRS registered tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization. State tax exemptions alone are not considered eligible.
• Meet Microsoft general funding guidelines as outlined in “Eligible Organizations” .
• Successfully pass the Elevate America community initiative eligibility survey located here. Following successful completion of the survey, access to the grant application tool will be provided.

Online training resources

For more information about Elevate America and the no cost and low cost training and education resources we offer to help people develop better technology skills for the jobs of the 21^st century workforce please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/elevateamerica

In the near future when I drive up to a village in Africa, although the roads may be bumpy and dusty, I will see a woman using a tablet PC powered by the latest renewable energy source and connected to the internet giving her information on sustainable and locally proven farming techniques and providing immediate access to market prices for her products. The same tablet will be used by her children to download the latest curricula and other educational content to help them with their homework. This is a vision of Technology and Development that Dr. Raj Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) painted last week during an inspiring talk in Seattle.

Organized by Global Washington, the theme of the panel discussion was Technology’s Impact on Global Development. Attended by over 400 people at St. Mark’s Cathedral – a wonderful venue in the Capital Hill neighborhood - panelists included Congressmen Jim McDermott, Congressmen Adam Smith, Professor Prema Arasu from Washington State University, Dr. Chris Elias with PATH, and myself. Moderated by Sylvia Matthews Burwell from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a recurring theme was how do we continue to support global development activities in the current economic climate?

The panelists shared thoughts on the importance of global aid and development and posited that technology does have a role to play to drive effective adoption and spur new innovations. There was broad agreement that we must find new ways of working on the development of innovative models to reach the poor as we continue to figure out the best way to achieve the vision that Dr. Shah so vividly painted. Clearly we all also understood that technology is not a panacea, noting that while a woman in the most remote village may have a cell phone to make a call, if there is no one at the other end to take the call and provide the needed services, the phone becomes useless. This was the point Dr. Elias made to highlight the importance of effective delivery systems combined with content, services and other infrastructure that are local in nature and support local development.

We at Microsoft believe in the power of technology to drive social innovation and change and we have seen this demonstrated in many ways around the world. However we also recognize that unless we have local solutions to local problems no amount of technology will truly benefit the poor. Therefore we work in partnership with effective local organizations, global NGOs and development agencies such as USAID to ensure we have the right partnership model to drive local innovation with the power to scale outside of the immediate local context.

As much as we should be cautious of technology playing too dominant a role in solutions we also should not be afraid of technology and must put processes in place that help drive local innovation. To bring about meaningful and long lasting change that lifts people out of poverty and addresses the fundamental factors that lead new generations into poverty, we have to rethink our approach to go beyond investing in transactional efforts to those that can become transformational. This will mean taking risks and learning from failures and I personally applaud the new approaches proposed by USAID to truly assess the impact of their programs and share successes as well as failures. As Congressmen Jim McDermott reminded us in his concluding remarks; it is easy to see a glass half empty – but when you see the glass half full, you focus on the potential to fill up that glass. Right now we must collectively invest in realizing this potential and appropriate recognize the positive impact of technology in that effort.

Last week in our post, Demystifying Nonprofit IT Adoption and Innovation, we introduced you to the Nonprofit IT Pyramid. We love pyramids; particularly this one (I’m not kidding). Not only does it help us understand how nonprofits approach technology, but it also helps us focus our resources and programming to best meet the needs of nonprofits. The Nonprofit IT Pyramid just makes sense to us; we can only hope that you will come to find this pyramid as useful a framework as we do.

To this end, we want to give you a closer look at the pyramid by sharing an example of a nonprofit using IT at each level. In this post, we’ll focus on Access to Stable & Secure IT, but in future posts, we’ll take on Optimize Service Delivery, Transform, and – finally – a case study of one nonprofit’s journey up the pyramid. By the time we’re done, we hope you’ll be bona fide pyramid lovers like us!

Access to Stable & Secure Technologies

As we shared last week, the foundation of the Nonprofit IT Pyramid is all about access to stable and secure technologies. Organizations need stable and secure IT to accomplish day-to-day tasks: functional hardware, tech support, e-mail, Internet access, and productivity software, for starters. This level also includes the need for policies and procedures to promote proper IT use and ensure that your data – some of your nonprofit’s most valuable assets – are safe and secure. ‘Round here, we collectively refer to technologies in the foundation as “infrastructure.” (Then again, we’re kind of geeky.)

Next time you are considering a new IT project, ask yourself: “Do we have a stable and secure IT foundation?” If not, it may be worth focusing on this level first, which is exactly what the Freestore Foodbank did.

The Freestore Foodbank stabilizes its IT platform to boost productivity

The Freestore Foodbank is the third largest food bank in Ohio and the largest emergency social services outlet for the greater Cincinnati area. We were first introduced to them when they participated in (and were a winner of!) our Show Your Impact contest with our partner, TechSoup Global. The food bank provides food resources for 450 agencies in 20 counties, serving 160,000 individuals a year. In 2008, they delivered 85,090 meals at 12 different sites through their Kids Café program. Freestore’s vision is to be the leader of a community mobilized to end hunger and address its root causes.

With scale and ambition like this, it’s plain to see why stable and secure technology is critical to Freestore’s operation. But the agency’s technology was in such disarray that the staff was having a hard time accomplishing simple day-to-day tasks, much less expanding their services or realizing the vision. In their words, “The servers were old, the software was ancient, and no one had the same version of software. It was difficult to share files between sites let alone between computers, as well as send things out to donors, board members, or anyone asking for information.”

Freestore’s leadership knew they had to get the foundation of the organization’s IT pyramid in better shape so they could give staff the tools they needed. When IT is not working well, not only does staff productivity suffer, but so too will staff morale. The food bank invested in infrastructure: they standardized software across the agency, upgraded servers and hardware to reduce downtime, started central file back-up, and created a disaster recovery plan. As they said, “[It was] a monumental task given our small budget [and] limited resources, but definitely one that had to happen for the vitality and growth of the organization.”

As a result of the upgrades, the staff is more productive, client files are shared more efficiently, and Freestore can more confidently start planning IT projects at the next level of the pyramid. The stable and secure technology foundation has Freestore Foodbank well-positioned for ongoing IT success.

Can’t Get Enough?

Neither can we! Read more about Freestore’s IT makeover at www.showyourimpact.org/raising-bar. Ready to start your own IT makeover? Bring the Nonprofit IT Pyramid and discussion questions to your next staff meeting to start a discussion about the state of IT at your organization. Or tune in next time to read the next installment of our nonprofit pyramid love affair. Either way, we can’t wait.

Just want more pyramid, like, NOW? We understand. Read the full paper: http://bit.ly/npitpyramid

Part Two of this series is available here.

Lindsay Bealko has, for the past three years, been helping Microsoft Community Affairs put technology know-how in the hands of NGOs through resources like webinars, NGO Connection Days, and software donations. Having spent several years in the nonprofit sector prior to her work for Microsoft, Lindsay understands the unique challenges and opportunities nonprofits face when trying to adopt technology to help them meet their missions. She tweets (occasionally) at @linzbilks.