Tech Assessment Cohort Wrap-up
Last Monday we wrapped up our technology assessment project that included 13 nonprofits from around the community. We handed out shiny printed copies of the strategy maps that these organizations can take to their board, use to write grants or recruit volunteers, and start implementing simple solutions on their own. Click through to read all about it...
Last Monday we wrapped up our technology assessment project that included 13 nonprofits from around the community. We handed out shiny printed copies of the strategy maps that these organizations can take to their board, use to write grants or recruit volunteers, and start implementing simple solutions on their own.
Elissa demonstrates our commitment to having lots of yummy food at our meetings.
A big thank you to all our pilot cohort participants
We’d like to give a shout out to the 13 nonprofits that we were able to work with, which included one (or more) interviews and Q & A sessions regarding technology and up to three hands-on technology trainings:
- Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets
- Southeast Seattle Education Coalition
- Eastside Legal Assistance Program
- Seattle RecTech
- Helping Link
- Hunger Intervention Program
- Literacy Council of Seattle
- Friends of the Children King County
- Youth Media Institute
- Communities in Schools of Kent
- Communities in Schools of Puyallup
- West Seattle Helpline
- Housing Development Consortium
Lots of helpful feedback
Since this was our pilot program, we asked for some feedback such as what worked, what was helpful, what possible next steps were, and what didn’t work so well. Here is what a few participants had to say:
- “The tech assessment gives us concrete recommendations that we can take to our Board of Directors. The various trainings were also helpful in the fact that they helped us better understand our options as far as social media, websites, etc.”
- “Our organization enjoyed the workshops that were provided and wish there were more. The Hands On Tech staff were very friendly, approachable, and happy to help the best way they could in answering our questions.”
Overall the biggest suggestion for improvement was an increase in the number of trainings and more help with implementation of various technology solutions. While there are changes we hope to make in the next iteration of this project, we were happy to receive a lot of positive feedback. We’ll be passing all of information on to the next round of AmeriCorps VISTAs, so that next year’s cohort program will rock.
Common problems and common solutions
We also spent some time discussing common problems and solutions facing nonprofits with small budgets that we discovered as we went through the technology assessment and wrote the strategy maps for each nonprofit. It was a little surprising to discover the same pain points among nearly all of the nonprofits, and many solutions are free or low-cost and involve a relatively small time investment. Check out our slides in the Knowledge Center if you’re interested!
Stay tuned for information about next year's program
If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the cohort during our first round, stay tuned as 3 brand new AmeriCorp VISTAs will be arriving in late August to continue serving the community and helping nonprofits with technology solutions.
Missed any of our previous updates?
- Announcing our AmeriCorps free tech assessment project
- Kicking off the tech assessment project
- Tech assessment social media training re-cap
- Tech assessment Google for Nonprofits training re-cap
- Tech assessment Websites for Nonprofits training re-cap
- Stephen Eggers, Elissa Thomas, Abby Nafziger
Congratulations!