Third Sector IT has a range of experience helping charities and social enterprises benefit from technology, from large to small, from local to multi-continent.
Charities
Promoting Equity in African Schools
PEAS had several technological challenges: communicating with their African colleagues and sponsored schools, sharing information over slow and unreliable internet connections in Uganda, and organising their fragmented donor database. Google Apps was used to provide a full featured email system that improved communication between all staff, and provided an online calendar that UK staff use to coordinate activities. Finally, a Salesforce Foundation license was applied for and received, and Third Sector and PEAS is in the process of migrating the data onto the new CRM/DRM.
John Rendel, Founder of Peas, says “Third Sector IT has been a huge help over the last couple of years. They are very able to meet the needs of the organisation and often to suggest solutions and ideas that add extra value. We have benefited a lot in particular from work on developing our donor relationship management systems as well as our email systems and file sharing.“
Good4You
Good4You, a one-man charity about to hire its first employee, had their website repeatedly hacked, and was unable to find a working solution that would allow easy and instantaneous editing of a reliable website system. Good4You was setup on Google Sites, part of Google Apps, and had a landing page within an hour and had expanded their site beyond the original one within a week. Additionally, Google Webmaster tools, which provides information from google about searches, and Google Analytics, which provides detailed information about site visitors, was setup to allow better understanding of website visitors.
Francois Greeff, founder, says “our Web site has been completely recreated, in the easiest and simplest way imaginable, using Google sites. I am significantly impressed that Mr Grunow did not seek to recreate a web site that we cannot manage, and must constantly call an expert in for. Google Sites are so simple that a child could do it, quickly and easily. This is the ideal solution for our small charity with its very limited funding.“
Architecture sans Frontièrs (Architects without Borders, UK)
ASF had limited email accounts, and limited storage for their email, as well as no effective collaboration method for documents, intranets, or calendaring. Google Apps was setup for their organisation, and users were migrated at their own pace over several months, with the last users least familiar with Gmail migrating the day of the training workshop. The training workshop provided the skills for ASF to be self-sufficient, with everyone fully productive as a user and some staff capable admins.
Melissa Kinnear of ASF said “Stony Grunow of Third Sector IT ran an excellent workshop with 9 Architecture Sans Frontieres – UK volunteers on Saturday the 5th June to help us migrate to Google Apps. The workshop was well run, fun and engaging and the programme felt comfortable for all levels of Google Mail users.“
Social Enterprises
Aircraft Circus
Aircraft Circus, a social enterprise in Greenwich, had their database on a single computer, which meant staff had to wait for access if more than one person needed access. The database was not regularly backed up, and the upgrade to the next version of the software was expensive. Third Sector IT helped Aircraft Circus apply for and receive 10 Foundation licenses from Salesforce.com, and helped them export, review, and import their data into Salesforce.
Additionally, Vertical Response was added to their salesforce account, allowing Aircraft Circus to send attractive email newsletters for free to their clients and partners, while allowing unsubscribe options to recipients and greatly simplifying the staff’s responsibilities. The database is now securely accessible to all staff, from home and at work. Whereas technology was once a limiting factor for Aircraft Circus, it has now enabled them to reach more people and more easily accomplish their aims.
Elexu
Elexu, a social enterprise just launching, ‘elects you’. With the two partners in different countries and time zones, sharing documents back and forth via email was not effective, and a technologically inferior web-mail left one partner hobbled whenever he traveled. Elexu was moved to google apps, allowing them full-featured and dynamic webmail, as well as Google Docs shared, web-based document system, giving the two partners full access to shared documents.
David Smuts, the co-founder wrote “we have come to rely upon their speedy service as well as consultancy on a range of technical matters. If you’re looking for an IT service which is responsive to the needs of an SME or charitable organisation then you need look no further than Third Sector IT.“