Technology is a boon for nonprofits during slump

If these are lean times for corporate information technology purchasers, what is the situation for nonprofit groups that need new hardware or software? Surprisingly good, as it turns out, writes Laurie J. Flynn in the Oct. 21 New York Times.

Despite the moribund information technology economy, the nonprofit sector may actually be benefiting from the slump -- as companies like Microsoft see donations as a way of helping keep their products in widespread use, and as large numbers of otherwise unemployed hardware and software professionals demonstrate a new willingness to take jobs in the nonprofit community.

For example, at the Family Stress Center, a county-financed nonprofit family services agency in Concord, Calif., Paul Bongiovanni has the task of continually updating the computer system that keeps the agency running. That is a challenge because the center serves 7,000 clients a year throughout sprawling Contra Costa County, 30 miles east of San Francisco.

The agency, which offers programs for the prevention and treatment of child abuse, operates on a budget of only about $2 million. And with 70 or so full- and part-time counselors and administrators to pay, that leaves little left to spend on the latest version of Windows software, say, or on installing additional high-speed Internet lines.

But through a relatively new online software store for nonprofit organizations called DiscounTech, Mr. Bongiovanni, the center's business manager, is able to buy leading software like Norton Antivirus and Microsoft Office XP for about 10 percent of the original retail price. Click here for the rest of the article on the New York Times web site.