When I am not writing articles, helping to run the VANTUG UG, helping to organize local community IT events such as TechFest 2007, teaching Office, playing with my granddaughter or walking the dog (the pecking order used to be my wife and then me – now it is my wife, our granddaughter, the dog and then me :)) I spend my time working on behalf of an organization called IT Volunteering which provides free IT Services to charities/not-for-profit organizations. So when I recently came across an article in the National Post called Corporate Canada gets behind its volunteers (Microsoft offers time) I was very intrigued to see what it had to say.

Quoting from the article, “Ms. Palmaro, her husband and two daughters took advantage of Microsoft Canada's I Volunteer Program, which gives employees one week paid leave to volunteer”. Microsoft Canada are to be highly commended for operating such a scheme (no they didn’t pay me to say that :)). Not only are they giving back to the community as an organization but they are encouraging their employees to do the same and in the process enriching their employees lives. I certainly hope that many people avail themselves of this generous offer.

As much as I was encouraged to see Microsoft adopting such a scheme I was equally encouraged by the stats in the article (hopefully they are reasonably accurate). Again quoting from the article, “A recent national survey commissioned by Imagine Canada and the University of Lethbridge found 71% of businesses either encourage or accommodate employee volunteer activities”. It has been fairly common practice for companies to provide financial contributions to help but in many ways providing skilled resources is far more valuable. The typical charity faces all of the same business challenges as any company and often with far fewer resources both financial and human to solve their problems. The last thing that charities need is to have to spend their hard won limited funds to fix problems at commercial rates.

As a company there are many good reasons for wanting to behave as a “good Corporate Citizen”. Apart from the obvious PR that it brings it can help to maintain a more contented and “life educated” workforce, which brings its return in the workplace. In addition, it is important to realize that in reality none of us are truly separate. As the world goes so we go! So I am pleased to see more companies “stepping up to the plate”. On the other hand it would be even more encouraging to see more companies adopt similar schemes to Microsoft Canada.

In running IT Volunteering one of the regular challenges is not just finding the people with the right skills and the passion to help but coordinating time with our “clients” during normal business hours. Consultants who have their own companies have more flexibility but that very much narrows our scope of available talent. Corporate support in the form of resources during business hours would make a huge difference. I see this as a win-win-win-win situation. Our clients benefit, the volunteers get to use their skills for a good purpose, the companies get deserved recognition for having a “social conscience” and their employees often gain valuable career and technical experience.  In fact one of my first personal experiences with company pro-bono work was when I worked for EDS which also had a “healthy attitude” when it came to such things. I did some DB work for the Surrey Men’s Homeless shelters. That was very definitely “life educating” but equally rewarding both technically and personally. That experience always stuck in my mind and has been something of a motivator to help ever since. In a recent conversation with an IT Volunteering client I discovered that they had to physically handle the same information 4 times to produce all of their documentation while running 2 people short of their normal complement. I am absolutely sure that sort of situation could be found many times elsewhere. These people lack the time, funds and skills to get “out from under”. They desperately need our help.

Regrettably the state of society today is increasing the demand upon charitable organizations and in turn this is stretching their already limited “resources” even further. In another recent conversation I was told that the #1 goal of this particular charity was to grow because they couldn’t cope with the demand for their services. When charities have to grow they face all of the same challenges of any modern business today. To make those limited resources go further many are in desperate need of much improved computer hardware, software, systems and support. As an organization IT Volunteering is attempting to begin to address some of that need and we need all of the help that we can get both from individuals and corporations. Microsoft is again to be commended for the various schemes that it operates to help with software for charities via TechSoup for example and others. TechSoup is a great organization which caters to all registered charitable organizations in the US and Canada regardless of size and is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I would like to see the hardware manufacturers take a similar stance and not just with lower end desktop machines. The days of the simple pier-to-pier network or simple client-server network are disappearing in favour of more sophisticated systems even for the smaller organizations because they need the benefits of better security, backup, ease of maintenance, etc., etc. just like any business today. The hardware manufacturers may favour the larger charities – more PR exposure – but there are far more smaller, poorer organizations in desperate need of better server hardware with a degree of fault tolerance such as RAID and enough memory to support virtualization for example. Desktop hardware handed down by generous corporations when they upgrade is much easier to obtain and often quite suitable for the task. We need to “lift” these organizations out of the past and into the present. Not only do we need to do this for efficiency reasons but also to improve the work environment. You typically don’t get rich working for charities, especially the smaller ones, and keeping staff can be an ongoing challenge. An improved work environment can only help to somewhat mitigate that problem.

In short I believe that “we all have a responsibility to help” in some way, each to his own ability and means both as individuals and as corporations. The line of least resistance is to take a selfish stance but you never know whether one day you might be “knocking on some charities door” expecting their help. That may change your mind at the time but it is far more valuable to give now so that they can be ready for whoever needs them, possibly you or someone close to you. I have personal reasons for feeling that way and that is one of my other motivations to do whatever I can. Remember cutting a cheque may help but it is the easy option. You have to know how to use the money wisely and sometimes that is lacking for the sake of some skilled, experienced advice especially in the rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated computer world. Making the commitment to donate time and skills either as an individual or corporation can be far more valuable!

Cheers

Graham Jones, MVP