A guided tour of the Cloud: Empowering NGOs in China with Office 365

As most NGOs would attest to, one of the key limitations that hinder their growth and adoption of relevant solutions is their limited IT team and resources – or in some cases, a complete lack thereof.

Recognizing this issue, NPI – TechSoup’s partner NGO in China – has sought to address this concern by offering NGOs a hands-on training program that seeks to assist NGOs in various stages of implementing Office 365, beginning from the process of applying for the donations up to the actual usage of its various features.

In focusing on Office 365, NPI sees an opportunity to arm, educate and enable any NGO with essential cloud tools to make their operations efficient, that is flexible to any changes in their organizational size & structure, and most importantly, requires very little maintenance.

NPI to this day has been able to pilot this program on 3 separate NGOs, providing them a guided one-on-one experience that encompassed various stages of implementation. This ranged from as early as setting up their domains & user accounts, up to a more feature-focused approach such as training on SharePoint and Teams.

NPI’s initiative is not limited to hands-on trainings though, should an NGO in China want to receive quick support, they may also access NPI’s modules online through the links below:

Tableau Analysis Data Training

In early December, TechSoup China’s local partner, NPI worked with the local China Tableau marketing office to provide Tableau training to selected NGOs and key NPI project staff, including the China Foundation Center and Greenpeace.

The 3 hour hands-on demo and training covered key data analysis and visualization capabilities such as data maps and comparative graphs that would prove useful for China NGOs.

NPI received 25 participants at their training center located in their new office in Beijing.

TechSoup, Ford Foundation China and China Pro Bono Link empower NGOs

In collaboration with Ford Foundation China and our China partner Pro Bono Link, TechSoup Asia-Pacific will be launching a new pilot project in China to help non-profits connect with service providers and consultants.

The project comprises two components: first, the development of an online directory of service providers ranging from legal, finance, human resources, information technology, and marketing communications; and subsequently, a training series to help Ford Foundation grantees better engage with service providers.

The 10-month long project, the first of its kind in China, leverages the new TechSoup Consultant Connection program to soon launch in the US that connects technology service providers to the non-profit communities, is the first of its kind in China.

The China pilot will focus on helping Ford Foundation China’s grantees access and a starting group of service providers for a variety of capacity-building. Eventually, we aim to expand the program and serve a wider non profit community in China.

The project will be launched in Q2 this year, kicking off with the online directory, followed by the training series.