Tag: NGO event

Donor Management and Fundraising made easy: Blackbaud launches in Southeast Asia

TechSoup Asia-Pacific is proud to announce its newly signed partnership with Blackbaud, a cloud software company that’s built entirely and exclusively to empower charities across the globe. Through this partnership, NGOs across 6 Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand – may access exclusive discounts to Blackbaud’s range of solutions for fundraising, project management, communications and donor management.

NGOS may learn more about the Blackbaud product offers through the links below:

Discounts to Blackbaud’s eTapestry now available

Through TechSoup Asia-Pacific, Blackbaud is offering 25% discounts on the annual subscription fees for eTapestry, an all-in-one fundraising solution that can enable NGOs to collect and manage donor information, receive helpful insights & reports and receive funds/donations.

The offer comes in two different packages, Starter and Pro, for either 1 or 3-year packages. These will also include a consultation call with Blackbaud’s own experts, enabling Blackbaud to better understand the recipients’ needs and how they can address those through eTapestry.

Singapore launch event

To officially announce its launch in Southeast Asia, Blackbaud and TechSoup Asia-Pacific co-hosted a free half-day workshop and networking lunch at Work Central, Singapore. The workshop was attended by 61 representatives from 45 unique charities based in Singapore, as well as Greg Simmons & Maria McDonnell from Blackbaud and Jed Adao from the TechSoup Asia-Pacific team.

Effective fundraising and donor management were the key topics covered throughout the workshop – both of which being very vital to the sustainability of any charity or NGO. Throughout the workshop, the attendees were treated to a variety of talks related to fundraising and donor management. These included global trends that shape and affect giving, differing approaches to giving from varying age groups as well as key learnings and insights derived from hands-on experiences in working with different charities across the region.

In addition, the charities in attendance were also treated to a deep-dive on how eTapestry works. Throughout this session, charities were able to experience an interactive demo on eTapestry’s functions and features in order to give them a better understanding on how these can be used to effectively manage donor networks and fundraising campaigns.

More to come in the future

With its launch receiving an amazing reception and the subsequent growing need for fundraising and donor management support from NGOs across the region, one can safely say that this only the start to more initiatives and collaborations ahead. One of the many things that can be expected in the near future is Blackbaud’s release of other key solutions such as Apricot (for project management) and Raiser’s Edge NXT (for fundraising) through TechSoup Asia-Pacific and the potential expansion of the discount offers to other key countries across Asia-Pacific.

To-date, Blackbaud’s exclusive discounts are available through TechSoup Asia-Pacific programs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as through Australia via our local partner Connecting Up.

Strengthening Capacities of NGOs working in Anti-Human Trafficking

 In an increasingly globalized and digitized world, ‘organizing for change’ has moved beyond the mere mobilization of people in a physical space, but also the organizing of data and narrative to make meaningful and compelling statements in line with campaign goals. As civil society take their campaigns online to reach a wider audience, it is necessary that they are also equipped with the necessary tools to design a successful and impactful campaign.

TechSoup Asia-Pacific in partnership with Yayasan Salam is organizing a series of workshops to help improve the tech capacity of NGOs working towards combating human trafficking in Malaysia. Through sharing national and regional best practices, knowledge, tools and resources at the workshop, we also hope to strengthen the knowledge pool and network of anti-human trafficking players.

This workshop is the first among a series of workshops that incorporate classroom style learning of theory and hands-on practice (see full agenda here), post-workshop support for participants, and a convening for shared learning and successes of the applications of these tech tools to combat anti-human trafficking.Throughout 3 sessions (see more details below), the workshops will tackle various digital literacy topics ranging from proper utilization of data to digital security.

training-series-schedule

Currently, the Series A workshop – for Data Visualization, Security and Protection – is already fully booked and is expected to cater for a number of  leading NGOs that focus on combating human trafficking. This group will be trained by professionals and experts from both the human rights sector, and the field of data science.

To learn more about the expected content, you may see the agenda for the initial workshop below:

If you are working for, or with, an NGO which you think would be interested in the succeeding workshops, please feel free to contact both Liz Liew at eliew@techsoupglobal.org for more information.

NGO Needs Mapping Workshop in Manila

Tech planning, one of the more overwhelming tasks to take on, particularly for NGOs whom typically struggle with their access to IT personnel or expertise. Despite this limitation, our conversations with NGOs – regardless of size and type – consistently reveal their drive towards learning more, and hopefully, being able to manage and update their IT systems independently. Simply, it’s just a matter of knowing how and where to begin their learning process.

In looking to answer the essential question (of where or how do we begin), TechSoup APAC arranged TechSoup Local in Manila, Philippines. TechSoup Local is a workshop style meetup, for this session, the team focused on providing a guided mapping experience of local NGOs’ technology needs. By allowing them to simply voice out all of their concerns, TechSoup is then able to identify larger concerns and introduce to the NGOs the existing donations and discounts that would be relevant for each.

Held last July 5, TechSoup Local gathered some 30 attendees from over 19 local organizations. Throughout an entire afternoon, the team guided them into identifying their tech needs by having them list all the operational pain points they experience on a daily basis. After which, the TechSoup APAC team delivered a guided tour into TechSoup’s catalogue of donations and discounts, simplifying each offer along the way to enable NGOs to better make sense of the tech donations, and how they can be utilized to alleviate their operational pain points.

To cap off the event, the TechSoup APAC team guided the organizations on creating their own work plan that they can follow. This essentially helps them prioritize which relevant donations/discounts – if there are any – they should work on, and the necessary steps to take to furthering their understanding, acquisition and implementation of these new found resources.

Overall, the served as a launching point for NGOs that sought to help direct and nudge them towards the right direction, primarily enabling them to identify what types of tech donations and discounts are out there for them. And most importantly, it also helps begin a conversation, one about tech planning, that they will then continue to grow with both TechSoup and their own teams.

Ageing in a Technological Era

Less than 30 years ago, ageing populations were perceived to be a burden to families and society – their contributions to community were heavily outweighed by the need to look after them.

In recent years, the emergence of new technology solutions, designed and built specifically to address ageing on different levels, be it dementia, Alzheimer’s or a physically restrictive condition, has changed the way societies adapt and manage ageing populations.

Gerontechnology, a new and growing field, works to improve quality of life among the elderly by developing technological solutions to issues they experience in their daily lives.

The Hong Kong government, recognising its growing ageing population, co-hosted the first Gerontech and Innovation Expo Summit (GIES) with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)

Held from 16-18 June 2017, the objective of GIES is to promote community awareness and knowledge on the application of gerontechnology, and ways to use these solutions to help the elderly.

More than 100 local and international exhibitors showcased their inventions and products at the Expo. Highlights included robotic hand device for stroke patients; automated bathing equipment and Nao, a  programmable humanoid companion robot that could perform simple exercises and read Chinese poems.

Concurrently, the Summit gathered stakeholders from different parts of the world and disciplines to exchange views and share experience in order to shed light on the strategy for further promoting development of gerontechnology in Hong Kong.

More than 20 sessions of workshops and briefings were held, with focuses on specific streams of products or services such as application of robots, elderly food, elderly product design, smart city development, smartphone applications for the elderly, walking aids and digital healthcare.

The event was designed for all sectors of the community and the general public, especially stakeholders in elderly care and the services sector, elderly persons and their family members and caregivers. It has received an overwhelming response from the public, with more than 43,000 people participating in the event.

For more information, please check out the website and Facebook page of GIES.