3 Secret Weapons for Nonprofits
As you may know by now, the past seven years I have been President of Diabetes Hands Foundation, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that aims to connect, empower, and mobilize people touched by diabetes for positive change, so that nobody living with diabetes may feel alone.In the process of growing the organization, we have encountered a number of valuable tools and resources that have been instrumental in support of our mission. I wanted to share three of them that I have been meaning to write about for some time:
1) Techsoup: Nonprofits need software. But software can come in at a steep price, specially packages like Adobe PhotoShop and others that are important as part of creating and maintaining your nonprofit brand. Enter Techsoup!They aim to connect nonprofits, charities, or public libraries with tech products and services, plus learning resources to make informed decisions about technology. Their free resources are available to all users. Once registered and qualified with TechSoup, nonprofits and libraries can access donated and discounted products and services from partners like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Intuit, and Symantec.
2) Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group: Nonprofits (as any other business) also need insurance. The Nonprofit Insurance Alliance Group provides a stable source of liability insurance tailored to the specialized needs of the nonprofit sector, and assist their members with programs, tools and training that minimize their risk, protect their clients, employees and volunteers. Not only are they tailored for nonprofits: they are more affordable than other alternatives.
3) Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley: One of their programs is the Latino Board Leadership Academy, which is a bootcamp of sorts, that trains Hispanic executives in Silicon Valley to become the best possible nonprofit board members. We came to their 2014 "Nonprofit Match Night" and loved it. Indeed, we recruited one of our board members that night! They interviewed me about my impressions on the event.