"How are grassroots non-profit organizations going to survive – let alone thrive – in the 21st Century unless they are able to access the communication tools that their funders, members, and the media-at- large may demand? Building capacity for social change depends upon recruiting new human resources with both technological and leadership skills."
- Carnet Williams, Former NetCorps Executive Director

Membership-tracking databases, on-line advocacy actions, affordable hardware and software, on-line training and tutorials, e- mail, listservs, and web pages (to name a few) are critical resources for grassroots groups that intend to be heard in the next decade. Building a nonprofit technology infrastructure is a new need, and one that nonprofits, technology assistance providers and foundations must find a way to meet together.

NetCorps and McKenzie River Gathering Foundation (MRGF) are collaborating on an innovative approach to meeting that need. Planning began last year when the two groups came together to discuss how, as MRG Executive Director Susan Remmers describes,

Technology has become so seamlessly integrated into our lives that many are not aware of how it has re-defined the traditional notion of wealth. One could argue that the "haves" of today not only hold stocks and cash, but also access -- indeed control -- the technological arena. The "have nots" are those without stocks, cash, and access to technology."

This summer, NetCorps and MRGF will launch a one-year effort called Project Connect, part "circuit rider", part NetCorps internship process, and part "uncharted territory". The process begins with MRGF inviting their pool of past grantees to apply for awards that will help them assess their technology needs and move forward with appropriate projects.

Seeding the Grassroots...
The McKenzie River Gathering (MRG) Foundation in Portland, Oregon has been funding grassroots social change organizations since 1976. In the last 23 years MRGF has awarded more than $4 million to over 3000 groups. Their primary mission is to secure money from progressive individuals with means so we can pool the gifts to disperse to the broader progressive community. Says Remmers, "We prioritize radical cutting edge work; often we liken it to ‘seeding the grassroots in Oregon’."

In recent years, MRGF has been searching for a way to help its grantees build capacity and to optimize the opportunities offered by communications technology.

MRGF was intrigued by the idea of a circuit rider model, since their grantees are small social change organizations in Oregon -- many in rural, technologically under-served communities. The concept of a "preferred provider" with whom MRGF could partner to ensure that grantees were served well was also appealing. But both of these options were a deviation from MRGF’s typical granting process: unrestricted grants of less than $10,000 for program delivery or general operations. To make a significant impact on their grantee pool, the cost of Project Connect would be over $100,00 and the funds would be restricted to appropriate technology projects.

MRG realized the huge potential for capacity building that the established NetCorps internship model could offer their groups. As an MRG grantee recipient itself, NetCorps was a known organization, was ready and able to help. NetCorps could adapt its internship program to fit a "circuit rider" style of assistance for MRG grantees -- an opportunity for growth and development that NetCorps and its student interns welcomed wholeheartedly. In the true spirit of their mission of progressive social change, MRGF proceeded to explore the possibilities with NetCorps, despite the risks inherent in experimentation.

Connecting the Need with the Resource
NetCorps is a small-but-growing nonprofit organization in Eugene, Oregon dedicated to assisting progressive social change organizations to integrate appropriate technology into their everyday operation by building the capacity of grassroots groups to effectively communicate, educate, and advocate for social change in the 21st Century. The organization has a second component to its mission: to recruit and train the growing numbers of technically savvy university students to become the next wave of nonprofit sector volunteers and staff. NetCorps is the conduit for matching nonprofits who need to upgrade their skills and capacity with the resources and expertise that can help them get there.

Since last year, NetCorps has been developing a model for delivering technical assistance to nonprofit groups using student interns. June marks the graduation of second class of interns from the University of Oregon, and the next class begins in September. A select team of four interns – with a high level of technical skill and nonprofit interest – will work together with NetCorps professional staff to collect the assessment data and provide the technical assistance to Project Connect grantees.

Project Connect: Creating Capacity for Change
The goal of Project Connect is to dramatically increase the communications and information management capacity of small, progressive change organizations currently in MRGF’s grantee pool. MRG will fund a Needs Assessment for 24 of its grantees and then award continued funding for technological assistance (based on the Needs Assessment outcome) to 12 of these groups. NetCorps will coordinate all of the on-the-ground aspects of the project, including staffing, logistics, training, and follow up technical support.

Project Connect is designed in three phases:

Phase 1: Needs Assessment (September – December 1999)
• Phase 2: Training and Technology Awards (January – April 2000)
• Phase 3: Follow Up Technical Support (May – July 2000)

Phase 1: Needs Assessment
As noted in the research done by the National Strategies for Nonprofit Technology (www.nsnt.org), nonprofit groups are most likely to “make the most productive and innovative use of technology only when it becomes integrated into the way they think, work, and communicate — in other words, when it becomes transparent”. NetCorps’ approach to technical assistance focuses directly on establishing this “transparency” by developing a comprehensive organizational Needs Assessment up-front. The intent is to look at where the organization is today, where they want to be tomorrow, and what kind of technology and training can bridge that gap.

The Needs Assessment Team will consist of the Lead Technology Consultant and one student intern per group. The assessment process includes detailed questionnaires, interviews, inventories, and discussion of both current means of communicating and managing data and the anticipated needs of the future. The intern, with the help of the Lead Technology Consultant and other NetCorps staff, will produce a Needs Assessment Report documenting the process and recommending next steps. The nonprofit group then applies to MRG for continued funding for implementation of any projects resulting from the Needs Assessment.

Phase 2: Training and Technology Awards
Twelve groups will be awarded continued funding to be applied to projects that are recommended as a result of the Needs Assessment Report. The Technology and Training Award Team will consist of the Lead Technology Consultant and, wherever possible, the intern who conducted the Needs Assessment. Since the final grantees are likely to have a wide range of needs (e.g., different computer platforms, databases, networking, internet-related projects), NetCorps will match the best-suited intern to each final grantee. In addition, NetCorps is able to call upon a pool of technology professionals, instructors, and consultants with a wide range of expertise, including operating systems, hardware/software purchasing, database creation and management, Website design and programming, intranets (LANs), spreadsheets and financial software, desktop publishing, Internet research, and encryption technology. These professionals volunteer their time or consult at a reduced rate to mentor student interns and work with NetCorps’ member groups.

Phase 3: Follow Up Technical Support
For four months after the completion of the Technology and Training Award Phase, NetCorps interns and consultants will provide pro-active tech support for the Project Connect issues. Each week, NetCorps will contact the grantee to answer questions, trouble-shoot problems, advise on additional training opportunities and resources, and other issues related to the equipment or systems installed during the Technology and Training Phase.

Building a Model for Building Capacity
The lessons learned in Project Connect will make a significant contribution to building a model for low cost, capacity-building technology assistance in the nonprofit sector. MRGF will develop a funding model that can be tested in other capacity-building projects (such as board development, fund-raising, or program management). NetCorps will use the Project Connect experience to add refinements to its internship program model and build its own membership base and project experience. Perhaps more importantly, 24 MRGF grantees will complete an awareness-raising and readiness process that will increase their capacity to advocate for social change in the 21st Century.

"NetCorps provides a solution for increasing the communications capacity of the nonprofit sector by recruiting technically skilled and passionate students to be leaders in the 21st Century. We are training agents for changing communities". - Carnet Williams, Former NetCorps Executive Director