Welcome to the Community Technology Programme.
Background
Established in 2022, the programme is designed to:
- help non-profits with discounted or free support,
- recognise that our business customers indirectly support those non-profits.
To learn more about benefits of the programme, please see this page.
We have a number of non-profits on the books (not just charities but also parish and town councils) and so far it is – thanks to the support of our business, charity and local government customers – sustainable.
Affordability Based
Charities that can afford our services pay for a Block Hours Support Agreement and qualify for the programme – benefiting from various discounts. The smaller and less well funded of these charities can also apply for an annual sponsorship.
Smaller charities that are unable to commit to paying for ongoing support can instead apply for a project sponsorship.
Annual Sponsorship
Each year we select one of our existing charity customers and then – for the period of a whole calendar year – provide them with a monthly support package absolutely free. This takes much of the pressure off in terms of IT support costs and allows the charity divert precious funds back to either to their core mission or to invest in new hardware instead of paying the higher labour costs of keeping old hardware going.
For 2024 our sponsored charity is Coastal Health and Wellbeing
Project Sponsorship
Sometimes we might hear of a charity that needs help with a specific project. If we have available resources we may meet the charity to get further detail and explore which parts of the project we can help with.
As an example, we recently assisted Sheringham and District Sports Association with moving their email provision from a selection of personal mailboxes to the Microsoft 365 platform.
Our Long Term Mission
It is no secret that that the long term goals for IT Norwich are for it to become something like a worker owned company, a community interest company or even a full stakeholder co-operative.
We’re still on the path to that goal, the Community Technology Programme has naturally become a key part of that journey.
An Important Moment
Over the last few months it has become very clear to me that charities are under increasing pressure financially, as are many of our business customers.
While the largest for-profit companies did pretty well out of the pandemic and are continuing to do so out of the so-called cost-of-living-crisis1, smaller businesses are struggling to keep their head above water and are tightening their belts.
When our own business customers are focusing on reducing costs, it’s obvious that they and others like them might also be reducing their charitable giving and will be doing so with a heavy heart.
This programme is now more important than it ever has been.
Call To Action
If you are running a business that needs IT support – please consider contacting us for a chat. Choose us as your IT support provider and – as well as receiving great service and support from some lovely people at competitive rates – you’ll be supporting a business whose goals include helping charities with lower cost and sometimes no cost IT support. Placing your businesses with us is a positive step that indirectly but very clearly supports non-profits.
If you are running a charity and are currently paying another firm for IT support, please consider if that money could be better spent with us. Taking up our Community Technology Programme is likely to save you money and help other non-profits at the same time.
Finally, if you are running a charity and need IT support but may not be able to fund it – please do get in touch anyway. We might be able to help you with donation stock or a project sponsorship – we may even be able to signpost you to organisations that can help you with funding.
1 The word “crisis” suggests a situation that is temporary. It doesn’t feel temporary for the people who are struggling to buy food or pay their energy bills – let alone pay the rent or get on the housing ladder. This crisis is not an accident, it is a failure of the economic system we are stuck in. If you want to learn about an alternative, see:
https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics
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