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CompuCorps, IT pros and IT-minded non-profits

This is something you'll never be more painfully aware of as when you're searching for qualified IT staff. It's no picnic trying to find the right fit to deliver the kinds of mission critical support and high tech services you need. Your support team needs to be able to help staffers struggle with new software, unfamiliar operating systems foibles or just the perilous slopes of the learning curve. Once you've had it, it's hard to imagine operating without that kind of help at your fingertips. Right? Now, imagine making this same search but on a shoestring budget or no budget at all. Imagine no support staff. This is the obstacle faced by organizations incorporated as 'not-for-profit' and that's where CompuCorps comes in!

CompuCorps' assistance to the not-for-profit world doesn't end at staffing and knowledge challenges.

CompuCorps is also committed to collecting and distributing free or low-cost software and helping to match low cost technology planning assistance to non-profits. CompuCorps also has positioned itself so it can collaborate within the community in arranging computer access for the disadvantaged.

Based on a proven computer mentoring program started in 1987 in San Francisco, CompuCorps was founded with the aim of matching IT specialists willing to donate some of their time to non-profit groups. The IT specialists (called mentors) benefit from the arrangement in that they get to enhance their skills and experiences while building their references.

IT professionals who are interested in learning more about CompuCorps or signing up to be matched with a local non-profit group can contact them through their Web site at: http://www.compucorps.org/.

Once a not-for-profit organization decides to try CompuCorps mentoring, a staff liaison person is chosen to be a primary contact for CompuCorps and the mentor. CompuCorps then works with the non-profit to develop a work plan that meets the reasonable goals they have. Once the work plan is agreed upon, CompuCorps will create a project agreement which outlines the work to be done by CompuCorps and the mentor which is then signed by the not-for-profit organization and CompuCorps.

Not-for-profits involved in the program pay a modest fee before CompuCorps will start the search for your ideal mentor.

Once the project is underway and the not-for-profit is working with its mentor, CompuCorps continues to cooperate to make sure the work plan is right on schedule and to provide additional advice and resources.

With everything else it does locally, CompuCorps is working to develop models for technology assistance for not-for-profits throughout Canada, like the one first started in San Francisco. In Kingston, CompuCorps is successfully working this model and, in so doing, has helped to get the most from the willing spirits of like-minded volunteers.

As technology races ahead, the gap between those who know and those who need to know continues to broaden. Nowhere is this felt more palpably than in the non-profit sector where budgeting limitations can make it next to impossible to keep up with changing needs using constantly changing technology.

Bill Marvel of CompuCorps can be reached at: 613-234-8600 or by e-mail at: compucorps@jobclips.com.