My community service project got funded! I just received a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). With this little bit of money and a lot of hard work we will be able to help 120 non-governmental organizations (NGO in English, ONG in Spanish) in the state of Querétaro create their own web sites, communicate using e-mail and chat, collaborate on documents with partners, and connect with potential volunteers and donors.
These NGOs address a variety of social problems including drug and alcohol addiction, access to healthcare, services for the elderly, shelters for at-risk children and women, help for people with disabilities, education, and community and youth development. Essentially they serve the most vulnerable groups of people in the state.
My community partner on the grant is the Junta de Asistencia Privada del Estado de Querétaro. Their primary function is the promotion, development and preservation of these NGOs by providing management consulting, training, legal, accounting, tax and any other services. In addition, the Junta advocates on behalf of the NGOs to other federal and state government agencies as well as private organizations. My spouse Kelly works at the Junta as a NGO Development Specialist and will continue to be heavily involved in this project.
The key technology partner in this project is Google. They are providing the platform, Google Apps, at no cost to these NGOs. The Google Apps suite includes e-mail, group calendars, contact management, discussion groups, web site development, document sharing, and multi-media such as photos and video. In addition we will be developing a volunteering and fundraising system based on Google Apps. Because these applications are provided as a service, in the “Cloud”, the NGOs do not need to purchase, install, or maintain hardware and software. The applications are accessible from any computer with a web browser. This greatly decreases the cost and complexity and allows these NGOs, who mostly are on a shoestring budget, to adopt world-class technology.
Prior to receiving this grant we assisted the Junta with a web site implementation. The website project began with a workshop to assess the needs of the Junta, continued with multiple prototype review sessions, and concluded with hands-on administrator and user training. The website is available at www.juntadeasistenciaqro.org and provides the first of its kind online directory of the NGOs in the state of Querétaro along with many other sophisticated features including automatic language translation. The process and technology proven on the project for the Junta is the model for implementing this project for the NGOs.
We have high hopes for this project. There is a great scene in the movie “The Right Stuff” where one of the Mercury astronauts rhetorically asks a NASA director “You know what makes this rocket go up?” and then answers his own question “Funding! That’s what. No bucks, no Buck Rogers!” So grab your space helmet we are about to blast off.
If you want more information about this project please go to www.ongtec.com (pronounced Oh-N-Hay Tech) ONG is Spanish for NGO.
