Software Donations Help Meet Growing Community Needs in Hungary
The Association for Unemployed Job Seekers and Helpers (AUJSH) relies heavily on computer technology to provide training programs to build job skills and assist the unemployed in finding employment. Increased demand for the association's services created a need for updated software to effectively prepare and implement programming, modernize internal databases, and give external communications documents a more professional look.
The association is volunteer-run with an annual income of less than 10,000 euro, which made it impossible to purchase the necessary software upgrades while increasing services. Fortunately, organizations like Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation (NIOK), the Hungarian partner of the TechSoup Global Network, exist to keep nonprofits from making a difficult choice between funding their IT needs and direct services. NIOK's CivilTech donation program made it possible for the association staff to secure copies of Microsoft Project Professional, Visio Professional, Windows Vista Business, and OneNote 2007, which all provided huge cost savings at a time when its services were most needed.
