Isolation among older adults is a silent epidemic, especially in rural areas where geography, weather, and limited transportation can compound loneliness. A significant portion also experience economic insecurity, a reality reflected in national data showing that millions of seniors struggle with rising costs of housing, food, and healthcare, leaving them at heightened risk of poverty.
For Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly (LBFE), whose mission is to alleviate isolation among older adults, reliable communication and connection are more than operational necessities — they’re lifelines.
LBFE’s small team works to alleviate loneliness and foster enduring friendships with older adults who often live alone, lack social networks, or face barriers to transportation and community engagement. Their programs encompass visits, grocery deliveries, firewood assistance, medical transportation, social activities, and holiday celebrations.
LBFE serves Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula region, relying on an expansive volunteer base. Over the years, demand for their services increased, but communication between counties remained unreliable and remote work was nearly impossible.
The organization’s growth potential and its capacity to fulfill its mission to combat social isolation were directly tied to its technological limitations.
With the support of Cisco’s technology donations through TechSoup, LBFE transformed its infrastructure — modernizing its network, strengthening data security, and enabling remote collaboration across rural communities. Programs that once struggled to take root began to thrive, and the organization’s ability to reach older adults grew dramatically.
The Challenge
For years, LBFE ran on what Executive Director Carol Korpela described as “a grassroots collection of whatever technology we could get.”
LBFE’s technological landscape mirrored those of many rural nonprofits — fragile, improvised, and stretched far beyond its limits. The internal network relied on an assortment of outdated equipment, often patched together in ways that made troubleshooting difficult and expansion nearly impossible.
When volunteer IT lead Alexander Reichert took responsibility for the organization's systems more than a decade ago, he found routers hanging from ceilings, mismatched switches, and a lone server resting under a desk. “It was a patchwork of things that had outgrown the organization,” Reichert recalled.
With no firewall protecting sensitive beneficiary data and no secure way for satellite offices to connect to the main location, communication between counties required staff to drive hours for in‑person meetings. Harsh Upper Peninsula winters magnified these challenges, disrupting services at the moments older adults needed them most.
These vulnerabilities came into stark focus during a devastating ransomware attack. As Reichert recalled, “They came in and wiped out everything we had. After that, there was nothing left.” Recovery was possible only because of an air‑gapped backup he had implemented, underscoring how urgently LBFE needed modern, resilient infrastructure. As Korpela emphasized, “If Wi‑Fi or network access is down, so is our ability to serve people.”
The Solution
To stabilize operations and build a secure, modern foundation for growth, LBFE turned to Cisco’s donation program via TechSoup.
What began as an urgent effort to replace mismatched, unreliable hardware transformed into a complete modernization of LBFE’s technology ecosystem. The organization’s first wave of Cisco equipment brought much‑needed structure to their on‑premises environment, replacing improvised networking with enterprise‑grade switches, firewalls, wireless controllers, and access points that finally allowed their offices to operate as a unified system.
“For the first time, we could securely connect our remote office into the main systems,” Reichert said. “That completely changed how we operated.”
As the organization grew, Cisco donations enabled it to extend secure Wi‑Fi into every corner of its operations, including volunteer housing, dedicated guest networks for community events, and even its vehicle maintenance garage.
Key Results
Perhaps the most transformative impact of Cisco’s solutions has been LBFE’s ability to support remote work and cloud‑based platforms — capabilities that became indispensable during the pandemic. As Korpela reflected, “In today’s world, your network is your backbone, even for a small nonprofit. Cisco Meraki gave us that backbone.”
The organization’s cross‑county collaboration also transformed. What once required two‑hour drives for monthly meetings now happens effortlessly through secure, cloud‑managed connectivity, allowing remote staff in Ontonagon, Marquette, and even out‑of‑region workers to participate fully in daily operations.
When a powerful Thanksgiving blizzard made travel impossible, staff conducted widespread remote wellness checks for thousands of older adults, ensuring that everyone received support. “No one was trekking into the office during a storm,” said Korpela. “But thanks to our systems, we still reached every person who needed us.”
The shift to Cisco Meraki’s cloud‑managed environment also enabled unprecedented operational flexibility. Reichert now volunteers more than 200 hours each year from his home in Florida, seamlessly monitoring and managing the network through the Meraki dashboard. This same infrastructure is now laying the groundwork for future safety and expansion: LBFE is preparing to deploy Cisco Meraki security cameras to protect the firewood lot after recent thefts threatened one of the organization’s most essential winter assistance programs.
As LBFE continues to adopt new Cisco Meraki software and equipment, the donation process itself has evolved into a dependable, streamlined partnership. Reichert described the experience as “super straightforward,” noting how easily LBFE can now request any Cisco Meraki product it needs.
His recommendation to other nonprofits was simple: “Go for it. The process is easy, the support is outstanding, and the impact is real.” Korpela echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the scale of transformation Cisco made possible for a small rural nonprofit: “These donations have advanced us more than we could have ever afforded on our own.”
