InvestED Helps Over 16,000 Students in Washington State with Donated IT
InvestED (formerly The Saul and Dayee G. Haas Foundation) is an educational nonprofit that provides immediate help for students in need. InvestED makes available funding that supports the efforts of secondary schools throughout Washington state. In a recent year, the organization worked with 875 schools to assist 16,171 students with need-based funding. By providing items like shoes, coats, glasses, sports equipment, and academic fees, InvestED encourages kids to stay in school, return to school, or get more involved within their learning community.
The organization helps connect donors with schools in need. Donors sign up to donate directly or set up fundraisers. InvestED then distributes these donations to schools, who, in turn, use funds as needed for specific student needs. The goal is to distribute grants to schools ranging from $200 to $6,200. When teachers find out about a student in need of a school-related item (which can range from test fees, paints, or football helmets) the school can help immediately.
Having been in operation for more than 40 years, InvestED needed a more sophisticated way to track all of these donations and recipients. Through TechSoup, the organization obtained many Microsoft products. Microsoft's technologies helped InvestED design and build an online donation and grant-tracking service that manages donations. Each school is provided its own website and can log in to enter data on each student helped through InvestED.
Microsoft software is also vital to the organization's everyday operations. Needing to spread the word about its impact, InvestED uses Word to create story books that tell the public about students benefiting from its program. Each book features more than 400 stories. The organization also uses Excel to monitor its budget. PowerPoint presentations help staff train its volunteers and more than 2,700 school principals and coordinators.
