Seattle Works connects volunteers with local nonprofits and prepares people to serve on nonprofit boards and public commissions; it inspires community involvement. Like many nonprofits, Seattle Works had been impacted by the economic downturn and needed to make a change to thrive. The organization decided to invest in technology to move to a flexible workspace and save infrastructure costs.
Seattle Works made the leap to cloud technology to free up physical server and data storage costs. Working efficiently and reliably in the cloud was possible through the TechSoup software donation program. Seattle Works received donations of Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Windows, and Office software. Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in particular have made collaboration in its newly flexible workspace a breeze.
Since the upgrade, Seattle Works has been able to offer more opportunities for community engagement, resulting in an increase in volunteer hours benefiting the local community. Seattle Works Hot Projects (one-time volunteering) and Team Works programs (four-month-long team volunteering) experienced a 23 percent and 21 percent increase in hours served respectively.
The organization also grew its Bridge program (training for nonprofit board members-to-be) by 35 percent. And increased efficiency allowed for the introduction of a new program, Hands On Leadership, which enables volunteers to manage a project in collaboration with a nonprofit.