Wilf Ward was a Yorkshire farm worker from a poor background whose inventiveness and acumen eventually saw him become a major local employer. He was ultimately awarded an OBE for services to industry. In the tradition of an earlier age of British philanthropists, Mr. Ward went on to use his wealth to establish the charity that bears his name: the Wilf Ward Family Trust.He and his wife Phyllis were joint founders.
CTX-sourced donations from Microsoft have provided the backbone of the Trust's IT infrastructure for three years now. "All our money is ploughed back into services for the people whose lives we want to improve," says spokesperson Debs Sleightholme-Pinkney. "We recycle and cannibalize computers. What CTX has allowed us to do is to bring uniformity across services." In a nutshell, this means computers and email at each service, with interlinked networks fit for a modern multi-site operation. Windows 7 has been installed across the board to allow the Trust to run their choice of third-party applications.
"Realistically speaking, we couldn't afford software," she says. "The off the shelf price is out of the question; we have a lot of irons in the fire, but it's so, so difficult given the cuts."
Belt-tightening notwithstanding, there is optimism at the charity: Anew property in its home town of Pickering has been acquired.There are plans to turn it into a social enterprise cafe,which could provide employment opportunities for people whom the Trust supports. Again, CTX donations will allow the cafe to be networked in with the rest of the organization, freeing much-needed resources to be focused upon the charity's end users.