By Lauren Woodman, CEO, NetHope
In any presentation about NetHope, I typically begin with our mission statement: NetHope empowers committed organizations to change the world through the power of technology.
I recognize this shouldn’t be breaking news for any organization, but every single word of this statement was carefully and intentionally chosen and really sets the stage for any discussion about NetHope. As the events of the second day of the Summit unfolded, I found myself focused on one specific word: committed. That’s because I was surrounded by so many stakeholders—members, tech partners, sponsors, and funders—that are passionate about, invested in, and actively committed to our mission. They are not just paying lip service. They are acting on it.
Here are some highlights from the day that supply clear evidence of commitment among our attendees.
- Box, NetSuite, and Avanade joined Microsoft, Okta, and Blackbaud as founding partners of The Center for the Digital Nonprofit, signaling their intention to play both a strategic and practical role. They will invest money, products, and expertise in The Center, each bringing their distinctive strengths and opportunities to this collaboration.
- #ImpactCloud and Humentum lent their support to the second white paper prepared by The Center for the Digital nonprofit, which was released today. The Digital Nonprofit Skills Assessment white paper was a response to the findings of the first white paper, The Digital Nonprofit Assessment, published last April. For the first time, we have an industry standard for digital skills across the global nonprofit sector, and we have insights into the opportunities and challenges of transforming the nonprofit sector. The survey tool used was designed and fielded by Humentum. The white paper was sponsored by #ImpactCloud members, including: Box.org, DocuSign IMPACT Foundation, Okta, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce.org, Splunk, Tableau Foundation, Twilio.org, and Workplace by Facebook.
- Over 500 attendees committed to either sharing their knowledge or learning through plenary and breakout sessions highlighting topics from blockchain, scaling ICT4D, doing good with data, and other topics outlining institutional innovation.
- Several member CEOs and leading industry leaders participated in plenaries, sharing their insights and perspectives on the tech/NGO collaborative relationship and state of the tech industry’s embrace of using tech for good.
- Thirty-one technology sponsors committed to sharing new technology tools with Summit attendees. I encourage you to visit their booths and learn about their solutions.
Day Three promises to be even more intense, enlightening, and educational as old friends and colleagues reconnect and new relationships are forged amongst the more than 500 participants here in Dublin. So far, it has been truly inspiring and proves that through collaboration, the sky is truly the limit of what can be achieved.
