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GroundWork group eNewsletter |
| Volume II Issue 12 |
December 2008 |
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GroundWork group Mission Statement: "To strengthen the impact of nonprofit organizations by enhancing their
ability to achieve their missions through sustainable and affordable information management, education and
technology solutions."
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| 2008 Wrap Up, Looking Forward to 2009 |
Dear Friends of GroundWork group,
On behalf of the GroundWork group Team, Board and EAC, I want to thank you for all your support and help in 2008.
Without your efforts, 2008 would not have been nearly as successful and eventful as it was and by any measure, 2008 was
an exciting year for us. 2008 included...
- We successfully merged CIVIC and GroundWork group into one organization
- We introduced IT In A Box Managed Services, an IT managed services offering that allows organizations to reduce their IT spend and become more efficient and secure from a technology standpoint
- We increased our member base to 140 plus organizations
- We enhanced our CRM application, the CIVIC Solution to include capabilities such as Blast Email, credit card processing, on-line registration, and data collection and storage
- We conducted our 3rd Annual conference that included 175 plus people with Ohio State President Gee as the keynote
- We expanded our service offering to be a full service provider of Website Management capabilities
- We received the 2007 TechColumbus TopCAT Award for "Innovation in Non-Profit Service Delivery"
WOW. We could not be more pleased.
As we look to 2009, we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to weather the economic storm and continue to build and provide the critical IT services to our member base. We hope to accomplish the following in 2009...
- Expand our member base in Central Ohio
- Create an evaluation framework to further evaluate our impact in our community
- Further market and refine our capabilities to ensure that we stay relevant to our member base
- Develop an expansion plan to allow us to expand beyond Central Ohio
As you can see, 2009 will be a busy year for us.
Again, thank you for the support and we look forward to making 2009 as productive and successful as possible.
Happy Holidays
John
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Even during the holidays, and especially during this economy, I'm sure you are looking for ways to reduce many expenses. We've put together short-list of fairly quick and easy ways that can result in savings!
Some quick ideas for the short term:
Turn off/Unplug Power to Electronics: While you are out or your organization is closed, turn off your computer and monitor or laptop and unplug the power cord if you have it plugged directly into an electrical outlet. Power continues to charge laptop batteries even if your laptop is off or even in hibernation or sleep mode! If you have items plugged into an electrical power strip/surge protector, power is still being used to not only for the little light on the strip but to power anything else that is plugged into it!
If your organization is going to be shutdown over the holidays for an extended period, you might even think about powering down servers and other related devices depending on the need. If you have server(s) in an environmentally controlled room, the power needed to cool these areas would be less if the heat from the servers wasn't being generated.
Completely turn off all of your printers and copier machines. Sleep mode is energy saving, but powering the device down during longer periods could increase savings.
Unplug those cell phone/PDA/MP3 players/smart phone and other chargers while not in use! Power is still being used while those are plugged in!
Some other ideas for the long term:
Run Server Scripts to Shut Down Computers Automatically! If you want some longer term impact on energy savings, have all of the organization employees shut down their computers at least over the weekend. If you want an sure-fire way of knowing that computers are turned off, you can have a script added to your server that will automatically shut down computers prior to the weekend.
Increase the efficiency of the water heater. If you own your own building, take a look at your water heater! First, turn the temperature down to at least 120 degrees or less if the office will be closed more than a few days.. Most water heaters may be turned up too high. Then you could look at getting an insulation sweater to put around your water heater– it will reduce the amount of energy the heater needs to keep the water hot. (We would suggest getting some more specific advice from a qualified plumber.)
Save power by making sure you use energy-efficient lighting. Lighting is one of the largest uses of power. Use natural lighting where you can, or replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lights use 1/3 the electricity of normal bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. LED lights are even more efficient than fluorescent lights. And they're not bright and ugly anymore! Buy some of these lights and they will pay for themselves in energy savings in a year.
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| Corporate Giving, A Critical Link in Nonprofit Service Delivery |
1,500 nonprofits in Central Ohio provide the front line services to address the needs of our citizens: food on the table, a warm place to live, mental health services, childcare, education, arts and many more. The current economic downturn will increase the number of people asking for help from nonprofits. Individual charitable giving is on the decline and competition for charitable dollars is getting tight. Corporate partnerships with the nonprofit community are essential to continued success. GroundWork group aims to maximize the value delivered for your investments in nonprofit organizations. While GroundWork group does not provide direct services to individuals, we improve the service delivery of all nonprofits.
Here are some ways GroundWork group has helped in 2008...
- Completed development and successfully launched our IT In A Box Managed Services which provides hardware, software, network infrastructure, email, security, back-ups, antivirus and business continuity for a fixed, low cost. In use in nonprofit offices and with additional organizations reviewing implementation, our managed services free up nonprofit staff time and dollars to go toward their core mission.
- Increased the value of The CIVIC Solution database management suite by adding blast email, credit card processing, online registration and single-click options for donating directly on Members' websites.
- Increased our membership base to 140+ nonprofits. Organizations that take full advantage of GroundWork group's offerings receive an average of $5 in services for every dollar they invest in GroundWork group fees.
- Placed 20 more area IT professionals onto nonprofit boards of directors. Over 70 IT professionals placed onto nonprofit boards since the beginning of our Board Matching & Development program.
- Saved nonprofits thousands of dollars in IT hardware and software, technical services, project management, IT planning expenses and educational training.
- Saved countless nonprofit staff hours by providing sound IT consultation and services.
The economic forecast is bleak. GroundWork group will need assistance from our corporate neighbors as the entire
nonprofit sector faces a daunting reality: How will we meet the needs of an increasing
number of people with fewer contributed dollars? Corporate foundations and corporate giving are uniquely suited to
help. GroundWork group will seek your continued commitment to help us improve the lives of Central Ohio residents by
assisting with our program development to boost the functionality of nonprofits. In 2009 GroundWork group will...
- Sign up more nonprofits on our IT In A Box Managed Services, to reduce their cost of doing business, to remove the hassle of IT from their staff and to give nonprofits the ability to serve more clients while spending fewer staff hours and dollars to do so.
- Expand our marketing practices to acquire new nonprofit organization Members and increase the usage of our services by our current Members.
- Enhance The CIVIC Solution. Highly successful, Central Ohio nonprofits are using The CIVIC Solution to track millions of constituent records, client service and involvement transactions and nearly $300 million in current and historical charitable contributions. We have lost NOT ONE piece of data for our CIVIC Solution customers, ever.
- Assist with nonprofit strategic planning. We continually explore new ways to help nonprofits use data effectively, research modifications to our services and assist in the application of our offerings to meet each organization's unique needs.
- Reach out to more corporate volunteers. We recruit professionals to serve on nonprofit boards of directors, committees and special projects, and we train volunteers on effective nonprofit board operation and how to become a better board member.
The GroundWork group team and volunteers are a dynamic collection of professionals from a diverse representation of
business backgrounds poised to elevate nonprofit service delivery to the highest level. Please share your ideas with us.
In 2009, we would like to increase the number of Central Ohio businesses and professionals working with us to accomplish
our mission "to strengthen the impact of nonprofit organizations by enhancing their ability to achieve their missions
through sustainable and affordable information management, education and technology solutions."
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GroundWork group Contact Information:
GroundWork group, 1880 Mackenzie Drive, Suite 207
Columbus, OH 43220
GroundWork group Team Members: John Hrusovsky, CEO;
Dale Abrams, Executive Advisor; Brenda Grosse, VP of Operations & Administration;
Stephanie Neighbarger, VP of IT; Tom Guy, VP of Member Services; Bryan Butler, VP of CIVIC Solutions;
Jamie Ratcliffe, Eric Jones and Dan McCaslin, IT Specialists; Bob Campbell and Randy Wright, Developers;
Carolyn Green, CIVIC Education & Administration; and
Tracy Nelson, Grant Writer & Consultant.
GroundWork group is proud to be a Community Partner of
United Way of Central Ohio.
bgrosse@groundworkgroup.org
http://www.groundworkgroup.org
614-884-7780
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