Can a United States-based nonprofit whose mission is "to help nonprofits and NGOs intelligently adopt technology in order to enhance their missions" do so by adopting pro-poor information and communications technology (ICT) policies and practices? Pro-poor policies and practices can mean enabling an ICT-friendly environment within a given country; assigning a high priority to ICT as a tool for poverty reduction; making appropriate technology resources available; and mobilizing additional public and private resources.

In other words, can TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor and a successful North American nonprofit and social enterprise, implement expansion strategies in line with pro-poor practices?

As TechSoup plans its expansion beyond the United States, I’ve asked myself this question a number of times. I was recently reminded of it again after hearing a talk on pro-poor policies given by Richard Gerster -- a consultant for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and a member of an international donor panel -- at the Indian Telecentre Forum 2006.

Gerster’s opening remarks offered lessons learned from a joint effort by SDC and the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). Key findings were:

• Local linkages, content, and capacity involve high costs and low visibility.
• Forming collaborations before deploying infrastructure helps facilitate demand-driven development.
• Finding ways to generate revenue in order to become self-supporting is crucial (nine of ten telecenters are not sustainable).
• Deploying flexible ICT platforms capable of blending traditional and modern IT tools.

Gerster’s opening remarks resonated with me, and the real question about TechSoup's own international expansion began to take root. Could we, along with our NGO partners, learn from the SDC and the MSSRF, and at the very least be conducive in our program design to poverty-reduction strategies in the communities we serve?

This question and its answer are complicated by the fact that TechSoup isn’t a direct-service NGO: we don’t provide solutions to malaria or HIV prevention or drill single-bore wells for access to water. Rather, we provide technology knowledge, tools, and services so that those organizations that do provide healthcare or clean water solutions have the ICT capacity in place to carry out their vital programs.

TechSoup enables NGO capacity-building — and I deliberately think in terms of enabling, because that is what I believe we do most effectively. To this end, we also bring together diverse constituents to mobilize around a particular issue. For example, the 2006 NetSquared conference was a gathering of philanthropists, nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, humanitarian services, and charities — along with multinational technology companies and assorted digerati — to discuss how Web 2.0 technology could be harnessed for social change.

A number Gerster’s lessons seem particularly relevant to TechSoup's own expansion.

Local linkages, content, and capacity involve high costs and low visibility

TechSoup believes the most effective and principled approach to international growth is to partner with locally based organizations within a geographic community, allowing us to deliver our programs efficiently while building NGO capacity in that region. By using a trusted local partner, a broad spectrum of TechSoup services can be offered to that community in local languages and time zones and through local customs and familiar faces. A single local NGO partner can host localized TechSoup content, assess product-donation eligibility in that community, provide pre- and post-donation support, translate and host content, and in some cases reach multiple countries. The costs associated with partnering are daunting, however, and often not supported. As a result, TechSoup is developing a regional partnership capital fund that can provide interim partner-funding in the startup phase until that partnership becomes self-sustaining.

Finding ways to promote revenue generation in order to become self-supporting is crucial

TechSoup believes that, whenever possible, the bulk of any income generated by a partnership should remain in the local community. TechSoup supports its NGO partners through direct funding or by helping identify access to other funding sources — in Poland, for example, TechSoup provided its own funding and leveraged additional funding from Cisco. More importantly, TechSoup shares any administrative fees with each partner NGO in order to try and offer a self-supporting social enterprise.

Building collaboration before deploying infrastructure gives demand-driven development a chance

TechSoup’s NetSquared project deliberately chose a program model of collaboration first, infrastructure last. As result, TechSoup’s varied constituents were provided the opportunity to determine model, content, and platform.

Demand-driven development is best summed up by a blog entry by a NetSquared conference attendee:

I've had more than my share of complaints with conferences that make no effort to expand beyond the single crayon color that is white and male. Of the many things that make my heart sing at the NetSquared conference is the global, diverse crowd that has been fostered. Being at NetSquared captures a sense of the beloved community that I so often yearn for. At lunch today, I sat next to someone from literally half the world away ¾ a person doing extraordinary work to race a scourge of death on the African continent. She is here, soaking up ideas from others; she is here, to be lifted up and celebrated; she is here, because what she is doing teaches all of us in the "developed" world. Most importantly, she is here because NetSquared paid her way to come here. Fully 20 percent of the 350 people present [were there] because NetSquared raised the money to have this attendee base reflect the richness of the human race, rather than the mono-culture that one usually finds at conferences.

In closing, I return to the question I posed at the beginning of this article: Can TechSoup at least be conducive to poverty-reduction strategies in the communities we serve? I think by providing or leveraging private investment to our NGO partners; enabling diverse partnerships that lead to funding; incubating NGO-based social enterprises in an attempt to be self-sustaining; and listening closely to our varied constituents before ‘putting pen to paper’ (as a metaphor for program design), TechSoup is moving in the correct direction: a path toward making appropriate technology resources available while mobilizing additional public and private resources.

Gerster, R. and Zimmerman, S. UpScaling Pro-Poor ICT Policies and Practices. http://www.sdc.admin.ch/ict4d. 2005

CompuMentor Founder and President Daniel Ben-Horin was named one of 50 most influential nonprofit leaders by Nonprofit Times in 2004, 2005, 2006

Gerster, R. Investing, Engaging, and Impacting India’s Telecentre Movement for Poverty Reduction & MDGs: The Role of the “Donors. 2006

Rogers, M. Can Web 2.0 change the world? Nonprofits embracing technology that built MySpace and YouTube. Special to MSNBC.com. 2006