Digital Resilience Program
The Steps Foundation is a Florida-based nonprofit whose mission is to empower at-risk men, women, teens, and children through mentoring, networking, life skills workshops, and retreats. The organization participated in the DRP during 2021 after COVID-19 forced it to quickly pivot towards delivering its services remotely while operating with an incomplete infrastructure. The Steps Foundation entered the program looking to generate a secure and accessible system to support communication between the board and its volunteers. A critical first step was the transition to foundation email addresses. During the DRP, the Steps Foundation was able to implement Salesforce, undergo cybersecurity training, develop a computer use policy, and acquire Norton Antivirus software.
Through therapeutic activities with horses, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope (CKRH) has worked for over 42 years to improve the quality of life and the health of children and adults with physical, cognitive, emotional, and social needs. CKRH chose to participate in the DRP in 2021 as an opportunity to upgrade its hardware and software tools while deepening its use of technology. CKRH says that the program provided a more holistic view of technology and that it ultimately used the knowledge shared to leverage SharePoint for improved internal communication.
But the most consequential intervention was perhaps also the most unexpected one. CKRH developed a disaster recovery plan with support from the DRP, as all participants are supported to do. A few months later, a series of storms cut power and threatened to cancel its annual fundraising gala. CKRH was able to put the plan into action and get things up and running with only hours to spare. This was its first event in more than two years due to COVID-19, and loss of the fundraising opportunity might have been catastrophic. The work CKRH put in through the DRP to be prepared for such an event meant it was able to hold the event as planned.
Collective Climb completed the DRP in May 2022 after joining the program to address new technology needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Collective Climb started in the summer of 2020, operating to provide restorative justice from community violence within Philadelphia and to empower teenagers in West Philadelphia through its preventative and reactive programming efforts.
The pandemic exhausted traditional forms of digital connection, and the organization found that youth were not as engaged with its programming efforts. Collective Climb wanted to expand its technical infrastructure and cybersecurity efforts and to advance its knowledge beyond the simple information and tools available through free online internet searches. Among other upgrades, the DRP helped to establish Google Workspace as an email solution. Collective Climb credits the program with improving its effective implementation of technology and its understanding of cybersecurity practices at an organizational level.
The software and hardware received through the DRP directly benefited the youth that Collective Climb supports. Newly acquired laptops were made available to individuals accessing services, and the Collective Climb team felt better equipped to grow its organization through its new administrative capabilities. TechSoup’s support helped Collective Climb become oriented to a variety of technology options, and it equipped the organization with different tools and techniques to engage the communities it serves — all while guiding its staff to the necessary tools needed to support the expansion of its programming overall.
