 Going
Global
By
Rebecca Masisak
Co-CEO,
TechSoup
First
Person: From Successful Nonprofit Program to Global Social Enterprise
Network
Since 1987, we at TechSoup have worked to enhance nonprofit
organization’s productivity and to build sustainable technology systems
by connecting nonprofits and public libraries with donated and
discounted technology products. Over the last two decades as we have
partnered with private and nonprofit technology firms, it became
apparent that they had a strong interest in their technology donations
benefiting charitable organizations in countries outside of North
America. We soon realized that our North American TechSoup platform and
program would be useful to nonprofits around the world.
Challenges in Going Global
The challenges of undertaking such an expansion, however, were also
quickly apparent:
-
One of our
strengths – the ability to match donations to the appropriate
charity – would need to be reengineered in each new country.
-
Our customer
service operation would need to communicate in many languages.
-
Our Website,
community forums, and e-mail lists had some readership and
participation among NGOs outside of North America, but not many, in
part because they were available only in English.
-
Our relationships
with donating companies in multiple countries would become more
complex.
-
Helping nonprofit
groups in other countries build their capacity would require a
presence in each of those countries.
Our Solution: Build a Partner
Network
The best approach, we concluded, was to create a global network of
partner organizations so we could focus on our strengths while relying
on partners in each geographic market for their core competencies. Our
work would involve securing and managing donor relationships, providing
the technology and services to facilitate transactions with the
recipient organizations and enabling a localized version of technology
support for each region. Our partners would use their knowledge of NGOs
in their respective regions, and together we could build relationships
with potential donor companies.
In North America, the charities that
receive product donations support the TechSoup Stock program by paying
nominal administrative fees. In TechSoup’s global partner network, these
fees are split with each partner organization to cover shared costs,
thereby providing all members of the network with the funding necessary
to sustain and expand the local capacity of the program. Partners also
receive grant funding from our hardware and software donors to establish the program
and to help offset the one-time set-up costs incurred prior to
generating income from administrative fees.
The results of the global network have exceeded even our most optimistic
hopes. Since its launch just two years ago, we’ve established
partnerships with 12 organizations recognized as leaders in helping
build NGO capacity in their region. The TechSoup Global network already
includes countries that account for over 20% of the world’s population
outside of the United States. And we’re on track to add 10 to 12 more countries to the network by the end of 2008.
Determining Your Own
Global Expansion Strategy: Partnership versus Outsourcing
While we pursued a partnership strategy, we also determined that we
would benefit from outsourcing some of the new activities required to
build and manage the network of partners, such as start-up research to
identify partners or platform hosting and technology deployment.
To
come to that conclusion, we conducted an analysis of the assets,
activities, and relationships required to deliver and localize programs
in other markets.
If
your organization is considering expanding globally, you need to decide
whether outsourcing or a partnership – or some combination – is the best
strategy. To start, you should consider these questions:
Assets:
-
What can you be
“the best in the world at” (to borrow a phrase from business
consultant and author Jim Collins)?
-
Do you have
personnel or easy, affordable access to personnel with the necessary
skills, experience, and expertise?
-
If using existing
staff members, do they have time to take on additional work? Or, if
they aren't given the opportunity to expand their work into the new
markets or geographies, will they feel alienated?
Activities:
-
How critical are
the services or activities under consideration to your overall
organization and to your funders and customers or clients?
-
How much control
must your organization yield to your partner organizations over the
services in question?
-
Which activities
are harder for you to deliver? Which activities are already done by
other organizations?
-
What portion of the
services or activities are purely transactional and require the
least information-sharing? Those might lend themselves to possible
outsourcing.
-
Will the activities
under consideration require a fair amount of real-time decisions? If
so, they might be better suited to ongoing, vested partnerships.
-
How quickly do you
need to scale the program? Partnerships typically take more time to
establish than outsourced relationships. Some projects involve a lot
of effort to launch but little effort to operate once launched.
Others require little effort to launch but enormous effort to
sustain. Consider requirements for both the launch and the
operational phase of your project — they may be dramatically
different.
Relationships:
-
Do any of your
network's peer organizations, funders, or vendors have expertise in
a certain industry or operational area that would be helpful?
-
Do you have
relationships with organizations or individuals with international
experience or expertise?
-
What new
relationships do you need to be successful?
-
What investment in
time and resources is required to develop relationships? How much
time will it take to solidify the relationship? Will the benefit
exceed the investment?
TechSoup Stock has provided the North American nonprofit sector with
over $1 billion worth of donated computer hardware and software since
2001. It partners with companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec,
Intuit, and Adobe, which not only serve as product donors but also
provide guidance and expertise to ensure the nonprofit recipients are
equipped with the knowledge to use them effectively. TechSoup Stock is
part of CompuMentor, a 21-year-old organization that helps US-based
nonprofits get and use technology to further their missions.
»
BACK TO FRONT PAGE |
