The Rebuilding Begins: The Rebuilding Begins: NYC's Technology Assistance Providers Rally for Nonprofits

How the technology community has joined together to help lower Manhattan's nonprofits rebuild.

One week after the terrible events of September 11th, a range of individuals and organizations providing technology assistance to the nonprofit community met to discuss the needs of service agencies impacted by the disaster. This "New York Technology Recovery Project Meeting" included over forty representatives from various foundations, tech corporations, and non-profit technology assistance providers (NTAPS). The turnout exceeded the expectations of NPower NY - a membership organization serving the non-profit community with consulting, training and support services - which facilitated the meeting. "We wanted to pool the resources of the private sector, foundations, and nonprofit community. The amount of people present reinforced the commitment everyone has to helping," said NPower NY's Executive Director, Barbara Chang.

What Was Lost The meeting gave nonprofits with offices "below the line" the opportunity to discuss the damage their organizations sustained in the tragedy. Depending on location, the degree of devastation varied. Almost all nonprofits located below Canal Street reported interruption of basic IT operating necessities, such as phone and power service. Others suffered more serious damage, ranging from inoperable hardware caused by power surges to the loss of their operating facilities, which had either been destroyed or cordoned off by emergency personnel and deemed off-limits to civilian workers.

Many organizations lost their databases and computer systems when they had to evacuate without shutting down their systems properly. GuideStar has offered to provide information to help these nonprofits rebuild their databases. From GuideStar.org (http://www.guidestar.org/news/features/recovery.stm)

Emergency triage requiring cellular phone lines, satellite network systems and specialists to install new systems were identified as immediate needs. Recovery of lost data and duplication of records to prevent against future loss were identified as critical, long-term assistance goals.

Joining Together to Provide Relief
Organizations with tech systems intact have united to provide relief efforts to the affected agencies. NPower NY, in conjunction with GuideStar.org, has created a Web site cataloging affected nonprofits. As GuideStar's Web site notes, over 53 nonprofits located in the World Trade Center towers alone lost their offices that day.

For an application for The September 11th Fund log onto United Way's Web site at www.uwnyc.org.

As we all now know, the public response has been tremendous in financial terms. AOL reported $16 million in their disaster relief fund after one-week. Private tech corporations, including IBM and Microsoft, marshaled volunteer IT tech support to provide assessment and consulting services as well as donations of hardware and software. The September 11th Fund, established by United Way of New York City and The New York Community Trust to respond to the disaster received multi-millions of dollars within days of the tragedy. By November, more than $330 million had been pledged to the Fund.

The Technology Recovery Project Coordinating Committee
Thanks to this generous response, the pressing question of the technology relief effort has become "How do we quickly and effectively distribute these resources?" Once again, the answer lies in the cooperation of the foundations and agencies serving nonprofits, which joined to create the Technology Recovery Project Coordinating Committee.

The focus of the Coordinating Committee is to match the nonprofits in tech crisis with available resources by linking them to nonprofit technology assistance providers. A media plan was outlined to generate awareness of the committee's available resources, and a hotline was established to field incoming claims. In managing volunteers who offer much-needed services as well as responding to requests for aid, the Coordinating Committee serves as the bridge between the impacted nonprofit community and the collective resources of technology assistance providers.

Coordinating Committee members from the Welfare Law Center collaborated with NPower NY to design a three-step program to provide this support efficiently. Once an agency submits an assistance request, Dirk Slater of the Welfare Law Center deploys an onsite damage assessment specialist to survey the situation. Slater then turns the initial damage report over to NPower NY, which determines whether the organization can be certified for aid. NPower NY also provides guidance during the final step of the process ? submission of the application for donated hardware and/or financial aid from The September 11th Fund.

Back On Our Feet
While the ruins of the World Trade Center are a tragic testament to the years required to rebuild what took only a few hours to destroy, the speed at which the nonprofit community joined together to assist its wounded members demonstrates the power of collective action. As of November 1st, the Technology Recovery Project Coordinating Committee has helped 30 nonprofits get back on their feet in downtown New York. As Barbara Chang observed about the September 18th meeting, "The sentiment of everyone present was 'What can we do? What can we do?'" This spirit has produced a generous commitment of time and resources that is the wellspring for success in the effort to rebuild our injured city.

For more information, contact NPowerNY at their hotline (800) 568-3812, mainline at (212) 677-9622 or e-mail, September11@NPowerNY.org.