NetSquared Demonstrates Impact Beyond Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA – June 27, 2007 - TechSoup’s NetSquared Initiative announced today that Aspiration’s Social Source Commons will be the recipient of a $10,000 donation by the Make Change! Trust. Aspiration’s Social Source Commons, one of the 21 finalists for the NetSquared Innovation Award aims to help nonprofits find appropriate software to support their work, and share knowledge about tools.

"Make Change! Trust is very excited to support Aspiration’s Social Source Commons project,” said Susan Wilder, Director of Make Change! Trust. “The project's goals of information sharing and improved efficiency for nonprofits are a natural match with MC!T's mission to assist charities and nonprofits pioneering uses of technology for positive social change. We applaud the community-building and innovation spurred by projects such as Social Source Commons, and look forward to its growth and success.”

“Make Change! Trust’s donation is the latest example of the generosity of the NetSquared community,” said Marnie Webb, Co-CEO of TechSoup, the nonprofit behind NetSquared. “Our goal is to match nonprofits on the one hand with appropriate donors and sponsors with an interest in philanthropy on the other. Through our monthly Net Tuesday meetups in several cities, our ongoing online forums, and the NetSquared Innovator Support Network, we’re building a platform for good things to happen on an ongoing basis.”

“Philanthropy becomes a lot more powerful, meaningful and effective if community voices are incorporated on both the front end--what's interesting?--and the backend--what's worth supporting?” commented Vince Stehle, Program Officer of the Surdna Foundation, a NetSquared Conference Supporter. “The projects that emerge from this kind of process have communities involved with them from the get-go and that vastly improves their chances of success."

The NetSquared Innovator Support Network (ISN) matches donated resources such as hands-on expertise, products and services with NetSquared projects that need them to accelerate their work using the social Web for social change. ISN member Yahoo! named NetSquared finalist FamilyFarmed.org as the recipient of their inaugural Yahoo! for Good Green Award. A key goal of the Yahoo! Green Award is to provide FamilyFarmed.org with access to Yahoo! staff expertise. At a recent Yahoo! VIP Day, FamilyFarmed.org and Yahoo! took first steps to forge collaborations around Web 2.0 tools such as food and agriculture blogging, e-commerce, and online video editing.

Internet consultancy CitizenAgency has committed to assisting the NetSquared Innovation Award winner Freecycle Network with improving their overall user experience on the site. CitizenAgency will be donating up to 12 hours a month over the course of the next year towards this goal.

Other companies that are in the process of being matched to a NetSquared project include Social Signal and Man on a Mission consulting.

Net Tuesdays are monthly real-world gatherings of NetSquared members and friends. These meetups are currently held in San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Seattle and in Ecuador. Groups in Phoenix and Richmond, VA are being formed. The events convene engaged individuals for presentations and discussions with innovative leaders on the nonprofit sector's use of the social Web.

About Make Change! Trust

Make Change! Trust provides donations and grants to organizations committed to leveraging modern technologies to assist other nonprofits and needy populations. MC!T believes that providing cash and resources to nonprofits so they can better pursue their work is fundamental to advancing social change.

About Aspiration

Aspiration’s mission is to connect nonprofit organizations with software solutions that help them better carry out their work. We want nonprofit organizations to be able to find and use the best software available, so that they maximize their effectiveness and impact and, in turn, change the world.

About NetSquared

NetSquared’s mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. Nonprofits and NGOs thrive on relationships, which means the social web holds tremendous potential to transform their effectiveness and impact.

Those interested in participating in the NetSquared Innovator Support Network should contact netsquared@techsoup.org.

The NetSquared initiative is spearheaded by the nonprofit technology Web resource TechSoup, which offers a wealth of information on products, applications, best practices, online forums, and ideas on nonprofit tech topics from networking to open source and Web 2.0. It also gives its 400,000 unique monthly visitors access to the TechSoup Stock service, which offers hundreds of hardware and software products donated by leading providers such as Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Intuit, and Adobe, as well as certified refurbished computers. Since its inception in January 2002, the service has distributed more than 2.7 million products to nonprofits in North America, Europe, and Africa, and freed up over $770 million for other uses.