Tsunamis, Moss and Car Batteries;

Insights from the Nonprofit World

Ed Granger-Happ

Save the Children

March, 2006

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Tsunamis

• Think 9/11 with downtown Manhattan flattened and a quarter-million people lost

• How do you back-up your business in Banda Aceh?

• Where do you back-up?• With what team do you back-up?• Coming into work or finding your family,

what comes first?

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Banda Aceh – Ground Zero

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Tsunami Questions

• Is having all your people in the same location a good idea?

• Is having all your servers at one location a good idea?

• Who cares how good the generator is?

• Are your sleeping bags packed and ready?

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What is this large object?

a very large ship 5 miles inland in the middle of the road

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Mosquitoes not Moss

• In 2000 in Haiti an email server dropped offline.• What happened?• Mosquitoes clogged the cooling fan

– Several hundred mosquitoes had been sucked into the power supply over the years and froze the fan motor

• The server over-heated, crashed and would not power up

• Bring on the mosquito nets

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Dhaka, Bangladesh

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Other Stories

• In Afghanistan email kept failing each day– Generator power gets turned off nightly– When the power gets turned off, email servers don't

work

• In Malawi, when they flushed the toilets the servers crashed– Had wired the servers to the same circuits as the pumps

that the toilets use to move the waste. Flush the toilet, take too much power, bring down servers.

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Network Director’s Quarters

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Car Batteries

• Iraq in 2002: electricity sources destroyed in Baghdad and Basra.

• How do we power a temporary office for voice and data?

• Car batteries

• The ubiquitous, global power supply

• Our office-in-a-box (NRK) runs on it

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Katmandu Field Office

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Security is Physical

• When Red Cross workers were assassinated in Chechnya in 1996, the world changed for nonprofits

• No longer immune from combat like the Red Cross of old• Now we are a target • The insurgent bombing of the UN headquarters in

Baghdad in 2003 was turning point for STC• Security budget went from $0 in 2002 to $569K in 2006• Physical security is primary; systems security is

secondary• Now matching travel with security bulletins: CRG and

Amex ticketing• Virtual roll calls: sat-phones and HF radios to stay in

touch

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Nepal Server Room

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The New Philanthropy

• 1950: Good corporate citizen– Giving back to the community

• 1990’s: Employee-driven philanthropy– Kosovo refugees (1999)– Hurricane Mitch (1998)– Working for companies parents would be proud of– It’s not about marketing

• 2005: Strategic philanthropy– The Cisco Fellowship Program experiment– Cisco leadership training

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Collaborate or Repeat

• Collaboration on a level where any information or project is shared

• Consortia like NetHope are taking relief work to a new level– 2001: Two compelling hypotheses– 2006: 17 members and $5.2B in aid– Cisco store– Microsoft grants– 50+ satellite dishes installed

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Network Relief Kit

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Corporate Partnering

• Cisco – Fellowship Program

• Microsoft – Software grants

• Baker & McKenzie – Pro Bono contract work

• Pepperidge Farm – AD tutoring (Mike A.)*

• Horizon BC/BS – BPR tutoring (Rose B.)*

* SIM member/contacts

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Transitioning to a Nonprofit

• Patience – universal participation will drive you nuts

• Tolerance for messy, drawn-out decisions• Bleeding edge technology is rare• High-level Tech company contact is common• Everyday you have impact• Learning that a good IT decision means that

more kids get fed• You are valued beyond your expectations• Pursuit of success to pursuit of significance.

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What’s the most important skill?

Triage

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Lessons from Nonprofits

• Look for the "giving-back" factor– Enlist staff in projects that give back to

the community• Motivate and retain IT staff • Asset for corporate marketing• While doing good for those in need

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Lessons from Nonprofits (cont.)

• Think constituents, not competition– Nonprofits focus on how their

constituents benefit, not on issues of competition.

– Partnering and collaborating with other organizations—even competitors—can create new technologies and partnerships that otherwise would not exist.

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Lessons from Nonprofits (cont.)

• Triage like an Emergency Room– Prioritize projects and stakeholders

– Even with limited IT budgets, CTOs can accomplish new initiatives.

– The key is to upsize your primary stakeholder project lists and downsize your secondary stakeholder list.

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Lessons from Nonprofits (cont.)

• Find and communicate meaning in the work– NGOs must motivate their IT

employees without the benefits of stock options, stock savings plans, and bonuses.

– All work has meaning– The work environment counts big time

(e.g., self-directed schedules matter to IT professionals)

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How can you help?

• In an emergency, volunteer for HQ work (not in the Field, Dave Clarke, ARC)

• Advising, coaching and mentoring• Slots in your training programs• Share international bandwidth (satellite

transponder space)

• Donate PC & laptops at end-of-lease• Unrestricted cash

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All that’s left of home

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Questions?