|
|
Interview with Theresa Ellis
Theresa is the Executive Director & Founder of
Harbinger Partners, located in Boston, MA. Interviewed by Michael Feagans on 05.01.02.
4npo: Tell me about Harbinger Partners.
Theresa: Harbinger Partners is a non-profit organization that provides technology assistance to community based non-profits in Greater Boston. And we do that by building partnerships with for-profit
corporations who give their IT employees a little bit of time off work in order to implement
projects on behalf of those non-profits. And all of that happens within the context of a really 
highly coordinated system where Harbinger starts doing a technology assessment and then leads the organization through a technology planning process. At the end of that, after the project has been implemented, we provide training to the non-profit organizations that we serve. So that whatever the volunteers have created or implemented the non-profit staff are able to maintain it.
4npo: How old is the organization?
Theresa: We were incorporated in July of 2000. We are just coming up on our second birthday.
4npo: What was the inspiration for starting Harbinger Partners?
Theresa: I moved down to Washington, DC, after I had graduated from college, and had the
great pleasure of working with a small organization as a member of the board of directors. That organization went through a remarkable transition from an  organization with a
staff of two people, and an annual operating budget of about $80,000. When I left the board last
summer it was an organization with nearly $500,000 in annual revenues and a whole host of programs
to serve adults who were low-level readers. A big piece of that transformation was the organization's
use of technology. So I saw firsthand how transformative technology could be when done in the
context of something very specific and very coordinated. At the same time, in the process of building
that infrastructure for this organization, I saw how powerful it was to bring the volunteers in to
help with that. Folks in the technology community have struggled in lots of ways to get connected. They want to do something that takes advantage of their skill set and are a little bit intimidated to go in and read to the kids. Not everyone, but it often happens. This is a really easy point of entry for them as a way to connect and give back to their communities and in the process take advantage of the skills that they have which are really useful to the organization. And often, as was the case then and is the case now with some of the groups we are serving, wonderful benefits that are not related to the technology begin to accrue. So folks go in and they see a real need and say gosh well I know that we have more computers sitting around the office, which are newer than the computers you have at the organization, maybe we can get the company to make that donation. Or, we have old hardware that we are not using anymore we would be happy to pass it along. I'll see if I can get someone to sign-off on that. These traditional tertiary benefits, that are not specifically tied to what the volunteers are there to do which is to implement the project, are really important and I think in lots of ways will change the way folks from the for-profit sector interact with and think about the non-profit sector.
4npo: How many organizations have you worked with?
Theresa: Each year we have a portfolio of organizations that we serve. Because our model
is so intense, in terms of the kind of work we do with them, it really is about transforming the way they
think about technology. We have a smaller number of groups that we serve than might otherwise be
expected. This year we had 6 non-profits that we have been serving. We are just finishing up those
projects and we will begin our second full year of program delivery when we intend to serve
12 non-profits.
4npo: What is the process a non-profit has to go through in order to become a Harbinger
non-profit?
Theresa: It's an application process a lot like when a non-profit applies for a grant from
a foundation. In late Spring we send out a request for proposal. The non-profits who respond will
fill-out a short application describing what their current technology infrastructure looks like
and what they hope to do with the technology. They send that back to us and we sort through those
applications and choose, this year 24 organizations, and make site visits. After the site visits we
pare that down to 12 organizations that we will work with.
4npo: Did you have a strategic plan before you implemented the program?
Theresa: We had a business plan that had lots of great ideas and had an implementation plan
but where we started and where we are today, although not radically different, are certainly not
exactly the same. Primarily the plan last year was much bigger and much grander. When we started to
implement we realized there were smaller pieces of the plan that we feel we can actually tackle. So
we pared back a little bit with the idea that we wanted to do a smaller number of things really well
rather than a lot of things half-heartedly.
4npo: Can you go into more detail about some of the problems you encountered when trying to
implement your original plan?
Theresa: Sure. All the kinds of things that you just can't predict. Things that sound great
in theory that when you start to do them they are actually wrought with more challenges than you thought.
Recently we had one snag in the agenda. We had a company that said, "We would love to partner
with you. This is a really neat initiative for us and we want to be able to serve 10 non-profits
here in Boston through Harbinger this year." We said, that's a lot more than we normally
work with what if we said that we would place your employees in six. They said OK that sounds reasonable.
Then we started to get into the work. This was a decision that came out of the corporate
philanthropy office. When we started to work with the engineers here in Boston they said we would
rather try one project to see how it works before we dive into six. We had set expectations with these
non-profits that they were going to have volunteers coming in to do these various projects and we had to
readjust and go look for additional volunteers. Now the project has gone really well. They are ready
to step-up to the plate to couple more with us and that's fantastic. But getting the folks who are
the decision makers to allow time for their colleagues, on the same page with the colleagues who are actually going to be doing the work has been something that we have learned is really important.
That was one big lesson that came out of this year.
One of the other things I think we really learned is that non-profits are at various, radically different
points of readiness related to technology. One of our non-profit partners, Youth Tech Entrepreneurs, works with young people to train them in technology so that they become very savvy about technology. When they graduate from high school they therefore have tangible skills that they can use in the work world. They are unbelievably prepared. They catalogued their whole infrastructure, they have them thinking about the systems that support their work, they have a real sense of how the technology works. They are very savvy, they have policies for technology, they've budgeted for technology and their on the right track.
We've worked with other organizations who are just starting to think about technology for a lots of
different reasons often related to the fact that they haven't had money to purchase or think about
technology. And we are just beginning to have a conversation with them where we tell them that every three to five years you are going to have to replace your hardware. And that's just something
you are going to need to begin budgeting for because stuff changes enough that you are not going
to be able to run an operating system. When you start to talk to folks about that it's a scary
prospect because those are sizable financial requirements that non-profits are just starting to
think about but haven't been able to for all sorts of reasons. Folks don't know how to budget
for technology. They don't know how much money to spend on buying hardware and software versus how much to
spend on training. And they don't have any sense of what it takes to support a robust technology
infrastructure. There are a lot of folks who interested in having a really powerful database that
will generate all sorts of interesting reports but they don't recognize that that requires dedicated
staff time. I shouldn't say that they don't recognize it. I think they do, but because so many of
them operate in a limited resource environment, they really struggle to think about how they allocate
really precious staff time to something like that.
A lot of what we do is spend time working with folks to say we hear that, we're a non-profit ourselves
and we understand how hard it is, but when you do allocate it this is the kind of return you can
expect and these are the kinds of efficiencies you can expect to see and here's the way it
will change the way you are doing your work. So it's a lot of education while it's also doing the
actual implementation, the actual thinking. I think we knew we were going to have to do some but
I don't think we knew we would have to do as much as that.
4npo: When you talk with non-profits about their technology plan do you talk with them about
how it relates to the strategic plan for the organization?
Theresa: Absolutely, and that's something that this year we will be screening for. Last
year we asked them to submit a strategic plan and we chose some groups that did not have a strategic plan in place at that point. Going forward this year that will be a criteria for selection. You
have to have some framework about your direction. Because otherwise technology is not a tool it's
an end. Folks say this is the latest, niftiest thing and unless it's situated in the context of how it helps you reach your mission and how it helps you keep the folks in your organization connected it ends
up being just a cool thing that sits on the shelf and does cool things rather than a resource that
helps you get where you want to be. All of our planning work will be done in the context of a strategic
vision for the organization going forward.
4npo: Are you finding that you are getting off mission a bit? It sounds like you are beginning
to talk with people about things like fundraising.
Theresa: Yes, absoulutely. We have, in our own work raising money to support our operation, a great opportunity to talk with folks in the foundation community here in Boston and to help them
understand why investing in this kind of infrasturcture is so critical to the work that non-profits
are doing. It's interesting, it serves two purposes. Doing our own fundraising and there's specific
education that we do with funders. If only because it help's make the case for why what we're
doing is so important and why there's a need and a market for what we're doing. And, we really
feel in order for non-profits to be successful that's a critical piece of the support they need.
You can't run a business, and increasingly non-profits are being asked to run like businesses, if
you don't give them the tools. You would never expect IBM, and not even just IBM, but a small
customer service organization down the street to run without a computer that works. You would
never give them a 386 and say, "go do your work." And that's what non-profits have been doing. So
a lot of what we are talking about is how do we make this sustainable and how do we help folks to
build this into their budget and to identify resources and think creatively about the resources
that they get. How to acquire services, at lower costs or at no cost, and the resources that will help
them do their work.
Another piece of it is pushing people to say no to stuff. The volunteer calls and says they have
this old computer, it's an Apple IIe can't someone at your organization use it. Because we are
often in an environment with few resources non-profits often say OK we'll take it. And then
in the process become really frustrated because obviously it isn't going to work. When people
start to say no to things like that people will start to realize that they are often offering
these things because it really didn't work for them either so why would a non-profit want it. But that's
a difficult shift in thinking for non-profits.
4npo: Do you see that as a possible role for your organization that mavbe you'll be able
to educate corporate and foundation donors about the need to bridge the digital funding divide
for non-profit organizations?
Theresa: I think in so far as that is what our clients need to advocate for them, then yes.
But writ large for the whole sector probably not but specific to the non-profits that we are
working with then yes, probably. Particularly, in our case because we set up this interesting
intersection of marshalling resources of the for-profit sector. We have a real opportunity to
bring the non-profit voices together so that they can discuss the things they need to educate
corporate philanthropy and help them understand what the legitmate issues are.
4npo: When the volunteer finishes, Harbinger then goes back and trains the staff of the
non-profit organization. Is that correct?
Theresa: Yes.
4npo: What are some of the difficulties non-profits are encountering 3 to 6 months after
you are fininshed that they continue to need help with?
Theresa: The biggest issue for non-profits is needing someone to help troubleshoot. Most of the
organizations have someone on staff that is a techie or an accidental techie. That person has a
pretty good sense of how things work. They probably know how to install a new printer, how to
set up an e-mail account for staff members, probably some sense of how to reset the server if it
goes down. But bigger stuff happens and they are stuck. When that bigger issue comes along, they
first of all don't know who to call. They've called people in the past and are charged an arm
and leg. Or the they haven't been responsive after the consultant left and didn't finish the work. There's
a trust factor but also they don't know the language to articulate the problem. A lot of what we've
been doing is beginning to think about how do we help them get some of the skills they need in
order to at least triage the problem. And then bring someone in who can actually solve the
problem. Because Harbinger doesn't play that role we are not tech support for them. Occassionally
something comes up and we'll lend a hand but we're never going to be out in an office removing a
virus that has infected someone's computer. We're identifying resources that they can call on after
their engagement with Harbinger. And in the process of doing training we're hopefully indentifying
strategies that if some of the things do happen they won't be as catastrophic. For example, with
a lot of the organizations we are working with we are helping them set up a back-up plan. Many
organizations are not backing up their data on a regular basis. We are giving them recommendations
and helping them implement that so that they know how to back-up a hard drive. So when the
computer crashes all of the hard work that has taken place isn't lost. It's a mix of helping them
now that prevents a catastrophe on the other end and then recognizing that there will be something
that happens that we can help with the resources that get them to the right place.
4npo: Are there non-profit organizations that provide tech support to other non-profit
organizations in the Boston area?
Theresa: There aren't non-profits that supply tech support to the best of my knowledge, at
least we haven't come across any. I'm sure that there are but we haven't encountered them. We have
a person we work with, his name is Dan Scharfman, and he is wonderful. He runs a for-profit consulting agency and is very keen on working with non-profit organizations. Although he's not cheap, he is reasonable. We often send people to him just because he understands how non-profits work and he's very interested
in making sure they get what they need. He's also a great communicator, he can go in and help
somebody get rid of a virus and in the process explain what he's doing in case it should happen
again they have a better idea of how to deal with it.
4npo: What kind of reaction are you getting from donors in the area when you begin educating
them about the need for non-profit organizations to receive funding for technology
implementation?
Theresa: It really runs the gamut. Some foundations that are very savvy are helping to lead
by example. The Boston Foundation for example has done a nice
job of attacking this problem. They have an initiative, called the
New Economy Initiative, they are working
to provide funding for this type of work.
Other donors are slower. I think a lot of this in some ways is generational. Those folks who are
a little bit younger grew up with technology and are pretty comfortable with it. And some of the
folks who are a little bit older, not always but often, it comes a little bit more slowly. And the
need isn't as apparent in the beginning. So often, when you spell it out and you walk through
stories about how things change in an organization when you bring in technology people often have
an "aha" moment. But when you walk in their not saying, "Of course I understand why you need a database
to manage your organization." There sort of saying well we've done it this way for fifty years and it's always worked why can't we keep doing it. And that's a reasonable question. Change is a hard thing
sometimes. It comes more easily and is embraced more quickly for some and is a little more
challenging for others. But I think for the most part, all of that said, the foundation community
has really made great strides. It's not an easy thing. It's not funding work where you are tutoring
kids after school. It enables that work to happen. It's critical so that those kids can be served
in the best way possible. But sometimes people want the warm and fuzzy computer program where you're in the classroom working with the kids and everyone is smiling because the volunteer is having a great time.
But setting up a network is not quite as sexy, the wires don't smile back at you.
4npo: You mentioned earlier that volunteers are beginning to facilitate in-kind gifts
donations. I was wondering if the non-profit organizations see the potential for expanding their
relationship with the partnering company?
Theresa: Absolutely, the nonprofits are really savvy in this regard. This is actually the
reason I love what Harbinger is doing. The technology is really important, but as is the case in
this regard too, I think it's more of a means to an end. The non-profits we're working with this year
all get it. They've all figured out that they have a point of entry into a new place where they didn't
have access to before because of the volunteers. And they are very thoughtful about how they
interact with these folks. I have often seen lots of thank you notes being circulated, follow-up
calls being made asking to take people to lunch. The volunteers are really excited because
they are giving back in a way that is really specific to their skill set and the nonprofits are
very grateful. The volunteers are receiving immediate feedback that what they are doing is
appreciated and helpful. Out of this really neat partnerships are starting to form. One company
and nonprofit are working on a database project together. Although it's not yet a done deal, the
volunteer said, "You know we've been looking for something to fund in your area and we're not
quite sure what we want to do." And very intelligently the director of development said, "Well, let's have a conversation about that."
It's a question of opening up the marketplace where people can interact and meet. Because we all
live in such defined worlds, where the non-profit folks interact with other non-profit people and
the for-profit folks live, work and breathe in their world and there aren't a lot of opportunities
for these folks to come together. I'm fundamentally convinced that you bring people together and
give them the information to solve problems and they'll have at it. But that base doesn't exist in very many generations and in the technology world specifically it is woefully lacking. Everytime I see
people come together and see that lightbulb come on I think we can help with that, that's not
very hard, if that's all you need we can serve that purpose. The non-profits say this is so
great. There is real change that happens in that interaction. People are starting to realize what
it is like on the other side of the aisle. The corporations aren't the big, fat, ugly nemesis. And
the non-profit's aren't poorly run, inefficient organizations. Really neat stuff tends to come
out of that when people sit down together and have respectful, thoughtful conversations about it.
4npo: Have you considered collaborating with other organizations?
Theresa: We have a couple that we are really pleased with. As we identify needs we are in
the process of identifying additional relationships. The first I want to mention is the work that
is specific to Harbinger collabortions. We have our own partnership with a venture capital company
called Flagship Ventures. They give us our office space free as well as all of our office infrastructure.
But more importantly they have a team of professionals who work with Harbinger to help us identify
and map out our plans for how we grow as an organization. That's a wonderful partnership.
More specific to our program we just built a partnership with Youth Tech Entrepreneurs where we
will be working with them to provide more systematized training to the non-profits. In addition
to the things that are very specific to each organization, the training on the system and the
program being implemented, we are finding that folks need application specific training. How do
you use an accounting spreadsheet in a more advanced way? There are young people who are going through
this training in high school have amazing skills and amazing abilities. We are working on a
partnership where their young people will be working as trainers for the non-profit professionals
that we serve. That's really exciting for us because it leads to all sorts of interesting things.
They get to be leaders in their community and give back. And it means the non-profit that we are
working with will get high-level training at free-to-no-cost.
We also work with a couple of local foundations to dessiminate request-for-proposals. They help
us pass the word along to some of the organizations that they serve. Looking for grantees of theirs who
would be good fits for what Harbinger's doing. And then we have our partnerships with companies
that provide our technology volunteers very graciously. And we are in the process of finalizing an evaluation partnership with a local university who will be helping us measure the impact of the work that we are doing.
4npo: Theresa, thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
|
|
