Symantec Expands Software Donation Partnership with TechSoup
Securing sensitive data for nonprofits around the world
Originally published on Symantec Blog | Corporate Responsibility
By Tess Hetzel, Sr. Corporate Responsibility
In our increasingly digital world, nonprofit employees and volunteers typically handle sensitive data on a daily basis, and data security is a top concern. With limited budgets, nonprofit and charitable organizations often lack the resources needed to invest in quality data protection. For the past 16 years, Symantec and TechSoup have worked together to provide nonprofits with affordable access to much-needed security software.
Product donation is our largest mechanism to support the nonprofit community and we offer both Norton and Symantec Enterprise products, including Norton Small Business and Symantec Endpoint Protection, to TechSoup free of charge. These donations equip organizations that protect foster youth, build better watersheds, host science fairs, serve refugees, and thousands of others, with the means to safeguard their information and data. Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business is the third most requested TechSoup product worldwide.
Since launching the software donation program in 2002, we have distributed more than 3.3 million donated products, helping 102,000 nonprofits and public libraries protect against the ever-evolving threat landscape. This equates to distributing over $256 million fair market value Symantec products to social benefit organizations.
2018: Partnering for global expansion
In 2007, global software donations started in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In 2010, donations were live in 14 countries, and the program has successfully expanded to distribute products in 56 countries today. In FY 2018 alone, we provided cyber security solutions to nearly 22,000 organizations, allowing these organizations to secure their most important data.
We recently extended our contract to further support TechSoup, with the organization noting,“In a challenging environment of constantly changing, increasingly sophisticated threats, Symantec’s products give nonprofits resources to understand the evolving landscape of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and access the actual solutions that benefit their work. TechSoup, collaborating with its global network of 70 partner NGOs, has in-depth experience validating NGOs in 236 countries and providing capacity-building programs with them. Building on this expertise, TechSoup is excited to scale Symantec’s program from 56 to 236 countries, which means tens of thousands more nonprofits will be able to benefit from Symantec product offers.”
Three key highlights of this partnership expansion include:
- A focus on Africa. Symantec is a key partner in TechSoup Africa, a regional hub of the TechSoup Global Network. The four network members that form TechSoup Africa, Kenya Community Development Foundation, Phambano Technology Development Centre, The West Africa Civil Society Institute, and The Professional Development Foundation, are local capacity-building organizations that help nonprofits in 56 African countries and territories get the resources they need to build their organizational capacity and their technology expertise.
- Added educational services. We worked alongside TechSoup as they evolved their core technology-donation program to include new wraparound consultation and recommendation services. In addition to providing software, TechSoup now offers supplemental education, including webinars, courses, and blog posts that highlight security issues, helping organizations make the most of technology. For example, Kevin Haley, one of Symantec’s cybersecurity experts, hosted a Facebook Live event with TechSoup. The video is TechSoup’s second highest performing video ever for views and the post reached over 4,000 people in just two months.
- Adapting for the future. The accelerating shift to cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), has transformed how companies engage philanthropically with the nonprofit community. TechSoup continues to meet the changing needs of civil society by offering new technology solutions, educational offerings, and services to support digital transformation. In the near future, Symantec will offer cloud-based products in addition to Norton and Enterprise products.
In FY 2018, TechSoup also supported Symantec as it launched the Fostering a Secure Tomorrow (FAST) Initiative, which invests in identity theft education, tools, and services for foster youth. TechSoup will continue to support Symantec’s strategic initiatives, including FAST, by collaborating to amplify awareness and by connecting Symantec’s CR team with global nonprofits focused on strategic topics like foster youth identity protection.
TechSoup has enabled us to expand the scale and impact of our software donation program to nonprofits worldwide. We are thrilled that with our extended partnership even more nonprofits will be able to better utilize Symantec products to keep their organizations, clients, and data safe.
Learn more about some of the many nonprofits using our products:
