[This post is the draft of my application to the Echoing Green (EG) fellowship program. You can help me earn 60.000 US dollars for the take-off of wecena by commenting this post with suggestions about how to best make my case to Echoing Green (EG). You can follow the latest posts for that application and its preparatory work using the echoinggreen tag on my blog.]
[Edit: The application deadline was met and this application was submitted. But you can still post your comments, suggestions and supports messages in order to better make the case of IT pro bono work for nonprofits.]
OK. In order to prepare my application, we have been discussing my preparatory work (your comments on these other posts are still much welcome and needed). Here is the draft of the application itself. This post is the content that will eventually be submitted end of November 2008 to EG (the preparatory work is for you, me and other readers). It is still a draft and it requires much of your attention both on my English spelling/grammar/style and on the content itself (the wecena concept, the logic and clarity of my answers, …). Answers to EG are limited in length… but your comments are not limited howsoever !
What is your new, innovative idea to create lasting social change? Be clear, specific, and jargon-free in your answer
[Edit: Compare the initial answer below with related comments from Sig and Amir] [Edit:minor English fixes included]
Non-profit social innovators of all sectors (health, education, poverty, …) have huge social ambitions but limited resources and capacity. Information Technology (IT) helps as an option to leverage the efficiency and reach of their programs. But IT skills and services are costly and too often out of budget reach for these innovators.
IT service firms are rich in consulting skills but have not been given a strong enough incentive to donate them pro bono (free) in any large scale.
Fortunately, corporate social responsibility is rising on the corporate agenda and recent French labor and tax laws allow local IT service firms to offer services free to innovators *at no cost* for donors. In order to bridge the digital divide between nonprofits and corporations, all it requires is a proper mix of administrative process automation, management methods and tools, a donation channel and a culture of giving.
Wecena services are an innovative pro bono IT model that allows French nonprofits to benefit from more than 1 full-time equivalent of IT professional skills each. 100% of the cost for the donor is supported by the French tax payers. Massive donations without cost can boost non-profit innovations.
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What drew you to this issue? When and how did you come up with your idea?
[Compare the initial answer below with alternative from Sig (based on comments from Amir and Yann)] [Edit:minor English fixes included]
I have been volunteering in nonprofits since 8. At 18, I was volunteering as a video team leader in immigrant communities and local youth organizations. Technology (then video) was used as a way to let poorer immigrant youth and richer local youth meet and connect. I then decided that both my volunteer engagements and my career would aim at bridging social gaps with the help of technology.
I have been employed in the IT industry for 10 years as an entrepreneur, manager and researcher. I have witnessed how deep the digital gap between the social and corporate worlds is. IT hardware and software can now be obtained free through used hardware donation and free software. But skilled time remains a very scarce and limiting resource for any innovative nonprofits.
I have been trying for 10 years to find sustainable ways to drive my career towards fueling social innovation with technology. As a former entrepreneur, I have been monitoring market opportunities in this field. The French legal environment and the emergence of corporate social responsability as a shared concern among major corporations now offer a perfect opportunity for proposing wecena services.
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As specifically as possible, demonstrate the need for your organization. Use statistics and references
[Compare the initial answer below with related comments from Sig] [Edit:minor English fixes included]
The dependence of nonprofits on technology to manage information, communicate with donors, staff and volunteers, and handle various other tasks continues to grow. Beyond organizational support, IT is a must for scaling social innovation and driving progressive uses of new technology.
In France, 1 year of a full time IT engineer or consultant is sold at about 80 kEUR including a cost of about 60 kEUR in salary and associated taxes. Most innovative nonprofits are limited in size and may not employ more than 6 full-time equivalents (FTE), with a corresponding budget of less than 200 kEUR. Buying a couple of FTE IT engineers would cost more than half of the annual budget of the organization which is not acceptable.
At the same time, employees of French IT services firms earn their salary even when they are « on the bench » waiting for their next customer engagement because of a employee-protective labor law. Around 5% of these employees are « on the bench » at any given time. This represents thousands of inactive FTE each year who aren’t given the chance to contribute to the public good.
What a waste of brain power !
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What is the root cause of this problem? How does your idea tackle this root cause?
[Compare the initial answer below with related comments from Sig] [Edit:minor English fixes included]
« On the bench » brain power is considered a non-avoidable waste in the IT service industry. There has been no channel for « recycling » this waste so far. The short duration of these « on-the-bench » periods represents an obstacle for any commercial customer (including nonprofits): left alone, new consultants would spend much time learning their new mission context and would already have to move away because of a new commercial customer engagement. Individual productivity is too low in such a context. And knowledge can’t easily be transferred from consultant to consultant in such short time frames without the help of costly knowledge management (KM) methods and tools.
The French tax laws allow wecena pro bono services to generate significant tax savings which would be converted back into money donations for supported nonprofits. With this money, Wecena.com would be hired to offer appropriate KM methods and tools that let consultants become productive fast enough and which encourage consultants to become volunteers once their pro bono mission has ended.
Innovative nonprofits would us wecena.com to hire skilled pro bono donors and to provide additional productivity support.
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Note: I should replace this paragraph with a summary from the result of our conversation here (it was written before this discussion). What do you think?
Help Echoing Green visualize what your organization will do. Describe the specific programs that your organization will engage in to deliver your long-term outcomes
[Edit:minor English fixes included]
Consider a nonprofit (NP) which requires better or new information technology for its new program. The NP staff leading the project would contract with wecena.com for providing complementary IT staff for free.
Wecena.com allows the NP to promote its program while emphasizing both its skills requirments and its expected social impact. wecena.com identifies and meets French IT service firms which offers proper skills and services and « sells » the NP program needs to the IT firm.
On-the-bench consultants apply on wecena.com for the program of the NP on a voluntary basis. The best of them starts the mission at the NP premises. After a couple of weeks, she stops and moves on to a new commercial engagement. Another on-the-bench consultant takes on the tasks left by her colleague. The NP staff uses wecena.com as a knowledge continuity management platform. At the end of the month, wecena.com generates tax receipts to the donating firm on the behalf of the NP. Based on the calculated tax cut, the firm donates money to the NP which in turn pays wecena.com for the services provided. A portion of these consultants turn into volunteers in their free time with the blessing of their employer.
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Note: more details available here.
Describe your long-term desired outcomes. How will you measure your progress toward these outcomes?
[Edit:minor English fixes included]
I envisage a world where pro bono IT services are considered a critical enabler for major social innovations from education to environment via poverty reduction. An army of computing experts and corporations join the fight for changing the world. Wecena services are considered the secret weapon of high-impact social innovations. IT firms compete in donating more and better skills to prominent social entrepreneurs. Specialized for-profit social ventures emerge and compete with wecena.com.
By the end of 2010 we expect to deliver 10 full-time equivalents (FTE) of pro bono IT consulting and engineering to less than 10 ambitious non-profit projects and to increase this volume with a rate of at least 4 FTE per year. We will build non-profit loyalty : the expected median duration of our relationships with each NP will be of at least 6 months for non-profits having accepted first donations more than 1 year before. At least 10% of the employees involved pro bono will turn into volunteers in their free time. Anecdotal evidence will show that wecena services increase non-profit programs reach or efficiency by a factor of at least 3.
And we will be financially profitable before 2010.
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Note: see this post for a more detailed conversation.
Innovation is important to Echoing Green. Explain how your idea is truly innovative. Identify other organizations that are addressing this issue and how your approach is different and has the potential to be more effective
[Compare the initial answer below with related comments from Sig]
Wecena.com offers the first and only IT assistance solution for big social innovations (requiring more than 1 person-year) that costs nothing for both nonprofits and for corporate donors without relying on volunteering or direct governmental subsidies. Other organizations provide IT assistance to nonprofits :
- Compumentor/TechSoup offers donated software and hardware but no IT pro bono service
- The Taproot foundation offers pro bono service (IT included) but their grants are worth no more than 35.000USD compared with a minimum 64,000USD per wecena grant.
- Taproot as well as direct pro bono donors (e.g. Accenture France) operate at a significant cost for donating firms by dedicating individual consultants for the whole project whereas wecena teams of « on the bench » consultants allow any IT firm to try out pro bono services at no cost. The risk of low productivity for these teams is mitigated by management methods and tools from the open source community, by the rate of consultants turned into volunteer contributors and by the higher volume of potential donations.
- Volunteer-match web platforms start addressing the need for IT pro bono service but with the same limits as above.
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Note: see this post for more details
Building a new organization is challenging. How are you entrepreneurial? Describe your skills and experiences that demonstrate you can lead a start-up organization
[minor edits]
In 1996, I co-created a French nonprofit. I raised funds from the French government for its « Internet in the hood » program. I led this program which provided technological assistance to more than 10 nonprofits in local immigrant communities in France.
In 1998, I co-created and led a small Internet consultancy, experienced its downfall and managed its closing without bankruptcy. I had earned customers including governmental agencies and the Fondation de France (the biggest umbrella organization for French foundations).
In 2000, I joined a Fortune Global 200 firm (Saint-Gobain) as head of its corporate web technology group. In 5 years, I turned this 5 persons team of engineers into a more than 20-consultants-big skills center offering engineering and consulting services.
In 2005, I became team-leader of the French Motorola Labs team researching Web x.0 technologies for Motorola phones and set-top-boxes.
When ready to launch my wecena.com venture, in 2007, I negotiated a compensation package with my management line so that I could safely leave my position even though I am the only source of revenue for my family of 6. I funded Wecena SARL in July 2008.
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Why are you uniquely qualified to lead your specific organization? Describe your experience working with this issue and population
[minor edits]
My project requires the following skillset : managing innovative IT projects, being an entrepreneur, serving the non-profit field.
As the head of a corporate IT department then as the leader of an IT research team, I demonstrated my IT skills : I led the creation of a global electronic identity system for more than 200,000 corporate users worldwide and created technology which generated academic publications and patents. I managed the growth of an IT service team until it was 20 IT consultants big. I supervised 100 intranet projects and have been the champion of free software and open source in corporate environment.
I succesfully faced entrepreneurial challenges by taking organizational initiatives, raising required funds and selling innovative services to customers. I raised and managed an 8 millions EUR budget in a corporate environment for a project I led.
I have served non-profits as a volunteer (Boyscouts, Ingénieurs Sans Frontières, Red Cross), as a board member and volunteer (my tech assistance program for 10 immigrant youth communities), during 1 year as a public servant (urban policies agency) and occasionally as a consultant (Fondation de France).
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How much money have you fundraised to date? Who is your largest funder and what is the size of their grant? Provide an estimate of your total budget for each of the next two fiscal years
[Compare the initial answer below with related comments from Sig]
I funded Wecena SARL in July 2008 with 3,000 EUR only. I am the only (and therefore largest) funder of this company.
1st fiscal year (ends in September 2009): estimated revenue of 120 kEUR
2nd fiscal year (October 2009 to September 2010): projected revenue of 286 kEUR
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The Antropia social incubator offered me one day of pro bono consulting. Marie is a consultant at Antropia. She helped me by reviewing this application work. Based on her remarks, I am trying to reformulate several parts of the application above. Here is a new version of the first paragraph. What do you think? Does it make the answer better? How can we make it even better?
What is your new, innovative idea to create lasting social change? Be clear, specific, and jargon-free in your anwser.
Wecena services are pro bono Information Technology (IT) engineering and consulting services that allow non-profits’ big IT projects to benefit from at least 1 year of full-time professional IT skills each. Wecena services bridge the digital skills divide between non-profits and corporations.
Access to corporate-grade IT skills will enable yet unforeseen technology-based social innovations. It will also allow non-profits to increase the efficiency and scalability of their programs.
Wecena services are offered by engaging French IT services firms into delivering big amounts of pro bono work then by also turning pro bono IT consultants (work time) into volunteers (free time).
We use the French tax benefits systems to have IT firms donate big amounts of pro bono work. Everyday, the French IT services industry pays the salary of more than 10.000 employed « on-the-bench » consultants while they are inactively waiting for their next customer engagement. The French tax law generates significant tax savings for employers who deliver pro bono work for non-profits. Wecena donors agree to give these tax savings back to non-profits as an additional budget that allows us to get paid.
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Based on my work with Marie at Antropia, here is another paragraph I am trying to make better. Which version do you like best? This new one or the one in the initial post?
As specifically as possible, demonstrate the need for your organization. Use statistics and references.
Among non-profits having received assistance from the US trade association for nonprofit technology assistance providers (NTEN, 2003 survey), 95% consider IT as important for them to achieve their mission and for the non-profit sector as a whole. IT has improved the ability of 87% of them to reach more people in need of their services.
But IT budgets are extremely limited. Around 50% of non-profits spend less than 1% of their budget on IT (Leverus.com 2004 ; Bayer Center for Non-Profits Management 2006). Even big NGOs spend less than 2.5% in IT compared to a 2.6% to 8.0% figure for like-sized public and private sector organizations (NetHope 2008). 57% of US foundations consider their technology adoption to be « lagging behind » (Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report, 2007). IT cost is the most often mentioned barrier to tech adoption.
In France, 1 year of IT engineering costs about 80 kEUR. But 92% of French non-profits have a budget of less than 100 kEUR.
Wecena services represent significant in kind resources for non-profits. We can boost their ability to achieve their mission and let them become early adopters (if not designers) of socially impactful IT.
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Yet another rewritten paragraph. Do you prefer the initial version or this new one?
Innovation is important to Echoing Green. Explain how your idea is truly innovative. Identify other organizations that are addressing this issue and how your approach is different and has the potential to be more effective
wecena.com offers the first and only IT assistance solution for big social innovations (requiring more than 1 man.year) that is costless for both non-profits and for corporate donors without relying on volunteering or direct governmental subsidies. Other organizations provide IT assistance to non-profits :
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Regarding the root cause, Marie and I wondered whether the root cause would not rather be that, in France, there is no funder willing to cover operating costs. All of them exclusively want to fund field work. But I think this does not explain well why IT-based social innovations aren’t more easily funded. I think I will stick to the root cause mentioned above : low productivity of on the bench consultants when there is no KM investment and lack of marketing effort toward having IT firms to offer pro bono work. There are no skills available because nobody ever tried to exploit the wecena source.
Anyway, I am trying to find a better wording of this root cause. Here is a new version. Which one do you like best: The initial one or the new one ?
What’s the root cause of this problem? How does your idea tackle this root cause?
Time spent « on the bench » by consultants is considered a non-avoidable waste in the IT service industry. There has been no channel for « recycling » this waste so far. Such time is most often too short for any productive assignment: unless costly knowledge management (KM) methods and tools are used, learning a new project context takes some time and knowledge can’t easily be transferred from consultant to consultant. Most IT firms would rather invest in sales efforts to reduce the size of their bench. And there has never been any effort at marketing pro bono work as a solution to their own specific needs.
The French law allows pro bono service to generate significant tax savings which are converted back into money donations for supported non-profits. With this money, wecena.com is hired to offer appropriate KM methods and tools that let consultants become productive fast enough and which encourage them to become volunteers once their pro bono mission has ended. We thus sell IT firms a costless opportunity to increase their Corporate Social Responsibility which allows them to recruit and retain better consulting talents. We distribute free IT skills and provide productivity support.
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Oh, BTW, don’t bother about counting characters. The Echoing Green application form counts them automatically. I will make required adjustments if ever your proposals exceed the max length. I intend to submit my final version November 25 (deadline for submission is December 1).
Hello,
J’ai un peu parcouru ta réponse.
Pour la première réponse, je dirais plutôt que tu te place à l’intersection de 3 forces: je pense qu’il faut aussi mentionner que les IT-dudes ont envie d’aider.
Un truc du genre:
Wecena is an innovative venture offering pro-bono IT services to non-profit organizations in France. We create the link between the IT demands of non-profits, and willingness of both IT developers and their employers to help non-profits in an efficient way. We aim at rewarding people & corporations spending time for pro-bono vs. seeing them be penalized.
Autre commentaire, dans ton expérience passée, à ta place je parlerai des gens avec lesquels tu as travaillé, des rencontres au cours de ta vie d’entrepreneur… L’entreprenariat est une aventure humaine et la passion est probablement importante ici. A la place du lecteur, je chercherai à savoir si tu vas t’accorcher
A plus
Amirhossein
Salut Amir!
I like your idea of « the 3 forces » (I initially thought there were only 2 sides of The Force). The way you word it sounds good to me, too. I think I don’t like the « we aim at rewarding people & corporations spending time for pro-bono vs. seeing them be penalized » sentence as much as I like the ones before it. I will try to remix this into a further version of my 1st answer.
Regarding your remark about my past experience and the potential lack of reference to passion-igniting people I have met, you are absolutely right. EG says they want to feel passion when reading applications. And when I re-read my answers, I feel like I have not expressed all the passion behind them. Referring to some of the role models I met would help here. I will rewrite the « What drew you to this issue? » answer.
Thanks a lot for your help!
Yet another rewritten paragraph. Do you prefer the initial version or this new one?
(Edited before any further comment was posted)
How much money have you fundraised to date? Who is your largest funder and what is the size of their grant? Provide an estimate of your total budget for each of the next two fiscal years
I funded Wecena SARL in July 2008 with 3 k¤. I am the only (hence largest) funder of this company. Thanks to family savings, I can work fulltime on this until September 2009. Then my annual revenue needs are of 150 k¤ which include:
These needs will be covered by nonprofits paying for my services thanks to money donations from the IT firms I recruit. It is costless for IT firms because of the tax savings their pro bono work and donations allow. Either one firm donates a yearly 150 k¤ or no more than 3 firms donate 50 k¤ each.
This represents about 4 full-time equivalents (FTE) in pro bono work. My time is split between servicing nonprofits, mobilizing IT firms and developping the web application used for managing donations. By the end of 2010, I hire a consultant and have 10 FTE donated to nonprofits and a yearly revenue of 250 k¤.
Seed funding would keep me working fulltime on the project in case I only get the expected revenue flow after September 2009. Then it would accelerate the hiring of additional consultants.
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Hi,
If I could add a short comment regarding « Everyday, the French IT services industry pays the salary of more than 10.000 employed “on-the-bench” consultants while they are inactively waiting for their next customer engagement. »
1/ where do the figures come ? Do you have references to put in brackets ?
2/ Do you know if the situation is similar in others countries (in Europe ? Oversea ?)
3/ Is your project only possible in the french taxes environnement or do you think other countries have similar taxes reglementations that could accept to build such project ?
4/ what happens if the taxes rules change ?
I will read more about your project in this blog and will add other comments is needed
Yann
« What drew you to this issue? When and how did you come up with your idea? »
What happens when you where 8 ? Why was it the start of volunteering in non-profits ?
I don’t feel in this text how much motivation you have, dispite the fact I know you are definitively motivated for this personnal project.
When you are talking to me about this project, I feel this one is more important for you than others you have followed. Is this appears in the text ? I am not sure.
« What’s the root cause of this problem? How does your idea tackle this root cause? »
I prefer the 2nde version : more « simple » in term of common explaination I believe
« How much money have you fundraised to date? Who is your largest funder and what is the size of their grant? Provide an estimate of your total budget for each of the next two fiscal years »
Just a short comment : your accounting is in EUR, but you will propose your project and business plan to US people. And in term of global approach, my point of view is still that USD is the currency to speak with other countries. Why not convert all your amount in USD Ccy ?
Yann,
1/ regarding the « more than 10,000 » figure, here are the facts : the French IT industry (service providers + software vendors) represents 283,000 employees according to the French national statistics agency (INSEE) among which 46% to 55% are subject to « on-the-bench » (OTB) /idle periods according to the main IT firms association (Syntec Informatique) which represents a total of about 143,000 employees ; 5% is the target percentage of consultants who are OTB at any point in time in the sector according to financial analysts who monitor public IT services companies in France ; consultants unions (like the MUNCI) estimate that the average percentage is about 15% to 20% and the Syntec Informatique gives estimates between 10% (engineers) and 25% (consultants). In order to take a figure that minimizes the number of idle employees, I keep a low 10% average. This give the final result : 14,300 OTB, or more than 10,000 as I said above.
Unfortunately, this rationale can’t fit in the limited length of my answer to EG. Maybe I will give these details at the second selection step which starts in January, if we succesfully pass the 1st step !
2/ Overseas, the situation is quite different. For instance, in the US, most IT specialists are hired for the sole duration of the project and are fired as soon as their mission reaches an end. Except in big IT firms which prefer to keep a pool of idle consultants so that they can more rapidly staff new missions. In employee-protective laws, firms are more likely to keep such pools because of the cost of firing employees. In more liberal countries, the number of idle employees is lower. I don’t have precise figures at the moment, though.
3/ The French tax regulations regarding donations represent the most favorable legal environment in the world for my project. Another nice country is the UK but the model would have to be a little bit different there. Anyway, next step toward domination of the world is to invade the UK, of course (I am French, after all). :-)
4/ At the moment, if the French tax rules change dramatically, the result would probably be catastrophic. A risk mitigation plan will be required (suggestions are welcome !). However, the legislative trends worldwide (France included) have been quite favorable to my plans since the 80s.
Yann, regarding EUR vs. USD, you are absolutely right. I will convert my budget and answer.
PH sent me some comments by email and allowed me to post them here :
She also said in a further email:
She gave me additional hints and tips which were used in the wording of the new versions posted above in my previous comments.
Yann, Amir,
Your comments helped me realize I have not explained why I am passionated by this project (and how passionated I am). So here is another try at answering the Echoing Green question. Tell me if the original version is better or worse than the one below:
What drew you to this issue? When and how did you come up with your idea?
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What do you think?
Deadline (almost) met (December 1 is next Monday). Application submitted.
THANK YOU for your comments, emails and offline help ! Together :
Next steps for me:
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