To help scale its Tech for Good Alliance initiative, the Scottish Tech Army has been awarded funding support of up to £350,000 over a two-year period from the National Lottery Community Fund.
The award, which is made possible by National Lottery players, provides match funding of subscriptions from companies that sign up as participating members of the Tech for Good Alliance.
The Tech for Good Alliance is a cross-UK initiative of the not-for-profit Scottish Tech Army. It provides a framework to both encourage and enable the development of skilled tech volunteering programmes, as part of tech companies’ social responsibility activities.
The Tech for Good Alliance’s three focus areas for the programmes and projects are: social justice, inclusion, and equality; environment and climate change; and skills and talent development.
The programme framework and the services provided to Tech for Good Alliance’s member companies allow them to develop their tech for good programmes and projects more efficiently and economically.
“In the course of its work, the Scottish Tech Army has seen the value that can be delivered by tech for good programmes, both its own and those of tech companies that have already made a commitment to and investment in programmes of this kind,” said Alistair Forbes, CEO of the Scottish Tech Army.
“The potential to grow the tech for good ecosystem in the UK and the resulting impact is very substantial but the overhead involved in setting up such programmes from scratch is a significant challenge for companies and their busy staff.
“This innovative funding award from the National Lottery Community Fund will allow us to scale the Tech for Good Alliance faster and further and will amplify the contribution of every company that signs up to join the Alliance.
“Scalability of the outputs of projects is a key principle that will greatly amplify the impact of the work of Alliance member companies and their staff.”
Neil Ritch, Scotland Director, the National Lottery Community Fund, also commented, saying: “This award means that the Scottish Tech Army will be able to support many more groups across Scotland.
“By leveraging the capabilities of private companies in the tech sector through the Tech for Good Alliance, this project has the potential to significantly accelerate the development and adoption of digital solutions in the third sector, which will be very much to the benefit of the people and communities that they serve.”
Just last month, DIGIT attended the Scottish Tech Army’s third annual Tech for Good Summit. Staff writer Elizabeth Greenberg reported on a panel which discussed the importance of skilled volunteering, and how the tech sector and the third sector can and should come together for cross-societal benefit.
Source: DIGIT