Desktop Assistance

NonProfit Support: Desktop Assistance is a 501(c)(3) membership organization — serving nonprofits exclusively — that researches cutting-edge information and communications technologies, adapts them for use by nonprofits, and helps our members use these technologies creatively. We focus on building the human capacity of organizations to succeed using new tools.

We are a pioneer in the burgeoning field of conservation databases and list enhancement projects. We helped establish the Northern Rockies Campaign Conservation Database, containing information on nearly 400,000 conservationists and citizens in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

We developed a conservation database template (named ebaseTM) which any conservation group can use for managing interactive communications, as well as analyze their membership to increase their level of giving and activism based on "civic involvement" indicators. A description of ebase and a demo version are available.

Desktop Assistance leads the strategic development of the conservation database movement. We authored the Conservation Database Report, an overview of developments in the field to date, as well as a set of recommendations about how foundations can constructively support the creative development of this emerging field. "At a time when it finds itself increasingly under attack, the U.S. environmental movement needs to find effective ways to rebuild its grass roots base and increase the political activity of conservationists. Conservation databases -- computer applications that allow environmental organizations to turn their lists of members and supporters into powerful communications, organizing, and fundraising resources -- offer a promising new set of tools for such efforts. Such technologies are rapidly becoming more accessible to nonprofit groups, and can allow them to leverage limited resources into far more successful outreach programs. A well-designed database may be the single most strategic information or communication technology available to conservation organizations."

We continue to pioneer the use of the Internet as a community organizing medium. This summer we launched emediacyTM, a Web-based database that will enable netizens to quickly become active in campaigns to protect the environment. Our initial campaign was to help protect The Big Wild of the Northern Rockies. The preliminary results of our research are included in Richard Civille's Environmental Organizing on the Internet, commissioned by Desktop Assistance.