On 21 June 2016, the “Tech4Good” – Microsoft Day event was held at the Skopje Fair which was dedicated to the NGO sector and was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation with the support of Microsoft software corporation. This event allowed the civil sector representatives to find out more about the opportunity for receiving software donation from Microsoft’s civil sector support program implemented by Metamorphosis via the Теchsoup Balkans platform.

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“By using our products, we as Microsoft strive to encourage productivity, cooperation, sharing of ideas and creativity, which are key elements in the work of our products. Office 365 and Office 2016 are designed to allow people to focus on the progress, and not on the process, on the joint working and sharing of resources at any time on any device. We, at Microsoft, always recognize the importance of the work of the non-profit organizations and we believe that we can help them with our latest technology. Therefore, within our social responsibility programs, we created the “Technology for good” initiative in order to contribute towards solving complex social problems. Microsoft is proud that has the opportunity to cooperate with more than 86.000 non-profit organizations throughout the world including non-profit organizations in Macedonia, and Microsoft gives them technologies they need in order to work with local communities” said Vlora Ademi, Senior Business Development Manager, Education and Citizenship of Мicrosoft.

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According to Metamorphosis’ executive director, Bardhyl Jashari, such events are being organized in Macedonia third year in a row and they are part of the continuous efforts for building the civil organizations’ capacities, with the aim to make them more efficient, better, and more active when it comes to accomplishing their missions.

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“Metamorphosis assists the building of capacities of NGOs via spreading knowledge through training sessions and mentorships, securing access to knowledge via publishing activities, and also via securing access to various software – in this case Microsoft’s technologies. Specifically, Metamorphosis allows software donations via the TechSoup Balkans platform. With Microsoft’s support, Metamorphosis offers the NGOs from Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania opportunities for receiving legal software in the form of a donation. As a part of the platform, Metamorphosis allows direct consultations for the civil organizations in the open days (every second Friday), but also upon individual request, and all of this is done so more organizations in Macedonia can have the chance to use the donation opportunities.” – Jashari stated.

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During the conference, the civil sector representatives were able to find out more about their chances for receiving software donations from Microsoft’s civil sector support program, which in Macedonia is implemented by Metamorphosis via the Теchsoup Balkans platform. Adrijana Selmani, who was a panelists in the How to apply for a cyber grant session, explained that TechSoup Balkans and the Metamorphosis Foundation are the bridge that connects non-profit organizations with donors, and it allows them to perform their activities in an easier, faster and in a more efficient manner.

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Moreover, a workshop also took place at this event, in which the civil sector organizations had the chance to apply for donation and to receive advice by the team of Metamorphosis, so the organizations could estimate their needs for IT technologies. Also, advice and specific examples which cover productivity, teamwork and creativity regarding the functionalities of Office 2016 were presented too.

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Novelty at this conference was Microsoft’s offer for NGOs: Data Platform and Power BI, as well as many other technologies that contribute towards improvement of the work of the civil organizations.

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Oliver Aleksoski, Account Technology Strategist in Microsoft during the presentation of the Power BI platform emphasized that these tools will make the work of the organizations simpler, will speed it up the work and they will also reduce the data management and data visualization costs.

For more information follow the discussion on Twitter and Facebook on the #Tech4Good hashtag.

The complete photo album from this event is available here.

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