The Microsoft NGO Connection Day took place on May 13, 2015. The event was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation and supported by Microsoft, enabling representatives of civil society organizations to learn more about the opportunity to receive software donations from the “Microsoft Technology for Good” program for support to civil society organizations. During the event held at the premises of the “Orion Conference Center” in Pristina, Metamorphosis announced the possibility for NGOs in Kosovo to receive Microsoft Office 365 licenses through its partner Теchsoup Balkans.
Through the software donation program, Microsoft enables nonprofit organizations to receive software donations through Microsoft and their partner TechSoup Global.
“This was the second NGO Connection Day organized by Metamorphosis with Microsoft’s support, and this event is an important part of our continued efforts for capacity building of civil society organizations, aiming to help them be more efficient in fulfilling their missions. Metamorphosis helps build the capacity of NGOs through trainings and mentoring, by creating and providing access to educational resources, and by providing licensed software in the form of donations (in cooperation with Microsoft) through the TechSoup Balkans platform. As part of this platform, Metamorphosis offers direct consultations for NGOs during the Open Days (every second Friday of the month) and based on individual requirements, in order to provide an opportunity for as many Kosovo organizations as possible to be able to benefit from these donations”- said Bardhyl Jashari, executive director of the Metamorphosis Foundation.
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Vlora Ademi, Business Development Manager – Education, Microsoft held a presentation on the topic “Office 365 and the benefits from the application of cloud technologies in the civil society sector”. Attendees also had an opportunity to see a demo of Office 365 and its implementation.
“The Office 365 platform is now available for NGOs in Kosovo. Office 365 is a platform for communication and cooperation and is available as a donation for non-profit organizations and NGOs. The platform offers: an online version of the Office suite; storage and file sharing space; e-mail, contacts and shared calendars; Intranet site for team collaboration; an unlimited number of online meetings, instant messaging and HD video conferencing via Lync; a corporate social network. This is a significant new investment of Microsoft to help NGOs focus on the implementation of their missions useful for society, without worrying about technology and investing in it”- said Vlora Ademi, Business Development Manager – Education, Microsoft.
Adriana Selmani, program assistant at the Metamorphosis Foundation held a presentation on the topic of “TechSoup Global – the advantages and opportunities offered by TechSoup Balkans”.
“We are aware that non-profit organizations play an extremely important role in every community worldwide. We at Microsoft we have always recognized the importance of the work of non-profit organizations and believed that we can help them by providing them with our latest technology. Therefore, as part of our social responsibility programs we created the “Technology for good” initiative to contribute to the solving of complex societal and community problems. Thus, by providing powerful technology to non-governmental organizations we believe that we can boost their productivity, increase their efficiency, so that their services can be made more accessible for larger communities and individuals who need them. Over the last year, we have provided software donations in more than 125 countries worldwide worth more than 940 million dollars. During the past two years, we have donated more than 800 licenses to NGOs in Kosovo, worth over 500,000 dollars”, said Stefan Plavjanski, general manager of Microsoft Macedonia and Kosovo. The second part of the event was reserved for presentations of best practices by several local nonprofit organizations as users of Office 365 and winners of other software donations from Microsoft.
The event was closed with the workshop on the topic of “Technologies for the civil society sector”, where representatives of non-profit organizations had the opportunity to learn more about the software donations through consultations and about the possibility to apply for a software donation through the Techsoup Balkans donation platform.
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