TechSoup Global Network has partnered with 65 of the world’s leading civil society organizations to improve lives globally through the use of technology. TechSoup Global Network partners manage a range of technology capacity-building programs to serve communities in nearly every region of the world. Each network partner tailors its program to the needs of its community and shares insights with other network partners to better serve communities worldwide. The Network has reached 851,000 organizations and delivered US$7.6 billion in technology tools and philanthropic services. The Russian national segment of the TechSoup Global Network is called “infoDonor” and has been running since 2009. IIS is the national coordinator of the program.

San Francisco hosted the 3rd TechSoup Summit held on 28-30 March, 2017 in the Google building on the Spear Street. 28 March, 2017 started with the Opening Plenary, where TechSoup Executive Vice President Lynn Van Housen and TechSoup CEO Rebecca Masisak gave their welcoming remarks. The session “Experiencing the Diversity of the Network”, inspired by an idea from TechSoup Europe’s Technology for Social Good Conference in Brussels. A panel discussion with leading foundations (Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative, PayPal, Levi Strauss Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) on philanthropic trends and barriers to giving effectively demonstrated, where innovation in giving is showing promise.

All NGOs and TechSoup Global Network partners need to be concerned about data security and privacy on at least three levels in terms of:

• vulnerable populations they serve
• NGOs that are being targeted by state actors or other adversaries
• helping those social good activists who choose to operate as individuals, and not as members of NGOs, to be both effective and private in their online operations.

The panel “Data Security and Privacy: What You Don’t Know, They Know” explored perspectives from all of these angles and will share best practices that can be started and spread immediately.

Humanitarian orgs are embracing the cloud, and cloud technologies are becoming more interoperable. ImpactCloud.org is an alliance of cloud technology vendors eager to help humanitarian organizations make the most of these trends. Founding coalition members, Box and DocuSign, talked on 29 March, 2017 about what led them to nurture cross-cloud innovation in the crisis-response domain at the session “Cross-Cloud Innovation: the Impact Cloud”.

More and more partners are engaging in co-design, recognizing it as a promising approach to developing next generation. The breakout session “Innovating Together – Early Lessons in Partner Co-Design” shared what we have learned co-designing together for the benefit of the network, featuring partner experiences in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Belgium, Australia, and South Korea.

Featured Speaker, Zvika Krieger who co-leads the World Economic Forum’s new Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco, had a talk “Is a Silicon Valley Mindset Good for Civil Society?”.

The TechSoup Global Network is uniquely positioned to act as a reseller to the small and medium NGOs. The breakout session “A World of Opportunity: the Network as a Reseller” looked closely at the reseller opportunity, identifying the capabilities that would be required for the network to qualify as a reseller and successfully run a reseller business.

30 March 2017 started with a conversation with TechSoup CEO Rebecca Masisak “Investing Together in the Network, How We Can Each Do”. That was an opportunity to discuss the TechSoup Strategic Plan and Investment Campaign, reflecting on partners' three days together – insights, questions, and perspectives.

Featured speaker Todd Khozein working with government, multilateral, and multinational clients to design and implement partnership-based initiatives that address some of the world’s greatest challenges spoke on cultivating unprecedented collaboration in a global network. Among the initiatives he has helped to conceive, launch, and scale were LAUNCH (a collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, NASA, USAID, and Nike), Random Hacks of Kindness (in collaboration with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, HP, NASA, and the World Bank) and Code4Country (Russian and American programmers who united to address challenges of openness and transparency).

The summit finished with regional meetings, one of which was “Europe Partners (+ Canada & Israel)”. TechSoup regional coordinator based in Warsaw presented a study on the program activity in Europe and outlined focuses for partners for the next period of time. Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of IIS BoD, and Tatiana Ershova, IIS CEO, actively participated in all above mentioned events.