Grand Rapids, Mich. (WZZM) - Christmas came early for about 2 dozen West Michigan non profit agencies. This weekend a group of tech specialists gathered to help rebuild or revamp the agencies websites.
"The websites that we are building for the non-profits will do everything from help register people for events and manage their events, help them get new volunteers, help them get new donors, said Emily Stoddar Furrow, a member of the planning committee for Grand Rapids Give Camp. "It is essential to have these tools in place because obviously the economy is changing so there are not enough resources to go around and it's hard to get the funding to do your core operating kinds of things."
A group of 100 IT and tech professionals from around Michigan camped out friday through sunday at David D. Hunting YMCA in downtown Grand Rapids. They worked on a variety of services ranging from copyright and content development to website design and programming.
"A project usually takes the entire 2 days so a lot of people stay here the entire time. A lot of people stay here over night they bring sleeping bags. That is why we call it camp," said Chris Woodruff, a consultant who volunteered his time to coordinate the all weekend event. "We need to bring these people up so they can learn to reach out to people so they can get more exposure and more donations and help people better. That is what this weekend is all about. Helping them save a little bit of money so they can put it towards better uses."
Woodruff says at a time when non-profits are competing for ever shrinking dollars and volunteers having a strong technical and web presence can make a huge difference.
Deb Davis, national marketing manager with Paws with a Cause says their 9 year old website was in desperate need of updating and she is excited with the progress made.
"Our organization is able to benefit in may different ways. We are having resource developers, designers, experienced personnel who are donating their time in order to update our site and refresh our site. Make it a lot more user friendly for the web browsing community which in turn helps us get our message about assistance dogs out," said Davis. "It is also an expedited process so we don't have to spend many months of our donors resources into this so we are able to benefit from the kindness of these web developers."
The services the non-profits received could easily run upwards of several hundred dollars. But Davis says the generosity they are getting is invaluable.
"It is priceless. It really is. Especially in today's economy. When we are going through our budgeting system it is usually the first things that get checked off the list are the peripherals. Keeping our website updated is so crucial. In the information age everyone is out there on the internet surfing. You need to keep it updated so the value is priceless to non-profits," she said.
"It is just a good, good feeling after the weekend to go back to work and think we helped someone," said Woodruff.
Give Camp has been held in Ann Arbor and Lansing in previous years. This is the first year organizers brought it to West Michigan.
Furrow says they hope to have it here again next fall.
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