Earth Day 2011: Ways to Green Your Organization

Written by James Plotnik, Account Executive, TecMarc Technology Services

Happy Earth Day Everyone! Today is set aside as a special day to respect and do something to help our planet, however, this is something we should all embrace on a daily basis. It is our duty to respect our environment and keep it in balance so that future generations can enjoy experiencing the many things that we do today.

Every organization has an impact on the environment, regardless of size. The good news is that there are ways you can increase the sustainability of your organization and make it greener. Here are some suggestions:

1. Hit that power button. Cut down on your energy usage and costs by turning off your technology items at the end of the day, every day, especially the weekends. Even if your computer and monitors enter standby mode, they are consuming some energy. So go ahead, click “shut down” and hit the power buttons on those monitors, scanners, projectors, printers, etc…
2. Print on recycled paper. As much as we all strive for paperless environments, there are some things that we just have to print. Make sure that you are using recycled paper.
3. Promote telecommuting. Burning one gallon of gasoline produces 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide. Some of your employees may burn two gallons of gasoline each day commuting to the office to work. That’s nearly 40 pounds of carbon dioxide! Allow them to work from home even one day a week and you save 160 pounds of carbon dioxide from being pumped into our atmosphere every month.

In Tough Economic Times, Non-Profits Get Creative with Funding

Written by James Plotnik, Account Executive, TecMarc Technology Services

Tough economic times don’t only affect corporations and consumers, but also non-profits that work so hard to help others and improve our local communities. Marc Center of Mesa takes a creative approach to overcoming this problem by offering internal operations to others as a service; at a profit.

Funding sources for non-profits include the government, corporations and private donors. When these sources struggle in a difficult economy, the affects often filter through to the non-profits that receive funding from them. If non-profits can’t receive the funding they need to operate it puts them at risk of not being able to carry out their mission. These organizations work hard to better our lives and are often dear to many of our hearts.

In order to mitigate the ebbs and flows in funding created by ups and downs in the economy the Marc Center has created for profit organizations to provide income back to the Marc Center. Our goal is to improve our ability to be self-sustaining. One of these for profit business models is TecMarc Technology Services. This business focuses on providing IT and technology solutions to other non-profits at rates that often beat the competition. Being born from a non-profit we understand the pain that non-profits go through in developing and managing their technology. Therefore, our goal is to make it easier for them while generating revenue for the Marc Center. Of course we will offer our technology services to for profit organizations at a competitive rate as well.

Purchasing products and services from a business owned by a non-profit provides a creative way for individuals, businesses and corporations to support their communities and build their social responsibility efforts.

Spring Nonprofit Technology Forum

Written by James Plotnik, Account Executive, TecMarc Technology Services

Our Spring Nonprofit Technology Forum today was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who attended & our speakers & our helpers!