The impact of giving is often great.
It’s like a stone that has been cast into the water. Water is disrupted, ripples form and a change occurs.
When Ohio.net cast its first stone into the waters of giving, it may not have known the impact it would have. The organization, a full-service internet tech company based in Doylestown, Ohio, is in its seventh year of donating Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones to nonprofit organizations.
The phones, donated by Ohio.net’s corporate customers, are refurbished by the firm’s IT department. With the combination of donated hardware and discounted service, Ohio.net offers the benefit of updated communications systems to deserving organizations. Following the initial donation, Ohio.net remains involved with the nonprofit by providing ongoing service and support at a discounted rate.
The Music Settlement is the latest nonprofit to benefit from a donation of 28 phones that were placed at its new Ohio City campus this year. It learned of the company’s donation program through a 2016 article in Community Leader that featured Esperanza Inc.
“This is a transformative time with our expansion into the West Side for TMS,” says Annie Schwarz, Music Settlement’s vice president for Institutional Advancement. “With their gift, Ohio.net plays an important role in our transformation.”
“The ability to reserve resources we would have normally allocated for such a pivotal component of the building’s communication system was beyond appreciated. The fact that we could really direct those resources to the community — which is our mission and what we do every day — is something we could not thank Ohio.net more for.”
According to Schwarz, VOIP has given Music Settlement flexibility and versatility to its new campus, which celebrated its grand opening in August.
“Not only has Ohio.net's gift enabled us to stretch our capital dollars, but they’ve also helped make us a more state-of-the-art organization. Their work with and support of non-profits is a testament to Ohio.net’s commitment to the community,” says Schwarz.
During more than 20 years of working for Ohio.net, Sales and Marketing Director Alex Desberg has seen his share of slightly used technology being thrown away rather than donated to places which would benefit from it. He says the new trend is community responsibility.
“One of the things we see is the organizations that need technology the most are the ones that struggle to get it,” says Desberg. “When we are able to give back, it lets me smile at the end of the day knowing we did well. I know it pays a nonprofit back so much more than the cost of the equipment.”