Taproot Foundation Convenes Technology Experts and Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders from Across Nation for 6th Annual U.S. Pro Bono Summit, April 26 & 27, New York City
April 24, 2017/3BL Media/ - The Taproot Foundation convenes its 6th annual U.S. Pro Bono Summit on April 26 and 27 in New York City. This cross-sector gathering brings together leaders in the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors who are committed to expanding the use and impact of pro bono programming. For the first time, this year’s Summit will include a convening to discuss how the business community can meet the technology needs of the social sector through pro bono service.
“We know just how important a need technology is for nonprofits and that many nonprofits don’t have the resources or the know-how to access that expertise,” says Liz Hamburg, Taproot Foundation President & CEO. “I am excited to gather together a multi-sectored group to collectively shape how pro bono service can help connect nonprofits with technology solutions that transform their organizations and solve our communities’ challenges.”
Jeff Aldrich, Planned Parenthood’s Director of Product Management - Digital Products, and Summit speaker had this to add: "Technology is a critical component in delivering on Planned Parenthood's mission. In the weeks and months following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Planned Parenthood received a flood of offers of support, including many offers of pro bono technology support. We're excited to share our experiences and to contribute to a wider conversation about the use of pro bono technology services in nonprofit organizations.”
This year’s Summit will include sessions featuring Planned Parenthood, DataKind, NTEN, TechSoup, Adobe, Barclays and others covering topics ranging from tech tools to identify and solve critical challenges in the social sector to discovering how program design can improve companies’ impact on their nonprofit community partners.
The 2017 Summit will take place over two days and is generously sponsored by Prudential Financial, Inc., and supported by VMware, a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility.
“Bridging the Technology Divide” Convening – April 26
Bridging the Technology Divide will bring together corporate and nonprofit leaders to address how using pro bono service can drive technology adoption, use and fluency in the social sector. Along with collaborator VMware, Taproot will also be releasing a new whitepaper—entitled Transforming Technology Pro Bono: A Practical Approach—aimed at helping nonprofits diagnose and address capacity building challenges with technology. “VMware’s culture of service empowers our people to be active citizens in the global community,” says Jessamine Chin, Director of the VMware Foundation. “We’re excited to partner with Taproot to advance the conversation around technology pro bono.”
Corporate Convening – April 27
A growing number of Fortune 500 companies are now offering employees opportunities to volunteer their professional expertise to nonprofits. This exclusive Corporate Convening gathers social responsibility and HR leaders from over 30 of the leading corporations in pro bono programming sharing best practices and uncovering innovations around delivering critical pro bono resources—in marketing finance, IT, HR and more—to social change organizations. As part of the day’s highly participatory sessions, U.S. Pro Bono Summit sponsor and featured speaker Prudential will highlight their own pro bono program that leverages the skills of its employees to deliver on the company’s founding principle that everyone should have the opportunity to achieve financial security. Prudential’s programming has built the capacity of local partners while simultaneously providing employees the opportunity to support personal and professional growth, a model which a growing number of companies have leveraged in implementing their own programming.
Follow the 2017 U.S. Pro Bono Summit at #PBSummit2017
About the Taproot Foundation
Taproot Foundation, a national nonprofit, connects nonprofits and social change organizations with skilled volunteers who provide their expertise pro bono. Taproot is creating a world where organizations dedicated to social change have full access—through pro bono service—to the marketing, strategy, HR, and IT resources they need to be most effective. Since 2001, Taproot’s skilled volunteers have served 4,000 social change organizations providing 1.4 million hours of work worth over $150 million in value. Taproot is located in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles and is leading a network of global pro bono providers in over 23 countries around the world. www.taprootfoundation.org
About Prudential Financial, Inc.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with more than $1 trillion of assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2016, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit news.prudential.com.
