As a partner of Microsoft Citizenship, YCAB Foundation has received a lot of benefits such as grants, software, and technology donation. Some of the projects undertaken by Microsoft Citizenship and YCAB Foundation grant for 5 Community Learning Centers and Microsoft YouthSpark. Software donation that is provided by Microsoft includes Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. On the technology side, donation includes Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Azure.

“Office 365” refers to subscription plans that comprise access to Office applications and other productivity services that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services), such as Lync web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business, and additional online storage with OneDrive and Skype world minutes for home. What is the benefit from Office 365? Office 365 is a cloud-based technology so all technical problem like server and network infrastructure will be maintained by Microsoft.

For Non-Profit Organizations like YCAB Foundation, IT is a very important thing but at the same time it is also a burden because IT cost is not cheap. By using the cloud technology, YCAB Foundation no longer needs to think about the high cost of IT. In addition, Microsoft Office 365 donated by Microsoft to Non-Profit Organizations are free.

Due to the success of YCAB Foundation in implementing Microsoft Office 365, YCAB Foundation was invited by Microsoft to share the case study and discussions with other non-profit organizations. This year, we were invited to three Microsoft events: Microsoft Tech4Good in Singapore (February 2014), Microsoft NGO Connection Day in Indonesia (April 2014) and Microsoft NGO Connection Day in Malaysia (June 2014). It was an honor that we were invited to Microsoft NGO Connection Day in Malaysia to share stories with a local non-profit there and also did FGD with several non-profit organizations.