June marks Pride Month where millions of people come together across the world to celebrate the LGBT community – to applaud the progress that has been made and to bring awareness to the struggles that still exist to reach equality for this community.
In celebration of Pride Month, we have featured a series of articles demonstrating our commitment as a company and as individuals to foster a truly inclusive culture, community and industry.
We kicked off the series hearing from internal LGBT rights advocates through our #iamtech publication. Last week, we looked deeper into what makes Symantec a leader in LGBT equality. And today we look at how one of our leading philanthropic programs, our software donation program, is supporting the LGBT community.
In today's highly connected and tech-dependent world, many organizations and businesses don't think twice about having the latest technology, the latest CRM, the fastest and most secure network. It is all a given of doing business.
However, it takes resources to acquire the latest technology hardware and solutions, and it requires expertise and time to operate them. For many non-profit organizations this is not reality. They may lack a qualified IT lead or lack funding to acquire new equipment. Most often it is a combination of both.
In comes our software donation program, where philanthropy lies at the center of what we do best, delivering market leading products and services. At Symantec, product donation is our largest mechanism to support the nonprofit community. In partnership with TechSoup, this program allows us to support more than 25,000 organizations annually, 93,000 to date, and reach 55 countries worldwide.
Just over 95% of customers have said Symantec product donations helped them better fulfill their missions. We are helping users make a stronger impact on society while putting our products in the hands of users who can experience first hand the benefit and quality of our offerings. Now that is good business for everyone.
Today we are proud to highlight an example of the impact this program is making for advocates of the LGBT community. The Ali Forney Center in New York City, the largest agency supporting LGBTQ youth in the world, relies on Symantec's product donations to serve its mission and enable its one-man IT department to minimize IT risks and maximize efficiencies. As the number of youth relying on The Ali Forney Center services increases, we've helped Ali Forney expand its capabilities to increase its reach and impact on LGBT youth.
Please click here or visit TechSoup at http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/2015/01/14/ali-forney-center-saves-time-and-effort-with-norton-security.aspx to read the full story "Ali Forney Center Saves Time and Effort with Norton Security".
To learn more about Symantec's software donation program and how organizations can apply please click here.
Jaime Barclay is Symantec’s Corporate Philanthropy Program Manager