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| News |
GroundWork group featured in Columbus Business First (2010)
GroundWork group opens office in Orange County, California
GroundWork group selected as an All-Star Innovator by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
GroundWork group featured in Columbus Business First (2008)
GroundWork group featured in Information Week
GroundWork group and CIVIC Join Together
GroundWork group Receives TopCAT Award 2007
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| GroundWork group featured in Columbus Business First (2010) |
To read the August 27, 2010 GroundWork group article in Business First, click the icon to the left.
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| GroundWork group opens office in Orange County, California |
COLUMBUS, OH - More than a year of discussions, community analysis and fundraising has culminated in the July 2010 opening of a GroundWork group office in Southern California. A collaboration of nonprofit organizations and funders in Orange County sought out GroundWork group's line of services to fulfill the unmet technology needs of their charitable organizations.
GroundWork group is a Central Ohio-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to strengthening the impact of nonprofit organizations by enhancing their ability to manage their business operations and achieve their missions through sustainable and affordable information management, education and technology solutions.
GroundWork group works with over 190 nonprofits in Central Ohio, delivering affordable technology services such as IT assessments, tech support, Managed IT Services, custom-built Information Management Systems, website development & hosting, event management and educational classes on using technology tools.
The concept of GroundWork group was developed by a committee of United Way of Central Ohio led by Tony Wells of the Tony R. Wells Foundation and comprised of volunteers representing local businesses, local IT professionals, governmental and private nonprofit funding organizations and representatives of local nonprofit organizations. The committee's research revealed that local nonprofits felt their number one barrier to capacity building was technology.
GroundWork group expanded operations in 2008 through a formal merger with CIVIC (Columbus Information Via Computer), a long-standing Central Ohio nonprofit that brought high quality software applications and development capabilities into the fold. The Columbus Foundation's foresight and support were integral to the successful merger process.
Approaching GroundWork group's fifth anniversary in July, the GroundWork group Board of Directors felt it was time to grow the organization beyond the boundaries of Central Ohio and take their business and service delivery models to benefit nonprofits in other communities. A GroundWork group Expansion Committee, with leadership from Angelo Mazzocco, CIO, Progressive Medical, began exploring options in other markets. Simultaneously, community organizers in Orange County were contemplating the creation of a nonprofit technology services provider. Orange County is home to over 4,000 public charities, and the market has no technology providers focused on affordable solutions for nonprofit organizations. While at a Tides Shared Spaces conference in Washington, DC, William F. Podlich, Chairman of the Board, Orange County Shared Spaces Foundation, learned about GroundWork group.
"I was convinced that GroundWork group was the technology solution for Orange County's nonprofits the moment I started speaking with John Hrusovsky (GroundWork group CEO)," says Podlich. GroundWork group surveyed the technology capacity of 120 Orange County nonprofit organizations and found them to be challenged in most aspects of technology related to their business operations. Similar to the birth of GroundWork group in Central Ohio five years ago, the participating organizations expressed a sincere interest in boosting their technical capabilities in order to build their capacity to fulfill their charitable missions. Orange County Community Foundation, Orange County United Way, Irvine Health Foundation and many more community organizations are collaborating to raise dollars and raise awareness to bring GroundWork group's beneficial services to the Orange County nonprofit sector.
With the launch of the Orange County Office, GroundWork group welcomes William F. Podlich to their Board of Directors. Podlich is one of the founders of the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) in Newport Beach, California. After 33 years with the company, Podlich became a full-time philanthropist. He is Chairman of the Board of the Orange County Shared Spaces Foundation and Chairman of the Orange County Nonprofit Information Technology Steering Committee. He is seated on several university and nonprofit boards.
"We are extremely fortunate to have Bill on our board," says GroundWork group CEO John Hrusovsky. "Bill, with his dedication to philanthropy and his business savvy, will be a significant catalyst toward the achievement of GroundWork group's long-term goals."
The opening of the GroundWork group office in California is the first in a series of steps for GroundWork group to realize their expansion goals, as they are investigating possible moves into additional communities. This level of expansion means an increased ability to enhance their current technology offerings and to develop new solutions for all GroundWork group Members, in Central Ohio and in Orange County.
The GroundWork group 2014 Vision is to extend their business model beyond Central Ohio and leverage its capability to increase its impact and become a national presence in the nonprofit technology space. They will create a Central Ohio-based corporate headquarters, and their goal is to establish five local branch offices by year-end 2014.
GroundWork group is excited to reach additional nonprofits, in Central Ohio, Orange County and beyond, each year, realizing their vision for "Affordable and sustainable information technology solutions which serve as a strategic enabler of nonprofit business success."
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| GroundWork group selected as an All-Star Innovator by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis |
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The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis selects GroundWork group as an Innovation All-Star in their
10,000-Hour Challenge! This nationwide challenge is designed to encourage community development
professionals to embrace and practice innovation.
Check out the GWg story on their website.
Learn about the 10,000-Hour Challenge.
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| GroundWork group featured in Columbus Business First (2008) (2008) |
To read the August 29, 2008 GroundWork group article in Business First, click the icon to the left.
After reading the article, click your browser's Back button to continue browsing our
site.
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| GroundWork group featured in Information Week |
To read the GroundWork group article in Information Week, click the icon to the left.
After reading the
article, click your browser's Back button to continue browsing our site.
Please Note:
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| GroundWork group and CIVIC Join Together |
We are eager to share some exciting news. GroundWork group and CIVIC have now merged to form a new organization
which will be positioned to meet even more of your information technology needs.
GroundWork group and CIVIC share a common mission and passion for helping the nonprofit community effectively
utilize technology. For some time now we have recognized that there could be significant synergies between our
organizations and earlier this year we began discussions to determine how we might collaborate to provide you
with an even better and broader range of service offerings. Recognizing the importance of solid operating
structures for nonprofits, The Columbus Foundation generously funded the services of a nationally-recognized
consultant in the field of nonprofit governance, finance and structuring to facilitate our discussions. Our
organizations, consultants and client agency representatives engaged in a very thoughtful and deliberative
exploration of options. The result was a vote by the boards of both organizations to merge into a new
entity, effective January 1, 2008.
This is a tremendous step forward for each of our organizations, and we are very excited about the future and
its possibilities. CIVIC has developed a Nonprofit Data Management System that allows organizations to
seamlessly manage information related to donors, clients, volunteers, board members, mailing lists,
subscribers, ticket buyers, and event participants. We believe combining the capabilities of CIVIC with our
organization will result in a new entity that will further enhance the technical capacity of non-profit
organizations in our community.
As part of our decision-making team, we enlisted help in our discussions from several of our clients, including
Nancy Brantner, Executive Director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Central Ohio, who said, "I saw right away that
bringing under one roof the longtime management system expertise of CIVIC with the technical know-how of
GroundWork group would provide the kinds of combined strengths and efficiencies which could only benefit our
nonprofit community." Funders are also embracing our merger plan. Patricia Cash, National City Bank Senior
Vice President, noted that this is "an opportunity to create a technology assistance provider like no other.
The end result is a more efficient, less costly delivery system."
The same staff members will continue to deliver to you the quality products, services and support that you have
come to rely on and expect. As we move forward with the merger and further develop the new organization, we
fully expect to deliver an even more enhanced suite of product and service offerings which will help your
organization to expand your technical capability and build IT capacity.
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| GroundWork group Receives TopCat Award 2007 |
We are excited to announce that GroundWork group is the recipient of the first TopCat Innovation Award for
"Innovation in Non-Profit Service Delivery." This is a testimonial for the work that has been accomplished
in a two year period by the GroundWork group team!
We are very grateful to TechColumbus for the award and our entire support network.
By definition, the winning Nominee is a non-profit organization that has applied or implemented a technology
or process change that has positively impacted the ability of the organization to provide services, such as,
by measurably increasing the number of constituents services, by measurably increasing the extent to which one
or more constituents has been served, by measurably increasing generation of funds through fundraising effort,
or by achieving some other significant described impact.
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