Tech for Good ecosystem impact
JPMorgan Chase, which has a significant technology presence here in Scotland, recently shared a fascinating report on its global Tech for Social Good programme, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Some of the figures quoted are extraordinarily impressive – more than 400,000 hours of volunteer hours from their employees over the last ten years delivering more than 1,300 projects and the result is that more than one million lives are impacted annually by the work the programme does. This is an amazing achievement over a sustained period and a cause for both congratulation and celebration. We are very proud to have Felicity Goodman, VP for Force for Good in EMEA for JP Morgan as one of our Tech for Good Ecosystem Ambassadors and were delighted to have Ilaria Albanese as a panellist in one of the sessions at our inaugural Tech for Good Summit in April 2021.
From our perspective, one of the interesting things to note about JPMorgan Chase’s Tech for Social Good programme is that, despite being active in the space for a year, we hadn’t heard about it until a few weeks before our Tech for Good Summit and this resonated strongly for us as we seek to help expand and develop the Tech for Good ecosystem in Scotland. One of our challenges over the coming year is to bring into focus and connect all the tech for good activity that goes on in Scotland – there’s a lot more than you might imagine but because it’s not visible we believe there is duplication of effort and that collectively we are not achieving the impact that we could if these initiatives were better co-ordinated and publicised. It would be great to find the common threads and collaborate on solutions so that we can amplify the impact of all this skill and generosity.
The University of Glasgow has been assessing the impact the work of the STA has had over the last fourteen months and we look forward to sharing their findings with you in the coming weeks. The stats are impressive and we’re hugely grateful to all our volunteers for delivering immediate tangible benefits to people who have turned to the third sector in such challenging times.
Programmes like JPMorgan Chase’s Tech for Social Good and the work of organisations like Code for America are great inspirations both for us and for the wider tech industry in Scotland. Of course, not every organisation has resources on the same scale as these, but our vision is to encourage the top 100 tech organisations in Scotland to implement programmes of proportionate scale to these examples – can you imagine the impact we could have?
We’ve already started to make progress here on several fronts. We are working closely with NatWest Group as we develop our tech for good programmes by reaching into the corporate world for their expertise and experience. We’ll be spotlighting the work they are doing next month.
In an ideal world our organisation and others like us wouldn’t be needed, but the truth is we - and you – are needed, now more than ever. Please keep your projects and ideas coming. Every submission is taken seriously and the more we see the easier it is to identify the common threads, giving us the chance to work with our volunteers to develop scalable, sustainable solutions.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash