What is the Tech for Good Alliance?
The Scottish Tech Army announced the launch of the Tech for Good Alliance at the second Tech for Good Summit on 28th April 2022. It is a collaborative ecosystem for the leading tech companies in the UK, providing a mobilising framework within which they can engage and collaborate to create social benefit and impact at scale. It oversees a structured programme for the delivery of projects across three focus areas, working with third sector organisations with a proven track record of delivery.
In addition to delivering social benefit, it offers its participating member companies a mechanism for delivery of their ESG goals in a consistent and measurable way that supports engagement of and communication with all their stakeholders. Participants in the Tech for Good Alliance provide support through skilled volunteering, access to their technology, and financial support.
How does it work?
Over 140 million employer-supported volunteering hours go unused every year because scoping, vetting, and managing complex tech projects requires time commercial managers don't have. The Tech for Good Alliance solves this by handling the entire lifecycle of skills-based digital volunteering.
Instead of unskilled, ad-hoc volunteering, the Alliance channels advanced technical, design, and operational skillsets directly into community organisations, delivering structured, turnkey digital interventions.
To achieve the greatest impact, we need companies in the tech and tech-related sectors to commit their resources to support the work of the Tech for Good Alliance. At present, there are around 30,000 people employed in organisations that deliver tech for good outcomes. The tech sector employs around 3 million people in the UK - if each of those companies committed 1% of the time of their people to working on tech for good projects, the capacity of the tech for good sector would be doubled. Doing so within a framework designed to amplify the scale and reach of this activity would more than double the impact that can be created.
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![Fiona Burton, Club Exec at AND Digital]()
Alliance value to companies: Fiona Burton, AND Digital
“The Alliance is better than setting up an in house programme... the macro reason which is through this programme, you can support the ecosystem in Scotland and in the UK. So if we build something it will be used more than once that can benefit more than one organisation which is huge and really significant.”
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![Thomas Gracie, engineer at BJSS Scotland]()
The volunteer's experience: Thomas Gracie, BJSS
"I learned as I stepped into a slightly higher level of position (managerial role), how better to interact with clients directly. As my day-to-day job as an engineer, I don't get much exposure to client-facing interactions."
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![Julie Griffin, CEO of Cultivating Mindfulness]()
Impact delivered to charities: Julie Griffin, Cultivating Mindfulness
“We would have really struggled to deliver and fulfil the increased demand for support, with our previous infrastructure, I think AND Digital's expertise and development of key areas of our digital platform has really helped us to keep up with demand and to work more effectively and more efficiently.”
Supported by The National Lottery Community Fund
The development of the Tech for Good Alliance is supported by a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, made possible by National Lottery players. The award provides for match funding of subscriptions from companies that sign up as participating members of the Tech for Good Alliance. Read more in our blog article.
