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Mobile Citizen Brings Affordable Mobile Broadband to Las Vegas Nonprofits in Successful Technology Assistance Grant Pilot Program

Contact: Michelle Warner
720.864.9056
michelle@mobilecitizen.org
Ronald McDonald House Charities, Nevada Child Seekers, Girl Scouts of Frontier Council and Crown Financial Ministries Among the First to Pilot Service Designed Exclusively for Nonprofits and Schools

LAS VEGAS, NV – April 28, 2010 - Mobile Citizen, a provider of mobile broadband exclusively for nonprofits and schools, today announced results of its first four pilot programs with Las Vegas nonprofits.  These non-profit organizations were selected via a Technology Assistance Grant program offered by Mobile Citizen in the fall of last year.  Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas, Nevada Child Seekers, Girl Scouts of Frontier Council and Crown Financial Ministries were among the dozens of nonprofits awarded this grant based on demonstrated need for mobility when fulfilling their own organizations’ missions, capital budget relief or innovative business use.  

Ronald McDonald House Charities – affordable (and healthy) telecommuting policy

Challenge:Cold and flu season is bad for productivity in any organization, but particularly for the Las Vegas Ronald McDonald House where sick staff could put the House’s children at risk.
Result:CLEAR™ from Mobile Citizen now allows Ronald McDonald House staff to stay home and work seamlessly by taking basic office applications such as email, fundraising CRM tools and more on the road.  Additionally, families in the House have the benefit of mobile broadband access while staying at the house or visiting family members in the hospital.
Nevada Child Seekers – productivity tool for volunteer outreach
Challenge: An emergency volunteer search force is activated by law enforcement when a child has gone missing.
Result:CLEAR from Mobile Citizen gives volunteers who perform ground searches and do ‘knock and talks’ around the neighborhood where a person has disappeared the tool to immediately upload photos and information critical to a search.
Girl Scouts of Frontier Council – platform for online programs
Challenge:Reaching young girls is becoming more mobile, and more online.
Result: CLEAR from Mobile Citizen gives Girl Scout’s marketing staff a platform for immediate access to online programs, providing valuable community outreach and enabling immediate awareness and results.
Crown Financial Ministries – enabling video and other web-based training tools
Challenge:Platform powerful enough to handle high bandwidth training tools mobile.
Result:CLEAR from Mobile Citizen enables Crown Financial Ministries’ leaders to access online training tools, particularly video-based materials

Mobile Citizen’s Technology Assistance Grant program provides CLEAR service from Mobile Citizen, with unlimited usage for only $10/month or $120/year per account.  It bundles Mobile Citizen’s wireless broadband, powered by WiMAX, a fourth generation (4G) technology from Clearwire Corporation with a variety of benefits including:

  • 12 months of service from Mobile Citizen extended to 15 months at no additional charge.  With this, nonprofits receive three free months of service per account.
  • Dedicated Mobile Citizen Customer Care customized for non-profit organizations.
  • A free one-year membership to NTEN, a nonprofit technology network, ongoing information and news as well as access to a support community.

“Demand for affordable broadband has been great, but the creative and productive ways nonprofits are using our service has been even more impressive.  CLEAR from Mobile Citizen is particularly useful to nonprofits with mobile or field-based staff or volunteers such as healthcare agencies, social service providers, fundraising staff and community outreach organizations that need anytime/anywhere, high-speed, secure access to the Internet,” says Michelle Warner, Mobile Citizen’s Director of Mobile Broadband Services.  “These initial examples only scratch the surface on ways that Las Vegas nonprofits can and should use technology to help them fulfill their very important missions more productively and affordably.”

Las Vegas nonprofits interested in applying for a Mobile Citizen Technology Assistance Grant can go to www.mobilecitizen.org/grantlasvegas.  This grant program is also available in Chicago, Philadelphia and Portland.  Potential future markets include Denver, Kansas City and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

About Mobile Citizen
Mobile Citizen is the first fourth generation (4G) service provider in the U.S. to offer mobile broadband service exclusively to education and non-profit organizations at remarkably low cost.  By bringing the most advanced, reliable and secure mobile broadband service to schools and nonprofits, Mobile Citizen is making a difference in how people learn and work. Mobile Citizen was originally established by five non-profit organizations that got their start transmitting educational video to schools in the mid-1980s. These five organizations began providing educational video services to schools in 11 metropolitan areas across the U.S. by utilizing Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum frequencies regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Their licensed spectrum is now also used for wireless broadband.  For more information, visit www.mobilecitizen.org.



 

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