Mobile broadband for education and nonprofits.

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Mobile Citizen Brings Affordable Mobile Broadband to Portland/Salem Nonprofits in Successful Technology Assistance Grant Pilot Program

Contact: Michelle Warner
720.864.9056
michelle@mobilecitizen.org
Special Olympics Oregon, Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, On-the-Move Community Integration, JOIN and GEM Children's Foundation Among the First to Pilot Service Designed Exclusively for Nonprofits and Schools

PORTLAND, OR – April 28, 2010 - Mobile Citizen, a provider of mobile broadband exclusively for nonprofits and schools, today announced results of its first five pilot programs with Portland/Salem nonprofits.  These non-profit organizations were selected via a Technology Assistance Grant program offered by Mobile Citizen in the fall of last year.  Special Olympics Oregon, Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, On-the-Move Community Integration, JOIN and GEM Children’s Foundation 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.  

Special Olympics Oregon – results-oriented community outreach

Challenge: End the use of the word ‘retard’ through Special Olympics Oregon Polar Plunge events and an outreach program focused on high school students.
Result: CLEAR™ from Mobile Citizen’s mobile Internet access allows high school students to register online, immediately making the pledge to not use the R-word and earn the right to plunge into the river to raise money for Special Olympics Oregon athletes.
Oregon Health & Science University Foundation – high efficiency fundraising
Challenge: Raise support than enables OHSU to improve the health and quality of life for all Oregonians.
Result: CLEAR from Mobile Citizen allows the foundation’s development officers to take Raiser’s Edge, their contact management application, with them on the road.  Donor history is instantly accessible, gifts are noted immediately, data entry happens only once and errors caused by double-entry are avoided.
On-the-Move Community Integration – basic business functionality
Challenge:Basic Internet access on a limited non-profit budget.
Result: Use CLEAR from Mobile Citizen’s affordable mobile broadband to access their basic business applications – email, Internet research and accessing valuable community resources – at the office, during business hours, not in their guest bedroom/office at home before or after work.
JOIN –productivity tool for staff outreach
Challenge: Bringing valuable Internet-based resources to the 645+ homeless people or 245 transitional households JOIN serves.
Result: CLEAR from Mobile Citizen allows JOIN to better assist these individuals in their transition off the streets by giving them access to information they wouldn’t otherwise have:  job sites, online applications, access to bus routes for interview scheduling, listings and maps to nearby post offices, grocery stories or a menu of other important services. 
GEM Children’s Foundation – capital budget relief
Challenge:Connect parents of children with disabilities to services that are available in the community. 
Result:CLEAR from Mobile Citizen helps the Foundation offer Internet access to endless online resources providing information and training for parents to help them understand the complex care their children require without exhausting its own capital budget. 
Mobile Citizen’s Technology Assistance Grant program includes significantly reduced-price CLEAR service from Mobile Citizen, with unlimited usage for only $10/month or $120/year per account.  It bundled 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 Portland/Salem nonprofits can and should use technology to help them fulfill their very important missions more productively and affordably.”

Portland/ Salem nonprofits interested in applying for a Mobile Citizen Technology Assistance Grant can go to www.mobilecitizen.org/grantoregon.  This grant program is also available in Chicago, Las Vegas and Philadelphia.  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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