Supporting communities

Charity Partnership

Apply here

esynergy is a technology consultancy that accelerates business value for its clients. Working with enterprises and scale-ups in highly regulated industries, we build scalable platforms, products, and services.

esynergy is seeking to partner with selected charities to improve their IT systems & technology adoption over the next year. The application window opens in June and support will be given between October 2023 and June 2024.

esynergy will not provide funding support under this scheme.

Instead, esynergy’s staff will give their time and expertise on a pro bono basis for up to 12 months.

Applications open on the 1st of June. 9:00 am

Example questions download link

This will include support for selected charity partners to access low or no cost software,

e.g. Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Office 365, as well as systems we are familiar with like Salesforce.

Depending on the nature of your charity, it may also include non-specialist London based volunteering by our team with your charity – i.e. undertaking practical activities delivered by the charity. You do not need to offer this in order to access our expert pro bono support package.

We are looking to partner with a handful of small, established charities whose work takes place in the UK and is not about campaigning, religion or helping animals.

Apply here

Timings

The application window will be open from the 1st June. Assessment will be ongoing
from 1st June, and the window will close when we reach our quota of partners.

Month 1

Selected charity partners will be notified

Month 2

Induction – partners will receive an email outlining next steps and what to expect

Month 3 - 4

Partners will be matched to the esynergy expert who will arrange a time to undertake an assessment of requirements and agree an action plan

Month 5 - 12

pro bono support will be given to fulfil the agreed action plan

Helping you prepare

The opportunity will be open on 1st June 2023. In the meantime, please click here to download the questions you will be asked to help you prepare.

Please contact Jeanna.Weedon@esynergy.co.uk if you have any questions.

Example questions Apply here

Will you help me develop my website?

No, we cannot offer help to develop your website.

Can you give us funding under this scheme?

No, under this scheme, esynergy’s staff will give their time and expertise on a pro bono basis for up to 12 months. This will include support for charity partners to access low or no cost software, e.g. Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Office 365, as well as system we are familiar with like Salesforce.

How long will the support last for and will there be any ongoing cost afterwards?

Our support will last for 12 months from the star of the enrolment, after which any costs for e.g. Microsoft licenses will have to be picked up by the charity.

Case Study - from the charity partner perspective

Separated Child Foundation

Richard Hammond
Chief Executive

We were introduced to the team at esynergy in spring 2021 and were immediately impressed by their energy and enthusiasm for supporting our work in a multitude of ways.

As a small team of just three staff members at that time, we were invited to access pro bono support from the entire esynergy network to help us grow the organisation

Apply here

IT system

Within the first month of working together, esynergy led the migration of our IT system, revolutionising the way our staff members, key Trustees and senior volunteers store information and communicate.

Set up and onboarding

This support was ongoing with ad hoc troubleshooting, and onboarding for any new staff members through the set-up of email addresses and laptops. The IT expertise generously donated by esynergy’s people is integral to our team’s productivity and sense of cohesion.

Results

esynergy’s extraordinary generosity has made a huge difference to our team and the way we work, but more importantly, it has already made and continues to make a really significant difference to some of the most vulnerable children in the UK today.

Outcome

This is a true partnership between a corporate and a charity, and we look forward to having esynergy on our team as we grow the organisation even further and deliver our essential services for separated children over the years ahead.

Apply here

Case Study - from the our perspective

esynergy

Steve Coviello
esynergy

The Separated Child Foundation team were originally found to be working on home versions of Microsoft office, with basic collaboration being carried out through ad hoc dropbox use. Documents were generally stored locally on the individual laptops.

IT system

After examining the way that they were working it was suggested that I assisted them in an approach to Microsoft’s Not for Profit division where they were accepted as a charity. This enabled them to get ten Microsoft 365 business premium licences for the main staff, and up to 50 more Microsoft 365 Business basic licences for volunteers and other associated staff.

Set up

A Microsoft tenancy was set up and Azure AD was provisioned for the staff. Microsoft 365 business premium was installed on all existing laptops, which were also upgraded to the latest OS. Exchange online was provisioned for email and calendaring efficiency, and SharePoint was provisioned for document collaboration and storage.

Communications

Teams was installed on all devices and provisioned for internal and external communication within the charity.

Ongoing support

Ongoing support was offered for onboarding and offboarding of staff and for further fine tuning of the document handling, and ongoing training has been offered and taken up so that day to day IT work can be handled directly by the Separated Child Foundation team.

Click for more info

Separated Child Foundation
esynergy

Meet the team

Our people are our greatest asset and we’re always looking for charities to work with.

Patrick Crompton
MD

I have been involved in the charity sector for many years, volunteering my time and raising funds for Chance UK, The Big Egg hunt, Separated Child amongst others.

I feel the impact of using our business as a whole for the greater good rather than as individuals is the next stage for our work.

As such I want to create a community of tech experts than can volunteer their time on a pro bono basis to support the charities sectors with the tech challenges.

We have already seen this work with great affect with Separated child and plan to repeat this with a number of other charities in 2023.

Steve Coviello
Consultant

I have been working in the IT industry in various roles for over 30 years. I have set up and supported several charities over the years, including Crisis Fareshare, Separated Child, Lifeline4Kids.

With all of my clients, charitable or otherwise, after discussing the basic requirements, I tend to set up and maintain the total IT infrastructure. I am able to supply, provision and maintain the hardware and software needed to keep an organisation running with minimal downtime over extended periods, whether that entails working in an office, working remotely or some form of hybrid working

Jen Weedon
Assistant to the MD

I have worked for esynergy for 4 years. In that time I have worked closely with Separated Child organising volunteer days and charity events in the office. I am part of the internal sustainability team looking into how else we can support other businesses.

Sean Clark
IT

I specialise in Information Technology working with small-mid sized businesses as well as non-profit organisations. I manage a wide range of software products as well as set-up, maintenance and support of hardware. I have supported Separated Child with the complete Set-up of new starters which consists of Setting up Users, Assigning Permissions and Setting up hardware.