Major Technology Grant to Australian Red Cross
21 March 2012 at 10:40 am
The Australian Red Cross has been awarded a $10 million technology grant from Microsoft Australia.
Described as Microsoft Australia’s “largest ever single technology grant”, the Red Cross says the grant will modernise its IT infrastructure and help it to increase and improve its support to vulnerable people at home and around the world.
Red Cross says that over the longer term, the grant will help deliver more effective services to vulnerable people and communities through better engagement with supporters, improved delivery of services, expansion of services in areas of locational disadvantage and by faster mobilisation of volunteers in time of emergencies and disasters.
Red Cross Chief Executive, Robert Tickner, said that the grant will enable Red Cross to significantly update its technology programs which will “increase our ability to do what we do best and help more people”.
“Our focus is delivering humanitarian programs, not just in times of disaster, but every day to support those who are most vulnerable,” Tickner said.
“In the past, our investment in technology infrastructure has been set at minimal levels to keep our humanitarian programs running, which means that we have lagged behind the rest of world.”
Red Cross says it is recognising Microsoft’s “extraordinary support” by assigning it the status of a National Humanity Partner, which it says is the highest and most esteemed level of corporate partnership with Red Cross in Australia.
Managing Director of Microsoft Australia, Pip Marlow, said: “Red Cross has a special place in our community as one of the core institutions that Australians can turn to in times of need”.
“In providing this grant, we asked ourselves one key question: ‘Imagine what Red Cross could achieve if it had the best technology available?’
“We set our sights not just on helping to modernise Red Cross’s IT systems but rather thinking about how we could enable this great institution to significantly enhance the services they provide to vulnerable Australians,” Marlow said.
Red Cross says that the grant is part of an ongoing relationship with Microsoft that began through Microsoft’s Workplace Giving Program.
Given the size and scale of the project, Red Cross says that the rollout of the software will take place during 2012 – 2013.
