By Emily Brewer

Nonprofit organizations looking for help learning to use computer technology or for discounted software may turn to CompuMentor.

The San Francisco-based organization, which works to link volunteer computer mentors with nonprofits who need technical help, has become Microsoft Corp.'s co-distributor in the company's national software donation program.

For five years, CompuMentor has worked with Microsoft to find charitable users for what is often excess review copies of software such as Windows 98 and FrontPage 98. Approximately 1,000 organizations each year have received Microsoft software through CompuMentor, says program director Phil Ferrante-Roseberry.

"With the increased commitment from Microsoft, I think we could easily get software into the hands of 2,500 organizations in the coming year," he says. "Our task now is to get the word out to nonprofits nationally."

Corporations typically send out review copies of software to media organizations that never use them, Ferrante-Roseberry says. CompuMentor approached Microsoft about earmarking those copies for charities that could use them. Microsoft agreed.

Founded in 1987 by Daniel Ben-Horin, a former journalist and computer consultant, CompuMentor thrives on the tendency of computer experts to share what they know with worthy organizations.

Last year, CompuMentor applied the work of approximately 400 mentors to work with more than 300 nonprofits on projects such as establishing computer literacy sites in low-income neighborhoods and teaching students desktop publishing and online communications skills. CompuMentor has a database of approximately 2,500 mentors from whom they can solicit help when a nonprofit calls asking for assistance.

Mentoring programs dot the state of California, cover the Southwest states, and can be found in many large urban areas around the country, Ferrante-Roseberry says.

But thousands more nonprofits are benefiting from CompuMentor's software distribution program. Besides Microsoft, CompuMentor has a significant relationship with Lotus Corp. and smaller relationships with many other publishers and reviewers. Items available to nonprofits ranges from serious office software to educational software, books and games.

The software programs are for the asking, and there are many more Microsoft programs than askers these days, Ferrante-Roseberry says.

"The nonprofits who do know about the program are wowed by it," he says. "It's the kind of thing that when nonprofits find out about it they are truly amazed."

The cost to nonprofits for access to all of the items is minimal: an annual $15 subscription to the item catalog, and a $7 to $40 fee for shipping each software program.

Microsoft items are not available to K-12 schools, political or religious organizations or nonprofits in Washington state - where Microsoft will continue to handle donations. Microsoft has its own program for schools, described on its Web site.

Each nonprofit is limited to three donated Microsoft products per year and five licenses of each product.

"We've really worked very hard to avoid any and all unnecessary red tape," Ferrante-Roseberry says. He says work is under way to allow nonprofits to order items through the CompuMentor Web site.

CompuMentor also is working on developing a written audit nonprofits may use to determine if they are at risk of facing a Year 2000 computer problem.

A small part of the process will involve running some software on all the computers in the office, but most of the work is cataloging the software that's being run to see if it's Y2K-compliant.

While many computers and software programs are now Y2K-compliant and will pose no problem heading into the new millennium, older ones may be problematic, Ferrante-Roseberry says.

CompuMentor has received funding from the Peninsula Community Foundation to research the problem and to educate nonprofits on how to evaluate themselves - either through a self-audit or a volunteer-assisted audit.

The audit should be ready by January, Ferrante-Roseberry says, and will be available free of charge.

Emily Brewer can be reached at
emilybrewer@mindspring.com