Asian American Federation

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
Asian American Federation
City & State:
New York, 
New York
Organization Website:
http://www.aafederation.org/
Organization's Mission Statement

The Asian American Federation's mission is to advance the civic voice and well-being of Asian Americans. We collaboratively foster philanthropy in the community, undertake research to inform policies, and provide support to community service organizations.

Submission Information

Impact Essay

With three main areas of focus- philanthropy, research, and supporting its 40+ member agencies, the Asian American Federation’s work constantly reflects its commitment to working towards achieving the mission of advancing the civic voice and well-being of Asian Americans. Due to the scale of its work and the number of organizations the Federation serves, there is often limited staff capacity for the work at hand. Fortunately, with the combined efforts of staff members and the efficiency of the Microsoft programs we have been successful in getting the message out, reaching a captive audience, and continuing to work towards our goal. In a day and age where technology and social networking programs seem to be evolving and developing at the speed of light, and often times, organizations such as ours have a hard time keeping up; Microsoft technologies have kept us up-to-date and have enabled the Federation to stay on par with its constituents. The use of Microsoft technologies can first be seen in the daily functioning of the Federation-

• Microsoft Exchange 2003 (Email server)

• ISA Server 2006 (firewall)

• Office 2007

• Projects 2003

• IIS (Host’s webserver)

• NTBackup

• SQL Server (A SQL Database used by our fundraising and donor management software)

In addition to supporting our day-in and day-out functions, the value of the various Microsoft programs and functions are reinforced in our published research projects and promotional material for our fundraising events. Two of the most recent examples that due to Microsoft software, the Federation has been able to quantify and qualify its impact are: 1) in-depth study, Working but Poor: Asian American Poverty in New York City and 2) a brochure for the Inaugural Asian American Golf Classic.

1) The Federation’s study, Working but Poor: Asian American Poverty in New York City, published in October 2008 became much abuzz in the community. It was the basis of a special 11-minute news report, aired on February 22, 2009 and eventually led to an unprecedented meeting with the Governor’s office regarding poverty in the Asian American community in NYC in April, 2009.

The 45 page report Working but Poor, was able to reach a wide audience and gain the attention that it needed not only because of its value in the community, but because of the way in which the information and statistics were displayed. As reports like these are often for select audiences- researchers, government officials, and policy makers, the information tends to be raw and hard to consume for the layperson. However, by using Microsoft Excel for the tables and graphs, the report came to life, was visually appealing, and most importantly, easy to understand. It enabled the message to reach a broader audience, jump start an important discussion, and therefore hopefully in the near future, start a campaign to help relieve the working poor in NYC.

2) The Federation’s next fundraiser is a charity golf event on June 22, 2009. The event is a collaborative effort of the Federation and two other community organizations. Therefore, all promotional items and marketing material, such as, brochures and flyers needed to be uniform, but at the same time, customizable and accessible by each organization. The following is one example of how the use of Microsoft programs and technologies benefitted the three organizations. Using Microsoft Publisher, the Federation was able to create a tri-fold brochure for prospective golfers, supporters, and donors. The easy to use program not only allowed us to create an informative and attractive piece, but enabled a uniform piece of marketing material that all three agencies could use effectively and appropriately. Publisher’s tools such as, templates, color schemes, connecting text boxes for text overflow, line spacing, grouping/ungrouping, and finally Design Checker were all instrumental in the production of the marketing material and for the future success of the fundraising event.

These are just two examples of how the Asian American Federation utilizes Microsoft software to maximize its potential and work effectively in achieving its mission. Our work here and at every other organization is never easy. However, with dependable, accessible, and universal software that Microsoft develops and that TechSoup enables use of, we are able to focus more on the quality of our work, and getting the message out, rather than being limited by technical challenges, such as, compatibility issues or technological unsavviness.

Submission Category
Optimize Mission Delivery