Tumwater Historical Association

Organization Name
Tumwater Historical Association
Mission Statement

The Tumwater Historical Association is organized for educational and cultural purposes relating to the history of the Tumwater area, its life and people.

City & State
Tumwater, 
Washington
Question 1
The Before: What was the challenge, issue or problem your organization was facing? Or, what was the opportunity you were not able to take advantage of before you put a technology solution in place?

Answer: Our small historical organization had no centrally accessible, dedicated "business" computer. Our records and publications were scattered between several members' home computers. We lacked the appropriate hardware, but we also lacked the software necessary to create professional, informative presentations to the public, including potential members and supporters. We acquired the necessary hardware through another grant, but used TechSoup and Microsoft software products to achieve our goals.

Question 2
What Microsoft software have you used/are you using in your organization to more effectively engage your beneficiaries, donors and/or volunteers and/or to make a difference in your community?

Answer: Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 (Includes any of the following: Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, OneNote, Outlook, and Word)
Other: Quicken Home and Business 2007

Question 3
The After: How have these Microsoft products allowed you to engage your stakeholders more efficiently or effectively to make a difference in your community?

Answer: PowerPoint has been invaluable in allowing us to create slide shows that are informative, educational, and entertaining, so we can bring our heritage message to diverse groups (school children and adults). Access has allowed us to track members and potential members, contact information, donation history, etc., so that we can more effectively manage our membership and donors. Publisher allows us to create professional posters, flyers, and other marketing/ask pieces. All of these products give us the ability to more effectively take our heritage message and mission statement to the public. As a small non-profit organization, we have a small budget, so it's very important to us to manage our time and processes efficiently--Microsoft products make that possible.

Question 4
What about these products (the features or the way you used them) made them particularly helpful in enabling your organization to expand and improve upon its community impact?

Answer: PowerPoint has been especially helpful in allowing us to take our message to the public. PowerPoint is easy to use, is intuitive to learn, allows for a lot of creativity, and produces a high-quality, professional end product. The better our presentations look, the more impact our presentations have on today's very tech-savvy audiences. We may be promoting our pioneer history, but we need to use 21st-century methods to do it! We have used PowerPoint to create several history-oriented slide programs that have been presented to diverse groups.

Question 5
Please provide any examples, stories or data that illustrate the difference the use of Microsoft software has enabled you to make (i.e., # of new clients reached, new program added, increased dollars raised, increased volunteers, etc.

Answer: In 2007 and 2008, we produced two successful events: running a real stagecoach, pulled by horses or mules, and carrying passengers and mail, between Olympia and Longview. Hundreds of still photos were taken of these two events, and with PowerPoint, we have been able to use these still photos to produce slide presentations about the stagecoach runs in particular, and our organization's accomplishments in general---bringing to the public our message about the importance of celebrating our heritage.

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