Community ServiceHumanitarian AidRefugees
Rita (bottom row, center) with the Microsoft Hack for Humanity team and some of our SCM team members.
Earlier this summer, Rita, the president and CEO of SCM had the opportunity to participate in a hackathon at Microsoft where employees could focus on a philanthropic project. Sponsored by Microsoft Philanthropies, the Hack for Good program encourages Microsoft employees to use their technical and professional skills to help nonprofits adopt technology and help create social good. Initial conversations with a couple of Microsoft employees and long-time SCM supporters helped Rita understand how beneficial the effort could be, and soon after the “Hack for Humanity” team was put together. The team worked with Rita and in the end delivered a package of online tools, marketing recommendations, connected SCM with an internet provider to install internet at some of the refugee camps, and more. You can read more about the Hack for Good project here.
Projects were judged and voted on and the SCM team’s Hack for Humanity was selected for special recognition in the Nonprofit Customer Category for 3rd place! This is a tremendous honor to the team working on behalf of SCM to receive this recognition out of over 3,800 Hackathon projects at Microsoft!
In addition to the recognition, Microsoft Philanthropies is graciously providing additional support to SCM and the project in the form of software, a grant, tech support, and more. This additional support will help the SCM team continue work on the solutions provided by the team, and achieve the impact they envisioned.
SCM wants to thank the Microsoft team for all of their hard work during the Hackathon week. The systems they developed will help SCM to gather critical information from the field during our missions to help the refugees in Greece and Jordan, track progress and outcomes, communicate more effectively, and improve our process for getting our message out to the public to raise awareness. And thank you to Microsoft Philanthropies for the additional grants to implement the programs created by our superstar Hackathon team!
THANK YOU!
Salaam Cultural Museum