NPTech Initiative launched – promoting IT use among Japanese NPOs SpecialNews
Posted on September 13, 2023
On September 5, JNPOC held a press briefing on the “NPTech Initiative” a project launched in 2023 to promote the use of digital technology by nonprofits.
In 2019, in collaboration with NTT DATA, a leading Japanese IT services company, JNPOC started a project to nurture Social Technology Officers (STOs) who can support the use of IT technologies by nonprofit organizations. In 2022, Dell Technologies also joined.
In 2023, in addition to these two corporations, Intel and TIS, a leading system integrator in Japan, joined the endeavor, which was renamed and launched as NPTech Initiative, to provide IT trainings to more nonprofits directly and to contribute solving Japan’s social issues by promoting the use of IT by nonprofits.
Kenji Yoshida
Kenji Yoshida, Managing Director of JNPOC, commented on the significance of the NPTech Initiative.
“I am convinced that the NPTech Initiative, a collaboration amongst four leading IT companies and JNPOC, is a new approach to foster solutions to social issues by nonprofits and will lead to the development of the nonprofit sector as a whole.”
The Initiative plans to offer a total of four seminars on the basics this year with lectures from the four participating companies, the first of which was held on September 5, with introductory IT literacy courses by NTT Data Group and Intel. Dell Technologies will be in charge of the second seminar to be held in October. It will focus on the preservation and protection of digital data.
“While more STO personnel have become available, we have learned many organizations, which welcome them so that they can benefit from their skills, still tend to lack adequate IT knowledge, infrastructure, and the know-how to take advantage of the technologies”.
Reflecting on the activities from 2019, Eiji Ueda, JNPOC’s Deputy Managing Director, explained the challenges nonprofits face, as a background to hosting the seminars on basics.
Eiji Ueda explaining Japanese NPOs’ challenges on IT usage to the media
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