About us

Connecting Up Australia is an Australian nonprofit organisation.

Our organisation began in 1981 as Community Information Strategies Australia Inc (CISA). Since then we have grown to provide a national development  role for the nonprofit sector in Australia, focused on community information  provision and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) capacity building.

We believe that people need continuous access to appropriate and accurate information, and to the technologies that support them, in order to make informed decisions and to participate fully in society.

In South Australia we provide essential community services and events information  through the print Directory of Community Services and through  www.sacommunity.info, incorporating a comprehensive online services directory,  Infosearch, and the events listing service, Eventspool. We receive an operating  grant from the SA State Government, via Arts SA, to support these SA community  information services.

Nationally, Connecting Up Australia has become the strongest voice for the  nonprofit sector on information and technology issues, commencing with the  Connecting Up conferences, first held in 2004 and now the premier ICT  conference for the not-for-profit sector.

We have progressively built international links that have resulted in Connecting Up Australia becoming the Australian and New  Zealand partner in the TechSoup Global (TSG) network for technology  donations, which we operate here as DonorTec. Beginning in 2007, this valuable  service has channeled millions of dollars worth of donated technology from  companies such as Microsoft and Cisco to thousands of eligible Australian  nonprofits.

In 2006 Connecting Up Australia undertook the National Nonprofit ICT Coalition  (NNIC) project, a national community sector consultation to gauge the need for ICT  capacity building and make recommendations regarding the way forward including  infrastructure development such as broadband, skills development and resources.  We have since repeated the survey undertaken for that project and, in partnership  with Digital Business Insights, we have developed the ongoing nonprofit technology benchmarking service, Are We There Yet?

Connecting Up Australia is committed to enhancing the operating capacity of the Australian nonprofit sector, though building effective linkages with the sector, the business community and governments. We ‘help the helpers’ become better at serving their communities of need and interest.

Technorati Tags: About Us