Press Releases
Free Spam Blocking Software
Available to All Nonprofits Nationwide on 'Spam Prevention
Day'
December 12 Donation Coincides with Free Educational
Workshop for Bay Area Nonprofits
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - December 3, 2003 - On December
12, nonprofit organizations will receive a holiday gift
as part of national Spam Prevention Day. For one day,
any U.S.-based nonprofit organization can visit www.stopspamtoday.org
to receive a free, full year donation of anti-spam software
for each of its employees. The program is organized
by TechSoup, the technology website for nonprofits and
service of Bay Area nonprofit CompuMentor, and Mailshell
Inc., the leading developer of anti-spam software. Mailshell
has already donated more than $1 million of anti-spam
software this year.
Experts indicate that more than half of
all email is spam and the problem is expected to grow
during the holiday season when spammers deluge the Internet
with holiday-related offers. The danger of spam is now
greater than ever, as the messages often contain harmful
viruses in addition to offensive or fraudulent offers.
December 12 will also mark the first 'Spam
Prevention Day', a free educational workshop and training
designed to help nonprofits better understand the causes
of spam, and learn how to limit its negative impact.
The December 12 event will take place at San Francisco's
Heald College and will host up to 50 local nonprofit
organizations. Each workshop participant will not only
receive complimentary anti-spam software from Mailshell,
but also training from experts and hands-on help from
a technical volunteer. Local nonprofits can register
for the free event at http://www.compumentor.org/events/spday/default.html.
Nonprofits not located in the Bay Area can visit www.stopspamtoday.org
for their free donation of Mailshell's anti-spam software.
"Many nonprofit organizations spend the
whole year helping others but often don't have the resources
to buy cutting-edge software to help themselves,"
said Tonny Yu, president of Mailshell, developer of
Mailshell Anti-Spam software and co-sponsor of the program.
"Non-profits are deluged with spam like the rest
of us. This donation is a timely way for us to give
something back to nonprofits, particularly during this
holiday season."
"This program combines our two primary
goals of providing education and product donations to
nonprofits in one event," said Rebecca Masisak,
Director and General Manager of DiscounTech, TechSoup's
product donation program. "Nonprofits' demand for
anti-spam software has been huge this year and we hope
that many will take advantage of Spam Prevention Day."
Spam Prevention Day is developed and produced
by CompuMentor's Mentor Matching program, which connects
nonprofits with tech-savvy volunteers. Now in its 17th
year, Mentor Matching is CompuMentor's first and longest-running
program. It is one of nine technology-consulting services
offered by CompuMentor. CompuMentor is also the home
of TechSoup, the technology resource website for nonprofits
featuring how-to articles, community discussions, resource
listings, and the popular product donation service,
DiscounTech.
About TechSoup: TechSoup.org (www.techsoup.org),
the nonprofit technology website created by CompuMentor
(www.compumentor.org), empowers nonprofits to succeed
in the Digital Age by providing timely and targeted
technology information and resources. TechSoup provides
other nonprofits with the tech know-how they need to
more efficiently and effectively achieve their missions.
TechSoup partners with a wide range of nonprofit and
technology organizations such as CNET, NPower and Philanthropy
Journal to provide content. TechSoup's weekly e-newsletter,
TechSoupBy the Cup, is distributed to more than 34,000
subscribers. Through its product philanthropy service,
TechSoup also offers access to affordable technology
products and services just for nonprofits. Through this
program, nonprofits can receive donated and discounted
software and other technology products from leading
technology vendors - such as Microsoft, Cisco and Intuit
- for a small administrative fee. Since its inception
in January 2002, the service has distributed more than
375,000 products to more than 17,000 nonprofit organizations,
saving the sector more than $111 million.
About Mailshell Inc.: Mailshell
is the OEM anti-spam leader. The company's products
include anti-spam software developer tools and a suite
of enterprise and personal anti-spam products. The Mailshell
Engine is the only anti-spam solution developed explicitly
to integrate spam-blocking technology with common IT
components, including security appliances, mail servers,
mail clients, anti-virus applications and many others.
Mailshell's software recently earned an "Editors' Choice"
award in PC Magazine's review of spam filters, and has
been dubbed "priceless" by Forbes magazine, "excellent"
by the Associated Press and "easy to use" by CNET. Mailshell
technology outperformed all other commercial anti-spam
solutions including iHateSpam, Symantec™ and McAfee®
in a recent study from the leading consumer reporting
magazine. For more information visit http://www.mailshell.com
# # #
Contact:
Stefan Pollack, The Pollack PR Marketing Group,
(310) 556-4443, spollack@ppmgcorp.com
