Press Releases
Free Spam-Blocking Software
Available to Nonprofits on December 15
Donation Concludes Weeks of "Stop Spam Today" Educational
Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, December 13, 2004 - On
December 15, 2004, nonprofit organizations will receive
a holiday gift as part of a national "Stop Spam Today" Campaign.
For one day only, any U.S.-based nonprofit organization
or Canadian charitable organization can visit www.stopspamtoday.org
to order a free, full-year donation of Mailshell's anti-spam
desktop software for each of its employees.
The program is organized by TechSoup.org (www.techsoup.org),
the technology website for nonprofits, and Mailshell Inc.
(www.mailshell.com), the leading developer of OEM anti-spam
software. Mailshell donated more than 75,000 licenses through
last year's "Stop Spam Today" event. This December 15 will
also mark the conclusion of the second "Stop Spam Today"
Campaign, a nationwide effort to help nonprofits fight spam
by providing free, essential technical information, resources
and tools.
TechSoup's "Nonprofits and Spam" survey,
which was conducted during this year's educational campaign,
indicated that spam is a serious concern to nonprofits,
affecting staff productivity as well as morale. Participants
estimated that employees spend an average of 4 hours a month
dealing with spam. In addition to time wasted, over 60%
of nonprofits reported that spam impaired essential communication
with constituencies and over 75% of respondents indicated
that offensive emails have distressed staff.
Rebecca Masisak, general manager of TechSoup
Stock, TechSoup.org's product philanthropy service, said,
"We all know how short-staffed and under pressure nonprofits
are, especially around the holidays. Time spent dealing
with spam adds to this burden. But, according to our survey,
47% of nonprofits don't have spam-filtering software in
place because they lack both the funds and the expertise
to acquire and maintain this software. We hope that our
'Stop Spam Today' campaign, and especially Mailshell's generous
donation, will be a big step forward in the nonprofits'
fight against spam. Last year, our giveaway helped nonprofits
to protect more than 75,000 inboxes.
The second annual "Stop Spam Today" campaign
builds on last year's successful "Stop Spam Today" event,
which combined a software giveaway with an educational event
in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the 2003 event, 75,000
software licenses were distributed to nonprofits nationwide,
demonstrating the great need for affordable spam-fighting
tools and information in the community. For the 2004 campaign,
TechSoup.org implemented an educational component of the
campaign that made relevant content available to nonprofits
nationwide. The campaign also included a "Nonprofits and
Spam" survey to better understand the specific challenges
spam poses to the sector. Full results of the survey will
be posted on TechSoup.org at the end of December. After
the campaign, the spam-relevant content on TechSoup will
remain accessible to the nonprofit community.
For more details on this year's "Stop Spam
Today!" Campaign and the December 15th donation, including
eligibility and pre-registration, please visit www.stopspamtoday.org.
About TechSoup: TechSoup.org (www.techsoup.org)
is the technology Web site for nonprofits created by CompuMentor
(www.compumentor.org). Each month, TechSoup.org receives
almost 200,000 visits from people who are looking for nonprofit
tech know-how to achieve their missions.
TechSoup.org features more than 380 how-to
articles on 16 technology topics, 15 community discussion
forums, a technology news section, and the TechFinder service
provider directory. Nonprofits also have access to TechSoup.org's
technology product philanthropy service, TechSoup Stock
(formerly DiscounTech). TechSoup Stock provides access to
donated and discounted technology products from over 25
leading providers such as Cisco, Intuit and Microsoft for
a small administrative fee. Since its inception in January
2002, the service has distributed more than 866,000 products
to 27,000 nonprofit organizations and freed up over $245
million for other uses.
TechSoup.org's weekly e-newsletter, TechSoup...By
the Cup (http://www.techsoup.org/tools/newsletters.cfm),
is distributed to more than 45,000 subscribers.
About Mailshell Inc.: Mailshell is
the OEM anti-spam leader and the first and only anti-spam
engine in the world with SpamCompiler Technology. More than
4,000 companies and 10 million consumers worldwide rely
on the Mailshell Anti-Spam Engine to block spam. For more
information, visit http://www.mailshell.com.
# # #
Contact:
Franziska Marks, TechSoup, (415) 633-9336, fmarks@compumentor.org
Stefan Pollack, The Pollack PR Marketing Group, (310)
556-4443, spollack@ppmgcorp.com
