Supporting our nonprofit customers through change and transformation

Nonprofits are addressing humanity’s greatest and most persistent challenges. As new health, environmental, political, and humanitarian crises emerge, the landscape in which nonprofits operate is always changing. This rapidly changing environment also means nonprofits themselves need to continuously adapt and transform to meet the needs of their communities, beneficiaries, and stakeholders.

A recent survey administered by the Federal Reserve System found that, due to the pandemic, more than 75 percent of nonprofits saw increased demand for their services. But expenses increased for nearly three-quarters of respondents, and individual donations and corporate donations were both down for nearly half of respondents – among other challenges.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we know these are challenging times and we remain committed to supporting nonprofits. I recently joined AWS to lead the AWS Nonprofit team focused on helping organizations remain agile, responsive, and effective in improving mission impact through access to cloud technology. The AWS Nonprofits team and the AWS Partner community are ready to assist your organization, whether you are navigating and responding to a crisis or focused on modernizing your organization for what may come next.

As I step into my new role, I want to make sure the nonprofit community is aware of the scope of AWS resources that you can leverage to support your mission, including grants and credits, open data access, cloud training, educational events, and more. The following is a sampling of programs designed to enable organizations of all sizes to overcome barriers to technology adoption, while enhancing the scale, performance, and capabilities of mission operations.

AWS grants and credits for nonprofits

• AWS Imagine Grant: The AWS Imagine Grant Program is a public grant opportunity, offering up to $150,000.00 USD in unrestricted cash funding. It is open to registered 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the U.S. that are using technology to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
• AWS Nonprofit Credit Program: The AWS Credit Program provides access to $1,000 in AWS Promotional Credits annually, enabling nonprofits around the world to experiment and implement cloud-based solutions to meet their organizational and mission goals.
• Amazon Research Awards: The Amazon Research Awards (ARA) program collaborates with scientists to fund research, share knowledge, and encourage innovation. ARA offers unrestricted cash funds and AWS Promotional Credit to support research at nonprofits in areas that advance groundbreaking science.
• Health equity program: AWS has committed $40 million in credits and technical expertise to help organizations develop solutions to improve health outcomes. This program is open to all organizations around the world that want to leverage AWS to meet any of the following needs: 1) increasing access to health services for underserved communities; 2) addressing social determinants of health; and 3) leveraging data to promote more equitable and inclusive systems of care.
• AWS Cloud Credit for Research: The AWS Cloud Credit for Research program provides research institutions, as well as individual researchers, AWS Promotional credits to build science-as-a service applications, to launch proof-of-concepts, and to perform benchmark testing to evaluate efficacy. The program also offers workshops and tutorials to train the broader research community on the use of cloud for research workloads.
• AWS Migration Acceleration Program: The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) helps organizations accelerate their cloud migration and modernization journey with an outcome-driven methodology. Through MAP, you can build strong AWS Cloud foundations, accelerate and reduce risk, and offset the initial cost of migrations through AWS Promotional credits, technical guidance, proven frameworks, and tailored training.

Data access and strategy for nonprofits

• AWS Data Driven Everything Program: The AWS Data Driven Everything (D2E) program helps organizations pursuing data-driven transformations define success and create data-driven cultures. AWS works with organizations to address people, process, and technology-related considerations, inclusive of security and compliance needs, to enable you to move faster and with greater precision in service of your goals.
• Open Data on AWS Program: Open Data on AWS empowers organizations to more effectively share their open data and helps organizations access data, so they can spend more time on analysis and less on acquisition. The Registry of Open Data on AWS makes it simple to find datasets made publicly available through AWS services. Browse available data and learn how to register your own datasets.
• AWS Data Exchange: AWS Data Exchange (ADX) makes it easy to find, subscribe to, and use third-party data in the cloud. Use ADX to integrate data into AWS and then analyze that data with a wide variety of AWS analytics and machine learning For example, researchers can conduct studies on climate change by subscribing to data on carbon dioxide emissions, and health researchers can subscribe to aggregated data from historical clinical trials to accelerate their research activities.
• Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative: The Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) aims to accelerate sustainability research and innovation by minimizing the cost and time required to acquire and analyze large sustainability datasets. ASDI supports innovators and researchers with the data, tools, and technical expertise they need to optimize sustainability initiatives.

Cloud training for nonprofits and more

• Nonprofit Technical Hub: The Nonprofit Technical Hub helps nonprofits get started with their cloud journey by providing ways to skill up, dive deep, and leverage the cloud to increase your reach and impact. The Hub provides tutorials, architecture patterns, and more, with a focus on websites, web applications, and mission solutions that scale.
• AWS Skill Builder: AWS Skill Builder is a no-cost collection of digital cloud training, with dedicated learning tracks for everyone, from cloud beginners to advanced users. For nonprofits, we recommend the Cloud Foundations, Security Learning Plan, and Migration Learning tracks to get started.
• AWS Re/Start: The AWS Re/Start program empowers unemployed or underemployed individuals, including military veterans, their families, and young people to pursue careers in cloud technology. Through scenario-based learning, hands-on labs, and coursework, learners can gain the technical and soft skills they need for an entry-level cloud role. AWS re/Start also provides learners with resume and interview coaching to prepare them for employer meetings and more.

Events and educational experiences for nonprofits

• AWS Imagine: Nonprofit conference: For the last six years, AWS has held an event dedicated to nonprofits. The AWS Imagine: Nonprofit event is a no-cost conference that brings together nonprofit leaders, technologists, and innovators to discuss how technology can play a role in driving positive impact for people and planet.
• AWS Nonprofit webinars: AWS Nonprofit webinars help contextualize cloud technology for common nonprofit needs. Whether you want to learn more about fundraising in the cloud, accelerating impact through migration, or how to increase member engagement through the cloud, our virtual events help bring mission and solutions together.
• AWS Local and Global Summits: AWS Global Summits are no-cost events held in major cities around the world. They attract technologists from all industries and skill levels who want to discover how AWS can help them innovate quickly and deliver flexible, reliable solutions at scale. AWS Summits provide attendees with hands-on learning sessions, opportunities to speak with AWS and cloud experts, leadership insights, and more.
• AWS re:Invent: AWS re:Invent is a learning conference for the global cloud computing community. The in-person event features keynote announcements, training and certification opportunities, access to over 1,500 learning sessions, after-hours events, and more.

We encourage you to utilize these resources to help support your nonprofit’s mission. Stay tuned throughout 2022 as we launch new programs and offerings to help nonprofits use the cloud to accelerate mission impact. You can also start a conversation with us so we can best understand your goals and align you with the programs, teams, and initiatives that are right for your organization.

Subscribe to the AWS Public Sector Blog newsletter to get the latest in AWS tools, solutions, and innovations from the public sector delivered to your inbox, or contact us.

Please take a few minutes to share insights regarding your experience with the AWS Public Sector Blog in this survey, and we’ll use feedback from the survey to create more content aligned with the preferences of our readers.