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, TechSoup�By 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.
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