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.
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