Basic Organization Information
BENEFICENT TECHNOLOGY INC
- Also Known As:
-
Benetech
- Physical Address:
-
Palo Alto, CA
94306 1609
- EIN:
-
77-0555413
- Web URL:
-
www.benetech.org
- Blog URL:
-
benetech.blogspot.com/
- NTEE Category:
-
W Public, Society Benefit
-
W02 Management & Technical Assistance
-
Q International, Foreign Affairs, and National Security
-
Q70 International Human Rights
-
B Educational Institutions
-
B70 Libraries, Library Science
- Year Founded:
-
1989
- Ruling Year:
-
2001
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Mission Statement
<p>Benetech's
mission is to create innovative technology solutions to serve all of humanity.
We exist to bridge the gap in social applications between what's possible
and what's sufficiently profitable. Currently we tackle issues such as human
rights violations, parity of access to information, literacy and environmental sustainability. We are driven by the idea that our technology solutions will be
reapplied and adapted around the world to remove barriers and allow people to
help themselves and others for generations to come. At
Benetech we visualize a world where fundamental human needs are met and Benetech is an important catalyst for the change we envision. We use the
technology enterprise model to make impact around the world: customer focus,
quality products and services, marketing and distribution. </p>
<p> </p>
Impact Summary from the Nonprofit
<div>Benetech has a tremendous impact in the fields of education, human rights and environmental conservation.</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>Bookshare</strong> has grown into the world's largest online library of accessible digital books, newspapers and periodicals, and is available for free to all qualifying print disabled students throughout the U.S. In 2010, we passed the 100,000 members milestone, and we continue to expand rapidly. Our members are now downloading accessible books at a rate of more than one million books per year! As of 2011, Bookshare has over 140,000 members and more than 109,000 books.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Internationally, Bookshare is operating in 28 countries that span the globe and offering content in Hindi and Tamil, Spanish, French and German. In 2011, we will pilot Arabic language capability and content, enabling Bookshare to start serving readers throughout the Arabic-speaking world.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Our <strong>Human Rights Program</strong> (HRP) documents and analyzes human rights abuses around the globe, most recently in Burma, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Iran, Lebanon, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 2010, HRP's expert testimony in Guatemala helped win a huge legal victory: two policemen were convicted and sentenced to forty years each for the disappearance of a prominent union leader. The ruling opened an opportunity for the Guatemalan court system to address the massive human rights crimes of the nation's armed internal conflict. In 2011, our HRP team will help Guatemala's Attorney General prepare for the prosecutions of three high-profile officials charged with committing human rights violations during that conflict. </div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>Miradi</strong> is our environmental project management software. At the end of 2010, over 4,000 users representing over a thousand organizations in over 120 countries were using Miradi. We continue to enhance the functionality of Miradi and to expand its use within the global biodiversity community to improve the practice of conservation.</div>
Revenue and Expenses
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Balance Sheet
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Leadership
James R. Fruchterman
Term:
Since
Feb
1989
Profile:
<div align="center">
<div align="left"></div>
</div>
<p>James R. Fruchterman is a technology entrepreneur, an engineer and former rocket scientist. He is cofounder and director of RAF Technology, Inc., America's leading high-end OCR technology company, used by the U.S. Postal Service to route mail. Jim is also a leading social entrepreneur through his deliberately nonprofit technology company, Benetech. Under Jim’s leadership, Benetech has twice received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. He has won numerous awards for his work in the social sector. He was named a MacArthur Fellow (2006) and Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation (2003). He participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (2003-2007) and cofounded and directs the Social Enterprise Alliance, which is the international association for entrepreneurs in the nonprofit sector. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fruchterman’s outstanding contributions to the advancement of library services for the blind and physically handicapped as well as his successful efforts to make literary works accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired have been recognized by the American Library Association, the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the Blind. Jim currently serves on two federal advisory committees on digital textbooks for students with disabilities. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jim believes that technology is the ultimate leveler, allowing disadvantaged people achieve more equality in society.</p>
Highest Paid Employees & Their Compensation
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Program:
Bookshare
- Budget:
-
$9,324,685
- Category:
-
Education
- Population Served:
-
Blind and Vision Impaired
Program Description:
Bookshare.org provides national free access
to high-quality educational materials and supporting assistive technology to
all qualified students who are visually impaired or print disabled. Bookshare is an
Internet library where people with print disabilities are able to find over
books, magazines and newspapers in accessible formats that they can read. With Bookshare, every student with a print disability can have access to the
materials they need for success in the classroom and beyond.
Program Long-Term Success:
Every child and adult in the world who has a print disability has access to the the technology they need to obtain the information they must have to succeed in school and beyond.
Program Short-Term Success:
BY 2011 Bookshare will serve more than
100,000 U.S. students who have print disabilities and we will grow our online collection by over one
hundred thousand titles.
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Human Rights Program
- Budget:
-
$903,040
- Category:
-
International, Foreign Affairs & National Security
- Population Served:
-
Other Named Groups
Program Description:
<p>The Benetech Human Rights program
enables human rights organizations to transform individual first-hand
knowledge of human rights abuses into comprehensive, usable data. While
non-governmental organizations often have access to vital information, those
operating in violent circumstances cannot use this information in the service
of policy change; they face operational and political obstacles to storing,
securing, analyzing and disseminating key information. We respond to these
challenges by providing human rights advocates with both software products and
on-the-ground guidance. <u1:p></u1:p></p>
We adopt data analysis techniques from
mathematical demography, statistics, academic computer science and commercial
data mining. We combine social-science reasoning with these techniques to
examine the facts. Our work turns unproductive, politicized debates into
evidence-based conversations based on the anonymized data we publish.
Program Long-Term Success:
<p>New
technology, methodological training and research are used worldwide to dispel
misinformation about the patterns and magnitude of human rights violations. A
rational, commonly-held understanding of the past unites communities to make
their shared future better than their violent past </p>
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Miradi
- Budget:
-
$438,574
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
Other Named Groups
Program Description:
Miradi is a software project management tool designed by conservationists for conservationists working on a wide range of conservation projects – from
managing a small county park or land trust to managing an entire ocean or
implementing policy-oriented interventions.
<br />
<br />
Miradi is the most comprehensive and powerful
software technology available for implementing best practices in the planning,
recording, evaluation and sharing of important information about conservation
projects.
<br />
<br />
Miradi
is a project of Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) - a consortium of consortium of conservation NGOs
committed to improving the practice of conservation. To achieve this, CMP
developed and is promoting common standards and tools for planning,
implementation and measuring conservation impact. Each organization within
CMP has biodiversity conservation as its primary goal, has a focus on field-based
conservation actions and is working to develop better approaches to project
design, management and assessment. CMP Core Members include: the African
Wildlife Foundation (AWF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife
Fund (WWF). Other key partners include RARE Conservation and Foundations of
Success.
<br />
<br />
In the search for
solutions, we expect Miradi to become a standard component of the IT toolkit
for conservationists everywhere.
Program Long-Term Success:
<p>There will be no technological barriers to information sharing between and among conservation
practitioners who then be able to initiate the collaborative conservation practices needed to
find timely solutions to our urgent environmental challenges. <br />
</p>
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples:
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