MyQuire.com

During our recent user survey, we met a MyQuire user who is doing extraordinary things as part of a relief and development agency in Northern Iraq. Our goal has always been to all people work together, so we were thrilled to hear that MyQuire is being used around the globe by an organization helping those in need.

We were asked not to print details about the organization’s exact details or staff names, but we can share some of our conversation about how the group uses MyQuire. The organization’s office used to use a shared server, but it went down over the summer and the organization lost all of their past work. They were looking for a tool to replace the server, and came across MyQuire. When I asked how they used MyQuire, the director told me, “My office has been using MyQuire to collaborate on our projects…for instance, we teach Conversation English at a local university. I uploaded all of our past lesson plans, so now, whenever we start a new course, the project leader can simply go to the website and get what they need.”

We plan to continue sharing stories of how our users are making a difference in the months to come.

This month, we proudly announced the winner of our 2007 RapidGrant program. For those who don’t know, RapidGrant is a program we launched last month as a way to recognize non-profit MyQuire members who are innovative in their approaches to the problem they’re working to address. We were blown away by the applications we received. We heard from people across the country who are working around the world to improve people’s lives, protect animals, and save our environment. It was a pretty tough process but we had to choose a single grant recipient out of the pile of inspirational groups who applied. The organization we chose is called Redemption, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the educational advancement of underserved youth between the ages of 13 and 19 residing in Brooklyn, New York. They inspired us by taking such a hands-on approach to giving students the support they need to reach their potential.

Tiffany Tucker, Executive Director of Redemption, told us they were faced with the challenges of coordinating a growing non-profit and dealing with the headaches of having a distributed team working on projects. “We heard about MyQuire and quickly found it was the tool we needed to solve our logistical problems and coordinate our teams,” says Tiffany. “We wanted to get our volunteers on the same page, so we know who’s working on what, and where we can find the latest versions of our documents, schedules and tasks. MyQuire is such a relief – it changes the way we work together to make things so much easier.”

Please join us in congratulating Redemption or better yet, add Tiffany Tucker to your network and send her a message.

A few weeks ago MyQuire was named a finalist in the Collaboration category of the 2007 Silicon Valley Business Journal's Emerging Technology Awards. Very cool! The winners were announced last night at an award banquet held at the Computer History Museum right in MyQuire's hometown of Mountain View, and I went to represent the team. I was on the phone with our CTO and ran in about fifteen minutes after the program had started. I sat down just as they were announcing the collaboration category, and MyQuire won!

I honestly was shocked when he named MyQuire as the winner – and that shock started to feel more like panic as I approached the podium with no acceptance speech prepared. Oh well, it all turned out fine and the rest of the evening was fantastic. David joined me for the banquet following the ceremony and we got a chance to chat with some really interesting folks from the Silicon Valley business community (fellow finalists, journalists, venture capitalists, former winners, etc). It was incredibly validating to hear how excited people are about what we're building (people who aren't living and breathing it every day the way the MyQuire team is). So, now we have a tombstone to put on the shelves of our office to look as was we are hard at work earning our designation as an outstanding Emerging Technology. As they say in Hollywood "it was an honor just to have been nominated" (but between you and me - it was fun to win).

The Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Boot Camp this month proved a great first event for Quire. We talked to many open-minded “idea people” who were excited about MyQuire and full of insight about how to take our product to the next level.

Just as with any non-profit, a strong, engaged community is integral to our success. MyQuire’s vision is not just to provide integrated tools, it’s also to build a network where users can find new resources (volunteers, donors, and services) simply by being able to search within the MyQuire community of users. What’s a world where we aren’t all helping each other?

Quire donated two Boot Camp attendance scholarships to two non-profits whose missions are also centrally rooted in the idea of community: Good Cents for Oakland and California Revels.

Good Cents for Oakland is a non-profit whose work takes them into Oakland, California schools to guide children through a 10-week Penny Roundup Program that teaches them about community while developing their skills. At the end of a Roundup, each student votes for the non-profit organization they believe should receive the sum total of funds. Success for these children is about being a collective team. The children here of Emerson School in Oakland are being recognized for the funds they raised for the Oakland Animal Shelter.

California Revels is a non-profit that performs a stage production of ritual, song and dance each December as a way for the community to come together in celebration. Each year, the winter holiday customs of a particular historical and geographic period in time/place are re-enacted. For many, the Revels is something they look forward to participating in with their families every year. Here the Revels audience and cast are celebrating with song and dance in the lobby at intermission during the 2002 show.

As Quire’s success continues, our values are in giving back and sustaining those early adopters growing with us. We look forward to your partnership and ideas on what features will keep MyQuire the most useful all-in-one technology for managing your projects and teams!