While many in the business community saw the dot-com boom of the 1990s as a way to get rich quick, Baltimore resident Alec Ross, co-founder and senior vice president of One-Economy, viewed it as an opportunity to help the country?s poor enter the economic mainstream.
And what started as a four-person operation working from the basement of a Washington office building today is an international nonprofit with 50 employees working in four countries and 42 states with an annual budget of $11 million.
“We had a very simple vision of harnessing the power of technology to help connect low-income people to 21st-century economy,” Ross said. “That resonated with high-tech and telecommunications sectors as well as in the philanthropic world.”
The nonprofit?s goal is to help those with low incomes to benefit from modern technology. Specifically, its multilingual self-help site, www.thebeehive.org, provides resources to help users make informed technology decisions, as well as giving information such as homework help, income tax credit information and information on enrolling children in health insurance programs.
Additionally, the organization helps low-income Americans acquire affordable computers and helps to bring Internet access into their homes. It also works with teenagers to help them become technology trainers in their communities. The nonprofit receives almost equal amounts of funding from corporations and foundations.
Since its founding, more than 8 million people have used the organization?s self-help site, and it has helped bring broadband Internet access into the homes of more than 200,000 low-income Americans.
“My colleagues and I saw how technology was transforming the way people communicated and transacted in business,” Ross said. “We knew that if people didn?t have access to technology, they would become further isolated from economic opportunity.”
In Baltimore, the organization is a city partner in providing Internet access in all new public housing projects. Most recently, Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley, along with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and One-Economy officials, announced a new campaign to create the nation?s first public Internet channel, an online network of information and resources, in both English and Spanish, designed to serve the public with a particular focus on low-income individuals.
“The city of Baltimore, through Mayor O?Malley?s leadership, will be one of the first cities to pilot the initiative,” Ross said.
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for O?Malley, said partnering in the Public Internet Channel campaign is a natural extension of the city?s work with One-Economy.
“One-Economy is at the forefront of giving people the tools they need to be competitive and to be productive in all aspects of their lives,” Guillory said.
Crossing borders
» In 2005, One-Economy expanded its focus from the United States to three other countries. Today, the organization has a presence in South Africa, Jordan and Egypt. According to Ross, the international expansion came after the organization felt it had a proven track record in the United States.
