Every year, Jill faces the formidable task of raising more than $500,000 to help over 1,000 kids participate in sports. She organizes fundraisers, such as an annual charitable golf tournament, looks for donors, keeps track of donations, works with contractors, communicates with the board of directors, and much more. Jill can do it all in an organized and timely fashion because of the up-to-date collaborative cloud technology provided by Smart Dolphins.
Dave Monahan, CEO of Smart Dolphins, first learned about KidSport Greater Victoria by attending their fundraising golf tournament. Organized sport was an essential part of Dave’s youth. KidSport’s mission instantly resonated with him and he reached out in hopes of supporting it. At the time, the team at KSGV was using aging equipment and software. Smart Dolphins upgraded them to new laptops and the accounting software to Sage Online. Everything has been migrated to the cloud with Microsoft 365, enabling Jill to access her files from anywhere and save lots of time, which was especially valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Smart Dolphins referred KSGV to a database specialist to clean up their Microsoft Access database and ensure that their IT environment was backed up and safe in general. Even after all the heavy lifting, Smart Dolphins continues to work with KSGV on support and maintenance projects. Fixing issues, updating software and ensuring their IT is a critical asset to their work. KSGV has a dedicated Smart Dolphins vCIO (virtual chief information officer) who oversees the roadmap and plans the work according to ongoing IT needs.
Smart Dolphins remain one of the sponsors of the KidSport golf tournament and the team regularly participates as players. You’ll see the Dolphins out there again this year on May 25th! Talking about the significance of over 10 years of working with KidSport Greater Victoria, Dave Monahan said: We value the importance of what they are doing and how well they do it. Giving kids the opportunity to be part of an organized team, have coaching experiences, and bring competitiveness to their lives is incredibly valuable. Participating in organized sports was a formative experience for me when I was a kid, as well as for my own kids. We manage to contribute a small amount of our time but we see big changes happening as a result. The team at Smart Dolphins loves to see an organization like KidSport Greater Victoria thrive and expand their impact on the world.