Toronto Wildlife Centre

July 8, 2011

By: Tierney Smith

Have you ever seen an injured animal and not known who to call? In Toronto, it’s easy: Toronto Wildlife Centre’s hotline allows anyone to call and report a wildlife concern. The Centre’s skilled staff are experienced in handling all different types of wildlife situations, from providing expert advice to rescuing animals and providing them the necessary veterinary care and rehabilitation before releasing them in the wild. Recently their rescue of a swan was featured in the Toronto Star. The organization currently has over 20 full time staff and numerous volunteers to help them keep things running.

Before registering with TechSoup Canada, Toronto Wildlife Centre’s computers were a mishmash of old donated computers with whatever operating systems and software they happened to have on them. It took significant time to get these computers to the point where they could be used by staff, and even then not everyone had regular access to a computer.

Fortunately for the Centre, they were able to get a large donation of hardware - multiple computers and a server - through various connections at the same time as they registered with TechSoup Canada. This allowed them to request donations of Windows XP and Microsoft Office to get all their computers well equipped. The upgrade made a big difference for Toronto Wildlife Centre - communication both internally and externally is much easier now that everyone is on email, and records are much better with donors being managed in an Access database. The database is also used to track information about the animals that the Toronto Wildlife Centre helps - from when a caller first calls the hotline to report an injured animal to when and where they are released.

“It is unbelievable the difference these donations have made to Toronto Wildlife Centre,” says Scott Wight, Fundraising Coordinator. “Not only to our fundraising efforts, but also our ability to manage patient information and data. Before TechSoup Canada our network was like Frankenstein’s laboratory, and keeping it all running was an exercise of extreme DIY and creativity. A huge thank you to TechSoup Canada for providing such a great service and support system to non-profits.”

Donated Products

Toronto Wildlife Centre has received donated products through TechSoup Canada, including:

• Windows XP
• Microsoft Office 2003