Working more stably at Bont voor Dieren

Bont voor Dieren is a foundation that was established in 1986. In the 80s, it was still quite normal to wear fur coats until it became widely known how a seal hunt actually works: hunters smashing the heads of defenseless animals for the sake of a fashion product they haven't needed for many decades or even centuries. From that moment on, public opinion regarding the use of fur changed.

Gradually, the wearing of fur coats disappeared more and more from the streets, but a few years ago the fur collar made its entrance. Many people wear fur without being aware of it, or they do not know the story behind the collar on their beautiful coat. And precisely that knowledge is very important. For animals are always bred or captured and killed for fur. Animal-friendly fur does not exist.

Nowadays, more and more stores and brands are stopping the sale of products with fur. Partly thanks to the work of Bont voor Dieren There is a fur farming ban in the Netherlands. From 2024, it is prohibited to breed and kill animals solely for their fur. And together with the Fur Free Alliance, they are entering into dialogue with the major fashion brands so that they, too, stop selling fur.

The team of Bont voor Dieren It consists of five people, fifteen guest lecturers, and approximately ten volunteers. The foundation is entirely dependent on donations, and for major campaigns, they use crowdfunding or other initiatives to raise funds. Naturally, a stable IT environment with reliable computers is of great importance for conducting all social media campaigns and creating awareness.

Historically, IT had been quite a problem child; at the end of the year, it was always a shock to see what was paid in extra costs that had not been budgeted for in advance. The annual accounts were alarmingly high, and it was unclear why so many costs kept piling up. Especially for a Foundation like Bont voor Dieren It is important that ICT expenses remain manageable and predictable; it is logical that they prefer to spend their money on campaigns rather than on peripheral matters like IT.

got it through word of mouth Bont voor Dieren The tip to contact Socia ICT was given; they heard that it was a company with experience supporting charities and that they think along with the organization itself. During the contact, the options were explained and how the foundation could potentially save money.

At first, it was quite a shock for Bont voor DierenSocia set certain requirements for the equipment that was to be managed. At that time, it simply did not meet these requirements. Together with Socia, a solution was sought, since the Foundation Bont voor Dieren did not have sufficient liquid funds to replace everything at once. Ultimately, parts were replaced in consultation to make a number of existing computers faster, and Socia donated a number of computers and monitors as a gift to the animal campaigns.

The wishes and requirements that Bont voor Dieren What we had has resulted in a solution whereby Socia provides standard workplace management and Office 365. This way, Socia can always be contacted whenever there are questions or problems with the IT. Since Socia is located nearby, they are also always quick to be on-site if something cannot be resolved remotely.

When switching from one IT supplier to another, you always run into certain issues. In this case, there was a lot of contact in the beginning regarding firewalls that were set too strictly, causing Bont voor Dieren could not access certain websites. There has been regular contact regarding this to ensure that this now also works completely satisfactorily.

Moranni te Winkel, Foundation Bont voor Dieren:
For us, embarking on the first phase was nerve-wracking. We were dissatisfied with the cost structure of our previous IT supplier. When we were told during the initial phase with Socia that equipment needed to be replaced to prevent proper management, it briefly caused us fear that it would end up costing us a lot of money again. We are therefore very grateful for all the help we received, both in brainstorming solutions and certainly for all the hardware that Socia donated to us. We primarily had two goals: saving costs and working more stably. We have clearly achieved both and are certainly satisfied. We also really appreciate the informal contact; the people at Socia are always up for a joke!