Non-Profit Space

How did we define this persona?

This space is designed for project leads, volunteers and operational teams at small and medium-sized non-profits active in Liège province. Driven by a strong social commitment, these associations rarely have an in-house IT department or any technology watch of their own. Too often cut off from the realities of the modern web, they get by with outdated communication tools and under-use the potential of digital technology, simply because they don’t know that adapted, ethical, and free solutions exist for them.

What challenges and objectives are at stake?

Like every person or organisation we support, these non-profits have their own kind of chaos — here, a technical and administrative one. The finding is a bitter one: lack of information leaves non-profits particularly vulnerable. Many are unaware that Tech giants offer entirely free programmes or token pricing on professional tools. Worse still, many organisations end up at the mercy of unscrupulous providers who resell these very same licences at exorbitant prices. Offering advice and support as volunteers is our calling; speculating on the cost of a licence originally offered free to associations is not acceptable. The result? Drained budgets, neglected websites and chronic invisibility that cuts these non-profits off from modern communication channels and, consequently, from essential funding and grant opportunities.

What concrete actions have been put in place?

Cœur Historique brings order to this digital chaos through two forms of support, both free and given with no strings attached.

Axis 1 — What Cœur Historique itself provides structurally: we make our own digital infrastructure and internal standards available as a shared foundation. Partner non-profits can draw on our proven web architecture to relaunch a clear, solid website, and on our network to reclaim the free licences they are entitled to, without abusive middlemen. For associations whose mission reaches beyond our borders, we also open up access to our free international telephony solution, so they can run projects abroad at no cost.

Axis 2 — What our volunteers offer, from their own expertise: beyond this shared infrastructure, tech-savvy volunteers from our network give their time to carry out, for free and with no obligation, a review of the supported non-profit’s software contracts and spending, to spot and put a stop to abusive re-billing of licences that were meant to be free for associations. This sharing of skills, grounded in the lived experience of professionals in the field, never replaces a paid provider — it is peer-to-peer mutual aid, given selflessly.

Our goal: to make every non-profit we support more visible, more at ease, and finally self-sufficient enough to secure the funding its fieldwork needs.