Our longstanding commitment to helping nonprofits use technology effectively began back in 1993.
We began as the philanthropic division of IT services company Reliacom, providing IT services to help nonprofits with their technology needs. In 2001, the division was purchased by Community IT founder David Deal and spun off as its own company.
We brought together people who were invested in the nonprofit sector and were talented with technology to build a team that worked exclusively with nonprofit organizations.
Instead of reselling a single IT solution, we believed that our clients needed a trusted advisor who could help them evaluate complex technology decisions and walk with them through the implementation and support of their solutions. As nonprofits increasingly became reliant on technology for all business functions, we became an outsourced IT department for our clients and served as an advocate in interactions with technology vendors.
In addition to the social mission of serving nonprofits, we also wanted to be a workplace that helped employees to find growth and fulfillment. As we developed our internal culture, we found that employees wanted to stay and grow with us. Today, more than 25% of our employees have been with us for over a decade.
We sought to model this type of sustainability not only to provide a great place for employees to work, but also to be a successful company. To ensure that the interests of our employees and clients – and not outside financial interests – would drive the strategic direction of our company, David Deal established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2004. In 2012, David Deal sold his remaining stake in the company, and we became 100% employee-owned.
Corporate sustainability also means working toward positive environmental and social results. To this end, we made decisions to become 100% clean energy powered, implement green technologies, and support our employees as active board members and volunteers in community organizations. We hold several all-staff volunteer activities a year, both to give back to our greater community and to build our internal community.
Providing IT services exclusively to nonprofits for over two decades, we learned early on the importance of hiring technical staff who reflect the diversity of the organizations we serve: over 50% of management roles and 68% of Community IT staff are from traditionally under-represented communities. We’ve learned to seek out non-traditional applicants and support under-represented employees when they join our company. Learn more about careers here.
Since 2020 we have taken intentional steps to elevate anti-racism work within and without Community IT. You can view our progress report here.
Our company continued to grow steadily, and while our mission and core values remain the same, our service delivery model has changed as technology and the needs of our clients change. Our current approach relies more on centralized management and remote support. We strike the right balance between providing the efficiency of remote and centralized services with the understanding and accountability that comes with a long term face-to-face partnership.
With a staff of over 40 working nationally, Community IT is now a noted leader in the nonprofit technology community and in the MSP space as a whole. The company has been named a top 501 MSP by Channel Partners and MSPMentor since 2015.
We look forward to continued growth – and, most importantly, to continued success for our nonprofit partners as we enhance their missions through better IT.
CTO Matthew Eshleman, Director of IT Consulting Steve Longenecker, and IT Business Manager Team Lead Norwin Herrera hold a lively and specific discussion of all things nonprofit tech for 2025 and beyond. January 22 at 3pm Eastern, Noon Pacific.
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