Free — for Real

Through a program called Free is Free, e-mail security software is free for the taking for nonprofit organizations small and large that provide things such as food, medicine, shelter, emergency services and education to children in need.

The program is being offered by Newburyport, Mass.-based e-mail security company Declude. It was inspired by an encounter that Declude CEO Rich Person had with Pennye Nixon-West, founder of ETTA Projects, a Seattle-based organization that provides education, economic opportunities, food and health care to help Bolivian mothers feed their families and
escape poverty.

Last March, while staying at a bed and breakfast in the south end of Boston, Person struck up a conversation with fellow guest Nixon-West and learned about ETTA Projects, which Nixon-West founded in honor of her daughter Etta, who died at age 18 in a bus accident while doing relief work with women and children in Bolivia. Person was awed.

“I had one of those moments of, ‘My God, I just went out slurping wine last night, watching a show and I own a software company, and here’s this woman who every time she goes to Bolivia, she gets parasites and has lost this incredible person in her life.’ I thought about the things I do, and I said I’ve got to do something here,” he says.

Person and his wife held an event to raise money and awareness for ETTA Projects. After the event, he still felt driven to do more, and considered ways his company could help. During their discussion, Nixon-West had mentioned that she relies on e-mail to do a lot of her work and to communicate with Bolivia.

“I was complaining about all the spam I get when I was talking to him because I knew he did software. I was whining about every morning getting up and having to delete 40 spams before I can get to my job and work,” Nixon-West says.

Person decided he wanted to give ETTA Projects and other child-welfare organizations the Declude Interceptor e-mail security software — which ranges in cost from $375 a year (for up to 24 users) to $12,500 a year (for 5,000 or more users) — free of charge. He launched Free is Free in September 2006.

“It’s not ‘Free, but you have to do this.’ It’s free. If you’re a nonprofit and you prove to us that you help children, there it is. You got it,” he says.

Organizations interested in participating can fill out an application form online. Once the application is processed, Declude sets up qualified nonprofits with Declude Interceptor, which offers anti-virus and anti-spam protection, hijack prevention, and e-mail vulnerability detection.

Nixon-West describes the donated software as a “little gift from heaven.” Like many small organizations working on a tight budget, she says ETTA Projects would not have been able to put out the money for such
software. But it’s afforded her e-mail-dependent organization added security and convenience.

“Before, I just really wasted a lot of time trying to get to my real
e-mails. Now I can get to my work much quicker. I can be more efficient and communicate a little more easily with my staff, because all of my staff is in Bolivia,” she says.

To learn more, www.declude.com/site/about-com.htm.