A BTF’er from Seattle Delivers Happiness with Map4Good…
Map4Good (Sevgi Haritası)
We believe in HEROES…
Heroes change the world and make it better than it is today. And at BTF we depend on our share of Heroes. Without them we could not exist, it is that simple. BTF is a stronger NGO because of our Heroes…
“BTF brings people together and gives them the opportunity to make a change, to become Heroes...”
We value diversity, and we embrace team work. Today, our team includes over a hundred passionate women and men constantly working together to Deliver Happiness.
“Amazing things happen when we work together”
As individuals, we have unique gifts, talents and contributions. Our strength lies in the uniqueness of each of us. When we come together and work together, we are powerful beyond measure.
One such BTF’er is Tuğba Öztürk Arslan. She is BTF’s Seattle Leader and a BTF Board Member. A METU alum, she hails from Ankara, and works at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond as a Software Engineer… In addition to her local Community Building initiatives, she is also involved in making BTF better with the latest and greatest Microsoft technology.
Like Tuğba, each one of us at Bridge to Türkiye are volunteers. We each have day time jobs, but we are also passionate philanthropists that want to give back on our spare time. BTF is a our Hobby, our Passion.
As volunteers, time is precious and our time is our most valuable asset. When Tuğba joined BTF, she quickly noticed how to improve our processes. On her spare time, she developed Map4Good, an App that vastly improves our productivity to manage the many field projects we complete during the school year.
This year we are reaching out to thousands of under-served students in Turkey and currently have 187 Schools, 369 Projects and 549 Scholarships that are being tracked on our Map. Map4Good provides BTF with a management utility that records, tracks and reports all our field projects.
Using Microsoft’s Azure, SQL Server and Power BI products and Company Grants for Non Profits, she designed an interactive tool for all BTF stakeholders to track and report on our day to day progress.
The result is BTF’s Map4Good as shown here. Projects are color coded to depict various states of completeness on the Map.
A Red Heart indicates a school project that is in need of support. It is automatically placed on the map when a request comes in from a rural school teacher in Turkey. A Yellow Heart indicates that a BTF supporter or community circle has decided to sponsor the project, and indicates that help is in the process of being coordinated. Green Hearts depicts completed projects by location, by school, by project type.
Each entry on the map contains the teacher’s original request and call for action. Images from before and after project completion are also shared with the user. BTF giving circles and individual donors can use Map4Good to choose and fund individual school projects. The donation page shown above has three projects at various states of Red, Yellow, Green level of completeness.
Further more, Map4Good is also utilized to track BTF’s annual scholarships with various partner organizations. These are depicted with a Blue Heart on the Map. This year BTF supporters are sponsoring 549 scholarships, mostly to University students.
BTF volunteers have been using Map4Good internally for over a year and we are now ready to start sharing it externally. Over time, this application will help BTF to scale the Good that can be given back to the economically disadvantaged students for better educational opportunities.
Recently Turkish monthly magazine Aktüel Yaşam gave coverage to BTF’s Map4Good by interviewing our hero Tuğba Öztürk Arslan. You can read it from this link (it is in Turkish.)
