Daniel Ben-Horin

Daniel Ben-Horin
Born 26 December 1947
New York, New York
United States
Residence San Francisco, California
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Chicago
Occupation political activist and technologist
Title Founder and Chief Instigator, TechSoup Global
Website
www.techsoupglobal.org

Daniel Ben-Horin is an American political activist and technologist best known for founding CompuMentor, one of the first nonprofit technology assistance providers in the United States, in 1987 and guiding its growth since then. He served as C.E.O. and co-C.E.O. until January 2013, and is now the Founder and Chief Instigator of the organization, which has been called TechSoup Global since 2008.

Background, Education and Early Career

Ben-Horin was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York on Christmas Day 1947. His father, Eliahu (d. 1966), was a prominent Zionist who had long been associated with Vladimir Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement while living and working as a journalist in Palestine. Daniel Ben-Horin’s mother, Miriam, was trained as a lawyer in Latvia, lived for many years in Palestine and worked in Manhattan, to which the family moved when Daniel was four, as a jeweler and probation officer for the City of New York. She was the family’s main provider from the mid 1950s on. Daniel has one brother, Giora, born in 1935. He has been a lawyer and real estate investor in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ben-Horin attended Hunter Elementary School and Bronx High School of Science. He holds a B. A. in Psychology, 1969, from the University of Chicago. From 1969 to 1971 he was a reporter and columnist for the Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix. From 1971-1974 he was the first editor of the New Times newspaper in Phoenix. From 1974-80, he made his living as a journalist, writing for The New York Times, The Nation, Harper's Weekly, Mother Jones, Redbook and many other publications. From 1980-84, Ben-Horin served as the Executive Director of Media Alliance in San Francisco during which period he also taught journalism at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

CompuMentor and TechSoup Global

In 1987 with $2,500 in seed funding, Ben-Horin tapped volunteer resources on The WELL, one of the first online communities, to create CompuMentor. In 2014, TechSoup Global has a staff of 194 and an annual operating budget of $33 million.

Its core capabilities include running one of the largest technology philanthropy programs in the world (via collaboration with an international network of 63 NGOs in Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East); providing NGO validation services to funders and corporations; gathering, analyzing, and distributing global social-sector data; and catalyzing community-oriented technology innovations. Using a social-enterprise business model, its operations are grounded in collaborations with a range of stakeholders: NGOs, government agencies, social enterprises, technology activists, foundations, and 100+ technology companies - such as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, Cisco, and Intuit. Since 2001, TechSoup Global has distributed 14.1 million software and hardware product donations and enabled organizations worldwide to save US$4.6 billion for direct services.

Fundacja TechSoup is the first separately incorporated “regional hub” established by TechSoup Global. It employs a staff of eighteen in Warsaw, Poland, and supports activities in more than 16 European countries (as well as playing a key role in supporting the Global Partner Network overall).

Other activities

Ben-Horin has been a technology blogger at The Huffington Post since 2011. He also blogs frequently for the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Recognition

In 2009, the Ashoka Foundation elected Ben-Horin as a Senior Fellow for his work as a “leading social entrepreneur,” and the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network NTEN gave him its "Lifetime Achievement Award." [1][2]

From 2004 through 2007, the Nonprofit Times included him on its annual list of “50 Most Influential People in the Nonprofit Sector.”[3]

References