SDM Foundation Celebrates Tenth Anniversary and Leadership Transition
By Ellen Putnam
Sara Murray, left and Kristin Thorp
Photo From SDM Foundation
This summer, SDM Foundation will be celebrating ten years of providing free technology education to the community. The organization will see a leadership transition as well, with longtime team member Sara Murray stepping into the role of Executive Director, allowing founder Kristin Thorp to pass the leadership torch while remaining deeply involved with the organization.
Thorp established SDM Foundation from the estate of Stuart Donald McIntosh (SDM) in 2016. Thorp and McIntosh worked together at his software company for 30 years prior to his death in 2015. As part of their work together, they decided that the best way to honor his legacy would be to create a foundation that would help people of all skill levels to learn to use technology.
SDM Foundation’s first location on Main Street was in the space that currently houses Colette Bakery. They began with three employees - Murray joined the team two years later, in 2018 - and moved to their current space five years ago. They initially experimented with different formats of lessons before settling on their current model of one-on-one lessons.
“Our mission is to help people use technology,” Thorp explained, “and we started that in a small way, locally, when we first opened ten years ago. We didn’t know who would come - we just put a sign out, telling people to stop in, and look at where it’s gone!”
“We’re growing,” she went on, “and as we grow and see who’s out there and what they need and how to reach them, we’re expanding our mission. Five years from now, I’m sure we’ll be extending in a new way. We can’t hire new people and open new locations - that’s just not going to happen - but we’re always going to be looking for ways to leverage what we do have to reach as many people as possible.”
SDM Foundation provides free technology education for anyone - from people who need help setting up their first email account to small business owners who are honing their website - which makes them unique in our geographic area, and beyond.
“Even in the online world, we’re still pretty unique in what we do,” Murray said. “A lot of tutorial-based content online presumes a level of knowledge that we know some of our clients don’t have. Many people are starting from an entry level.”
Specifically, she explained, some struggle with unfamiliar terminology, or with basic skills such as using a mouse. “We know a lot of people who have had so little access to technology they don’t know this stuff,” she said. “For us, it’s about being able to take a step back from the problem and understand where you need to start. We’ve gotten very good at that, and it’s one of the things that makes us different in terms of the support we can provide to people.”
“We focus on having them do it themselves, and talking them through it,” Thorp added. “Then they feel more empowered to understand the next time they have a problem, because we took the time to walk them through it.”
Thorp at SDM Foundation
Photo Credit: Nancy Clover
Murray and Thorp both emphasized that the leadership transition will not change what the community loves about SDM Foundation.
“Sara and I have been working very closely together for many years now,” said Thorp, “and for four or five years, we’ve known that this was the path we were going to go down. She very much has the same vision that I have. We really do work together, and we already talk about everything together. Last year, we decided that this would be the right time to make this declaration that this is the future of SDM Foundation, and we’re thrilled about it. But we’re still going to work together, and we’re still doing very much what we were doing before.”
Murray shared that some of her focus this year will be in revamping SDM Foundation’s website to make it easier to navigate and find tutorial and video resources. “We want to expand our reach online as much as possible,” she explained, “because we’re constrained with staff and space in terms of how many people we can see - we’re always fully booked. We’re looking at adding more video content and building resources so people can access us when they can't actually come to see us.”
But while Murray sees reaching online audiences as an extension of SDM Foundation’s mission, the organization’s day-to-day work will always remain focused on the local community.
“We love everything we do in the community,” she explained. “Both Kristin and I are involved in a number of organizations in Melrose, and it’s an important part of what we do. Our mission is all about outreach and education, and being part of the community is huge. We have drop-in hours at the Milano Center every two weeks, and when other groups ask us to give presentations, we try to say yes to as many as we can. Reaching people is at the core of what we do.”
SDM Foundation, which up to this point has run largely on the original endowment from McIntosh, will also be shifting to seeking more support from the community.
“We want, to our core, to stay free for our clients,” said Thorp. “We have done amazingly for ten years, and we want to do this for many more - but to do that, we’re going to have to have more of an influx of funding.”
“Our tenth anniversary is a great time to set new things in place,” added Murray. “It’s a big achievement to have made it this far without explicitly encouraging donations, and it’s a good opportunity to thank all of our supporters. And it’s an opportunity for us to put in place new programs and opportunities to allow people to support us financially as well.”
To learn more about SDM Foundation and to sign up for a free technology education appointment, visit their website. And stay tuned for more details about their day-long tenth anniversary celebration, which will be coming on Thursday, July 9th!
