DCO gets grants for tech support

The Greene County Board for the Developmentally Disabled donated $12,000. Commerce Bank and the Kemper Foundation awarded $20,000, of which Commerce Bank donated $5,000 and the Kemper Foundation donated the remaining $15,000, Commerce Bank Chairman John Himmel said.

Marci Bowling, DCO’s director of development, said one more grant has been submitted in order to reach the total project cost of $38,000. But when it’s finished, the project, which encompasses software, computers, conversion training and implementation, will enable DCO staff to better record and track volunteers’ and donors’ interests.

“We are so excited and appreciative,” she said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to find support for something like this that’s a technical aspect of the job, but in this instance it directly relates to the fact that without funds raised, we’re unable to meet the mission of the agency and meet the needs of those who need us.”

The new tools, she added, will help DCO match volunteers and donors to programs they’d like to support. The equipment also will help DCO staff track communications and maintain databases.

Himmel said Commerce and the Kemper Foundation regularly partner in gifts to not-for-profits and community service organizations in the Springfield region, and they have chosen to donate to DCO in the past.

“The Developmental Center of the Ozarks plays a very key role in assisting children with disabilities and their families,” Himmel said. “We felt DCO upgrading their technology would improve their overall effectiveness in the delivery of their needed services to the community.”

Bowling said DCO, which has provided services to infants, children and adults with disabilities since 1954 in the Ozarks, has an in-house database that has helped, but additional support was needed as volunteer and donor rosters have grown to more than 635 people.

“We’ve really needed to streamline, whereas right now we do a lot of the reports literally by hand,” she said.