Alliance for Nonprofit Management › About the Alliance › Advisory Council: Deborah Strauss

Advisory Council: Deborah Strauss

Deborah Strauss

IT Resource Center

Deborah Strauss is Executive Director (since 1985) of the nonprofit IT Resource Center in Chicago.

The IT Resource Center's mission is assistance to nonprofits and government agencies with all aspects of technology, especially computers. In its seventeen-year history, the ITRC has provided 1500 Chicago-area nonprofits with comprehensive computer-related services including consulting and training. The ITRC is the home of CompuMentor/Chicago, a project that matches technologically skilled individuals with nonprofits and schools needing assistance, NPO.NET, an electronic information network serving Chicago's nonprofit and philanthropic community and services to help bridge the Digital Divide.

She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and served on the Chicago Chapter Board of NSFRE (now Association of Fundraising Professionals) and on various national committees. In 1993 she was named winner of the Chapter's Benjamin Franklin Award.

She served as Chair of the national Technology Resource Consortium for three years. She is a Board Member of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management and of the Donors Forum of Chicago. She was a member of the management team for the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology and a member of the (Chicago) Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors for which she co-chairs the “Bridging the Digital Divide” Committee.

She frequently presents nationally and locally on subjects related to nonprofits, fundraising, and technology. In August 1999 and 2000 she was named to the Nonprofit Times “Power and Influence Top 50” and in 2000 to Crains Chicago Business “Internet 100.”

Previously, she was Director of Development and Public Relations at the Chicago Child Care Society. She has an AB and AM from the University of Chicago.