Alternative Technologies

For more than 25 years Alternative Technologies has been empowering nonprofits and progressive businesses with the technology they need to change the world. Alternative Technologies began in 1989 at Jerry Skomer's kitchen table in the East Bay. The Ma Bell corporate monopoly had been toppled by the Justice Department in 1982, but Jerry saw that many nonprofits had a difficult time understanding the choices and making the decisions necessary to take advantage of emerging new telecommunications options. He set about to remedy that in his beloved Volvo (our first company vehicle) which he used to park blocks away from customers' offices out of embarrassment! As the former executive director of CalPIRG, his affinity for nonprofits became — and remains — the founding ideal of Alternative.   Today we are 35 strong, serving the best of the Bay Area's nonprofits and progressive businesses. In 2000 we added an IT Services department, which allowed us to say yes to the many customers begging for our help with their data networks along with their phone systems. We "speak nonprofit", and our desire to support the work of the Bay Area's progressive community means that we can have an honest and meaningful technology conversation with every organization we talk to.