Early in our career, we had the incredible opportunity to work on the UC Berkeley campus with the Cal Alumni Association, supporting alumni programs and volunteers across the country. Fast-forward more than a decade, and some of those former colleagues—now serving on the board of the Berkeley Student Cooperative Alumni Association (BSCAA)—reached out for help setting up Google Workspace for their organization.

As a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, BSCAA is eligible for Google’s nonprofit program, which provides access to a powerful suite of communication and productivity tools at no cost. Our role was to help them take full advantage of that opportunity and get everything configured correctly from the start.

We handled the full Google Workspace environment setup, including:

• Creating organizational structure and settings

• Setting up professional email accounts for board members

• Building distribution groups and shared mailboxes

• Establishing shared calendars

• Implementing appropriate security policies and best practices

• Integrating Workspace with existing tools like Mailchimp and their fundraising/membership platform

• Onboarding all board members and providing user training

• Training selected board members on Google Workspace administration and governance

The result is a secure, reliable, and easy-to-manage system that supports communication, collaboration, and organizational stability — giving BSCAA the tools they need to focus on their mission and serve their alumni community more effectively.