Introducing the Mac Admins Foundation

With an active and expanding presence on Slack, a long-running podcast and a repository of community projects on GitHub, the Mac Admins community has been a powerful force for sharing best practices and peer support. So we at Jamf are excited to see their newest venture, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization known as the Mac Admins Foundation that will work to promote sustainable and equitable growth for the community.

Guiding principles of the Mac Admins Foundation

In a post announcing the new organization, the Mac Admins Foundation laid out its core principles:

The Mac Admins Foundation exists in order to advance the global community of people who manage Apple devices at large and small scales. Their mission is the following:

• Fostering the connections among Mac Admins around the globe;
• Sharing knowledge and resources for members' ongoing professional growth;
• Preserving collected knowledge for the benefit of others;
• Making a welcoming and accessible organization to expand the profession;
• Providing for the use of community tools (such as the Mac Admins Slack workspace);
• Protecting the independence of the community; and
• Maintaining affordable access to all community resources, regardless of members' economic status.

The Mac Admins Foundation joins Apple to expand access to IT certification

The newly formed nonprofit has already worked with Apple on a program to help streamline access to the IT profession for aspiring admins. The tech giant has updated its IT training and certification offerings with two new online courses in Apple Device Support and Apple Deployment and Management. Each course has a corresponding exam that costs $149, and upon passing it the learner will receive a certification from Apple. The Mac Admins Foundation plans to provide vouchers, underwritten by Apple, to applicants who cannot afford to take the exam or whose employers will not cover the cost. This will help to eliminate the financial obstacle to entry that keeps many capable professionals from breaking into IT.

Jamf is a proud sponsor of the Mac Admins Foundation

In line with our mission to help organizations succeed with Apple, Jamf is proud to act as a major sponsor of the new group. “We’re so excited to support the Mac Admins Foundation and its mission to foster connection, share knowledge and create an accessible community for those in IT who continuously work to empower their end users with Apple,” said Jeni Asaba, senior manager of community at Jamf. “Jamf looks forward to working with the Mac Admins team to help these organizations succeed with technology that drives collaboration and innovation now and long into the future.”