If you’re not a technology-centric nonprofit organization, then you may not know all of the possibilities that are available. The right technology choices can make it much easier to complete projects, bring more people onboard and drive larger donations. Here are a few ways that your nonprofit can use the latest technology to become more efficient, productive and successful.
Improve Collaboration
Many passionate and talented people want to help with your mission, so your technology should support collaboration. When you make it easy for everyone to work together, then you can leverage the skills and talent that you need to grow as a nonprofit. A centralized platform can let individuals work on the same files, comment on documents and streamline sharing. For example, a cloud-based data storage platform means that everyone works with the same version of the files. They simply log in to this resource to start their work. A commenting or chat functionality allows everyone to communicate right on the project.
Drive Member Engagement
Is it easy for your members to stay engaged with what your organization is doing? You should be able to show them where their donations are going with updates, roadmaps, and other content. Can they easily reach out to you and send suggestions, comments, and concerns?
The right technology can create an excellent member experience that keeps them up to date on the latest news and successes that you’ve achieved. You can send them information about upcoming events, donation incentives and other resources that you have available. Members know where to access this information rather than having it spread across multiple communication channels or hidden on your front desk.
Reduce IT Staffing Expenses
You need your technology to stay running, but your budget may not have a lot of room for IT staff. For many nonprofit organizations, you end up with someone juggling the job of an IT technician alongside other responsibilities. You inevitably end up in a situation where a major system outage causes all sorts of issues.
Cloud computing solutions are one way that you can reduce the upfront and ongoing expenses for your infrastructure. The primary way that the cloud does this is by putting a lot of the cost responsibility on the vendor, rather than your nonprofit. They handle all of the hardware and software configuration, updates, development, and maintenance. All you need to do is pay them a flat fee to access these resources, which is based on your usage.
Another way you can cut down on your IT related expenses is by working with a managed services provider. Trying to recruit and retain IT staff yourself is difficult, especially if you can’t compete with for-profit companies and their salaries. A managed services provider gives you access to IT specialists and the knowledge that allows you to put together a long-term technology strategy.
Keep Your Organization’s Data Safe
No one wants to hear that their nonprofit endured a data breach, but having top-notch cybersecurity is rarely in the budget. You can better protect sensitive data such as donor information by working with a cybersecurity IT support provider and using cloud computing solutions that have strong security measures.
Eliminate Time-Consuming Processes
Nonprofits have to embrace working smarter rather than harder since you’ll always need more resources than you have on-hand. One way that you can get more work done for your mission is to identify and get rid of time-consuming processes that eat up staff and volunteer time.
A managed services provider can help you go through your current systems and processes to see what’s working for you and what needs a drastic change. You may need updated applications or a new way of entering data to limit the extra work required.
Since they have a wide range of experience helping other nonprofits optimize their practices, the managed service provider can put well-tested solutions in place. You end up with an excellent infrastructure that will support your operations, both now and as you grow.
Create Clarity in Non-profit Communications
You have to communicate information across many channels. Your volunteers, staff members, donors, potential donors, partners and countless other groups want to talk to you. Email, instant message, phone calls and social networks are a few of the ways that they get in touch.
If someone slips through the cracks, you can end up with some significant issues on your hands. Just imagine what would happen if one of your top donors gets ignored and doesn’t hear back from an email for a week.
A centralized communication platform ensures that everything gets addressed appropriately. You can look up logs of conversations and learn more about your supporters. Setting up campaigns for fundraising and other purposes become much easier when you have all of the important information in a single place.
Technology is your best friend as a nonprofit, but you need to know the right approach to truly gain all of the benefits. A managed services provider can take on everything from everyday support to building your long-term technology strategy for you. Set yourself up for success so you can always move forward with your mission.