In most nonprofit organizations, technology sits mired in the operational budget, often seen merely as a necessary component to achieving the direct service part of the mission, taking a backseat to investments that will have more immediate impact. Managed and planned effectively, however, your organization’s technology can be much, much more than an administrative cost, instead helping you to:
- Increase Operational Efficiency – Nonprofits doing more with less has become a watchword; investing in the right technology can make business processes run more smoothly, reduce ongoing costs, improve staff satisfaction and increase time spent on your organization’s mission. The right investments can also eliminate or reduce the need to hire additional staff as your organization grows, leveraging economies of scale.
- Extend Your Organization’s Reach – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…everyone is telling you that you need to be reaching out to your constituents through social media and managing email campaigns to engage them, but how are you measuring the results of those efforts? What’s the return on the investment in tools and the staff time to manage them? Choosing the right tools and developing the right reporting mechanisms is critical to answering these questions.
- Raise More Money and/or Recruit Volunteers – Your organization may already have an online donation page or a volunteer application, but how do you engage those supporters in a deeper way that helps turn a $25 donor into a $250 or $2500 donor? How do you provide opportunities for your most passionate volunteers to share their stories with others, thus recruiting more volunteers? Technology can help you understand your constituents better and provide them the tools to engage their networks. So given the great potential that technology has for your organization, how do you tap into it?
