Technology
Strategy: Decision Making for Nonprofit Boards
|
|
Many nonprofit organizations struggle, quite understandably,
with technology planning and investment. New computers, sophisticated
Websites and database systems can be expensive. Staff members
may be resistant to change and to learning new applications.
But, to quote a famous saying from my homeland: “penny wise
can be pound foolish”. Sound and well-thought out purchases
in the short term have the potential to save significant resources
in the medium to long term.
|
|
So, how should your Board of Directors and / or your Technology
Committee approach technology planning and investment?
One technique is to start out with a “blue-sky” session.
First, take an inventory of the capabilities that you currently
have, what’s working in your operations, and your limitations
and frustrations. Then, without consideration of constraints
such as cost or staff resources, list the things that you
should ideally be able to do.
I like to use “What’s the One Thing” questions for
this process to help you focus and prioritize:
- What’s the One Thing that you’re currently doing
that is most valued by your constituents? (i.e. Board, members,
founders, staff, the general public . . .)
- What’s the One Thing that you currently don’t do
that your constituents wish that you would?
- What’s the One Thing that would give you maximum
competitive advantage? (or fundraising edge, or whatever
is your most burning need . . .)
Look at the procedures that are currently absorbing staff
time and resources. Is there potential to streamline these,
or to recreate them in a way that would be more cost-effective?
For example, many organizations produce small informational
leaflets, brief white papers, or regularly updated research
findings. These are sold for a few dollars, which may not
cover the true cost of printing, mailing, and check or credit
card processing.
An alternative is to provide these as downloadable e-books
on your Website. When the buyer enters their credit card,
they gain instant access to your materials in whatever format
you choose – Adobe Acrobat (pdf), Word, html, etc. Once this
system is set up, you should have few maintenance or support
issues, and you’re in business on a 24/7 basis. You can change
the documents whenever you need to, without leaving stocks
of outdated print copies.
Are you using e-mail as effectively as you could? There are
two elements to successful implementation of e-mail:
- Maintaining a comprehensive database of all the
contacts that your organization has, including appropriate
details of your dealings with each one.
This allows you to create personalized, targeted and timely
e-mail messages that you can send to selected recipients,
such as:
- News updates about your organization
- Special events, discount purchase offers
- Legislative alerts and tracking notices
- Fundraising appeals
- Membership renewal reminders
Of course, you should include and adhere to a privacy policy
whenever using e-mail, and you must honor requests to be
removed from your mailing list.
- Having clear e-mail usage procedures. Sometimes
it is preferable to use direct personal contact such as
telephone or letters instead of e-mail – for instance, when
responding to complaints, or thanking donors for gifts.
But your staff should be clear and comfortable about using
e-mail to save time and resources. Sending bulk e-mail from
a good database is faster and cheaper than sending bulk
faxes. One association that I consulted with recently linked
their staff bonuses directly to savings realized from using
e-mail over fax.
A great deal of Board business can be conducted via e-mail.
This may not include actual voting (check your by-laws and
legal obligations for this). But much of the background
information that is provided at a typical Board meeting
could be disseminated by e-mail ahead of time, thus freeing
up valuable meeting time for substantive discussion.
How effective is your Website in promoting and achieving
your strategy? An intranet (password protected area) can be
very useful if you have staff or chapters geographically distant
from your head office. It can provide training materials,
mentoring discussion boards, templates for frequently used
documents, etc. And, you can have a private section of your
site for your Board, as an alternative to sending information
via e-mail.
Depending on your operations, there are other technologies
that might be appropriate for you to consider as you plan
your future strategy and investments. These could include
handheld devices and laptops if you have employees who are
often out of the office. Voice recognition software can be
used for dictation by disabled staff, or those who are really
not comfortable with keyboards. For larger organizations,
virtual private networks may be appropriate for file sharing
and synchronized database maintenance.
Whatever your size, use the strategic and prioritizing “What’s
the One Thing . . .?” questions that I listed above, together
with your estimation of current inefficiencies in staff time
and resources to come up with a wish list. Then you can start
to analyze the potential investments that you need to make,
and the potential savings or revenue that you can realize
in the longer term.
© 2002 Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.
Byline
Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an eBusiness and technology
strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her
free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html
Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317.
|
