John Kenyon www.johnkenyon.org
Who is John? 15 years helping non-profits, ex CompuMentor; wrote eNonprofit guide; worked in groundspring.org; teaches Masters of Non-profit course in USF
Show of hands
- Orgs with 30+ people 10%
- 10-30 people 50%
- 1-10 people 40%
- How many have a technology plan – 1 maybe 4
- 90%+ don’t have a plan
What technology should I use? = What house should I buy? Key question : What do you need?
Nonprofits & technology
Appropriate technology, how to get. Involves:
- Systems analysis – what is my context, my competition, how do they serve
- Planning – you get what you plan for
- Hardware
- Software
- Databases
- The internet
- Online services
- The future
- Keep coming back to what you need
- Don’t ask the vendors
Work systems framework
- Elements / Principles
- Customers - know what the customers need / Please the customer
- Products & services / ditto
- Business process – to produce p&s / Perform the work efficiently – if your inefficient, technology will just speed up your inefficiency
- Participants / Serve the participants
- Information / Create value from information
- Technology – call the vendor’s customer service, see how long it takes to to get served / minimize effort consumed by technology
- Infrastructure – other things like phones, structure etc / deploy infrastructure as a genuine resource
- Context – who’s your competition – spend 20-30 hours researching who do, how do, what tech they use, history
Balance results, people, process
- Users and audiences
- Board
- Staff
- Major donors
- Members
- Prospects
Systems & Planning
- Roles – identify team – cio function, org perspective; consultant function – outside tech expert; org stakeholder – process/people perspective; end-user perspective
Key elements of a plan
- Organization profile
- Technology vision statement
- Project – description, benefits, tasks, costs
- Budget
- Timeline/critical path
Key steps in planning
- Assess current tech & organization readiness
- Create the team, consider consulting support
- State the vision, develop criteria, set goals
- Create components of the plan
- Establish priorities
- Share/explain the plan, get feedback
- Make decision, develop budget & timeline
- Implement the plan, train staff
- Evaluate: technology, implementation, process, planning
- Revise plan based on evaluation
Security & Privacy
- Data security
- Backups
- Restores
- Privacy policies (see groundspring.org’s)
10 Nonprofit Tech Commandments
- After people, data is your most important resource
- Your results depend on your investment in data (staff time, planning, training, resources, allocated)
- Define and know your data needs and uses
- Seek out data and keep it flowing
- Define your needs in detail before tool selection. Have tools? Regularly review new tools
- Honestly look at your information systems (human, data, and communication elements)
- Maintain commitment of board and staff to technology
- Have an ongoing conversation about data
- Keep in touch with other organizations
- Knowledge eases fear, stay in the know
70/30 rule – support & maintenance account for 70% of your tech cost
Recap
- Business processes are the key
- Appropriate technology : need, culture, resources
- Measure twice, cut once
- Learn about the enonprofit & webification of stakeholders
- Technology can transform organizations
Resources
Books
- ManagingNonprofits.org (management)
- Work for good (planning)
- The accidental techie (hands-on)
- The eNonprofit guide to ASPs, Internet services, and online software
- Online fundraising handbook
Internet
- Techsoup.org – nonprofits + technology
- N-TEN.org – listservs & resources
- Idealware.org – software reviews
- TechFinder.org, techunderground.org – tech consultants
- Craigslist.org/../non-profit – recruitment
- Successful internet strategies
- A decade of online fundraising