Ten Things (Just Ten!) That Every Nonprofit Needs to Know About Information Technology

Van: Information_Systems_Forum@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 06:26:17 -0400
From: Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Subject: RE: Ten Things (Just Ten!) That Every Nonprofit Needs to Know About Information Technology

Ten Things (Just Ten!) That Every Nonprofit Needs to Know About InformationTechnology
A workshop presented at the 2003 Technology Conference for Nonprofit Organizations the Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc
June 11, 2003
Poughkeepsie, NY

Workshop goal: To introduce you to some basics of strategic IT planning, to point you to some first-rate free resources, and provide some very practical tips for getting started.

Recommended for: Nonprofit decision-makers who have little or no background in information technology.
Workshop facilitator: Deborah Elizabeth Finn, Cyber-Yenta

1. Very little technical knowledge is required in order for nonprofit CEOsto participate actively in strategic IT planning. As long as you thoroughly understand your organization's overall mission, strategy, and tactics and (are willing to learn a little bit about the technology), you can keep your information technology infrastructure on target.
   
   Example: Your mission is to save the whales (not to maintain a local area network)! In order to save the whales, you need a strategy: to stay informed and inform others about the issues, lobby for policy changes, issue action alerts, raise money, and maintain relationships with various legislators, constituents, communities, donors, potential friends and allies. Keep pressing for tactics that will help you achieve your desired outcomes (saving whales); this will enable you to hold your own in most discussions with technical experts.
2. Your board of directors should be calling for and participating in your strategic information technology planning. If they're not, it's time to recruit some board members who are techies. For example, your region probably has an internet service provider, a high-tech corporation, or a large retail firm with an extensive IT department. Perhaps you can recruit representatives from these organizations to serve on your board as part of their community benefits program.
3. A tremendous number of high-quality resources for strategic IT planningare available to nonprofits at no charge. (See resource list)
4. You can keep an eye of innovations in IT, and think about possible usesfor them in the nonprofit sector, even if you don't have a technical background.
   
   If you regularly read the technology columns of a good daily newspaper, anda few general interest magazines such as "PC Monthly," "MAC User," or "Network World," you will soon catch on to the basic concepts and terminology. (Don't worry if it seems over your head at first - you'll catch on! Everybody has to start somewhere.)
   
   Example: You work for a nonprofit organization with five employees and fournon-networked computers. It's time to link them up so that you and yourcolleagues can share information and regularly back up your work. As youread articles on wireless networking, and look at the building where you work - which is a pre-electricity Victorian house only somewhat successfully retrofitted for its current functions - you see that you may actually save money by going wireless. You ask your IT vendors for estimates on drilling and running cables through the building, and find that the cost of labor, support, upgrades, future expansion, and maintenance for a more conventional network will exceed that of a simple wireless network.
5. Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your nonprofit organization any money.
   
   It will, however, enable you to work more effectively. You will probably be able to do more work, of higher quality, with fewer person hours. But don't be surprised if this raises the bar of expectations on the part of the board, the community, the clients, the constitutions, and the donors!
6. 6)You need an in-house IT committee.
   Convene an Information Technology team or working group, within yournonprofit, and make sure that you meet regularly to give input to the seniormanagement on strategic IT issues. The team should include a cross-sectionof staff - administration and finance, programmatic, secretarial. Be sure to include staff members who are overtly or covertly technophobic; their concerns should be addressed.
7. Secretaries and administrative assistants should be the lynchpins of yourIT infrastructure. Budgeting for IT training for these employees can be one of your best investments.
   
   Which staff members are more likely to be there when problems arise, to knowabout the technical abilities (and phobias) of their colleagues, and to be know where the (paper or electronic) files are? Professional development that includes IT training is likely to increase job satisfaction and employee retention. Don't forget to revise job descriptions and job titles as your secretaries and administrative assistants move into IT management responsibilities!
8. In the long run, IT training and support will make up about 70% of your IT budget. The more obvious line items - such as hardware, software, and network services - will comprise about 30%.
   
   This is a highly counter-intuitive fact of nonprofit life. However, there is a great deal of research on the "Total Cost of Ownership" that bears this out.
9. Donated hardware, software, and services can cost a nonprofit more than purchased products or services in the long run.
   
   The cost in person hours of using and maintaining non-standard or sub-standard configurations is astonishingly high, and donated equipment tends to be in non-standard or sub-standard. Likewise, donated services will cost you a great deal of time in support, supervision, and ongoing maintenance. Beware of the web site design services donated by a close relative of the chair of your board! You may end up with something that you don't like, can't use or can't easily change.
10. In a nonprofit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.
    
    Is it a CEO who is resistant to technical innovations? A board of directors that hesitates to make the commitment to raise the money need for the IT infrastructure? Line staff who are already stressed and overworked, and can't stop to learn and implement new technologies? Inability to make outsourced IT consultants or in-house IT staff understand organizational processes? All the information technology in the world won't resolve these issues, if you don't address them at the organizational level.
11. Bonus Item: Hands-on IT skills that every nonprofit CEO, CFO, and COO ought to have: * How to compose, send, read, and delete email, using the organization's standard application. * How to create and save a simple text document, using the organization'sstandard application. * How to do the daily backup of the system. * How to bring down and bring up the network server.

About your facilitator: Deborah Elizabeth Finn is a self-described Cyber-Yenta, an independent technology consultant who lives only to help nonprofits and foundations fulfill their missions by bringing IT needs and resources together seamlessly. One of her major projects this year has been assisting the Boston Foundation in creating the new web based version of the Boston Indicators Report (http://www.bostonindicators.org). More information about her background may be found at http://www.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/definnresume.htm) . She is always happy to offer nonprofits and foundations a telephone consultation at no charge, so please feel free to be in touch with follow-up questions after this workshop.

Workshop Resource List

This resource list is based on a compiliation by Summit Collaborative
(http://www.summitcollaborative) for its Strategic Technology Program
(http://www.strategictechnology.org), with help from members of the Circuit Rider community (riders@npogroups.org).

Comments are by Deborah Elizabeth Finn.

Resource/People Connectors

Techsoup (http://www.techsoup.org)
This is the premiere web site for nonprofit technology. Although it may take some effort to understand how the information is arranged, you should always check here first for answers to your questions.

Idealist (http://www.idealist.org)
The best web site for advertising or finding a job in the nonprofit sector. It also has a searchable database of nonprofit events, resources, and organizations.
Meetup (http://www.meetup.com)
This service coordinates local, in person meetings among internet users who share an interest, issue, or cause. They don't necessarily do a good job of vetting the meeting places, but they offer a way to arrange meetings at no cost to your nonprofit or the attendees.

Volunteer match (http://www.volunteermatch.org

Democracy Groups (http://democracygroups.org/)

Tools Designed To Help With Tech Assessment/Training

Techatlas (http://techatlas.org)

TechSets (http://www.techsets.org/)

TechSurveyor (http://techsurveyor.npower.org/techsurveyor/)

TrainingPoint (http://www.trainingpoint.org)

NPO Information Aggregators/Intermediaries

Foundation Center (http://www.fdncenter.org/)
A wealth of information, particularly about where the funding comes from, and where it's going.

Guide Star (http://www.guidestar.org)
The definitive online searchable database of basic information about nonprofits and foundations. The information is derived from Form 990s filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Many of the entities listed are very small or dormant, so when you start doing a search it's easy to overestimate the number of nonprofits that are active in a given sub-sector.

Nonprofits News (http://news.gilbert.org)
Michael Gilbert, the editor of the "Nonprofit Online News," is quite the contrarian, as well as an excellent guide to what issues that every nonprofit professional should keep in mind.

ONE/Northwest's Activist Toolkit (http://www.onenw.org/toolkit) It's always worthwhile to keep an eye on what ONE/Northwest has on offer. Although their mission is to serve environmental groups in the Pacific Northwest, they make many of their excellent resources available to everyone in the nonprofit sector at no charge.

Web Site/Email Tools
Bobbytest (http://www.cast.org/bobby) Do you know whether your web site can be easily used by persons with disabilities? If not, it's time to put it to the test. Bobby will help you pinpoint the trouble spots.

Yahoo Groups/Email (http://www.yahoo.com)
This free service enables you to create email distribution lists quickly and easily. A great way to get out your urgent action bulletins, or to foster online community among your organization's friends and stakeholders.

OrgMasters List (http://www.discussionpro.com/orgwebmasters/)
This is an email distribution list that provides a peer group for webmasters of nonprofit web sites.

Atomz Search (http://www.atomz.com/search/)

NPO Groups (http://www.npogroups.org)

Network For Good (http://www.networkforgood.org)

Groundspring (http://www.groundspring.org)

GKG (Domain Name Host) (http://www.gkg.net)

CrystalTech (Web host) (http://www.crystaltech.org)

Link Popularity (http://www.marketleap.com/services/freetools/default.htm)

Online Petitions (http://www.petitiononline.com/)

Action Studio (http://www.actionstudio.org/)

Productivity Tools

Web-Based Calendars (http://www.calendars.net)

Connected (http://www.connected.com)

Free Fax Server (http://www.tpc.int/)

Evite (http://www.evite.com)

Free Conferences (http://www.freeconferences.com)

Instant Messenger
- http://www.easymessage.net/
- http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/trillian/index.html
- http://fire.sourceforge.net/

Surveymonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com)

Avantgo (http://my.avantgo.com)

Webwasher (http://www.webwasher.com)

Spam Filtering/Outlook (http://www.upserve.com)

Knowledge Management Tools

Backflip (online bookmark organizer/sharing tool) (http://www.backflip.com)

Blogger (knowledge sharing tool) (http://www.blogger.com)

Research Tools
Google (http://www.google.com)
The industry standard in web search engines.

Kartoo (http://www.kartoo.com)
A wonderful resource for visual thinkers who are doing research on the web.

Mapquest (http://www.mapquest.com)
If you know the addresses of your starting point and destination, you can get detailed maps and driving directions from this site.
Mysimon (http://www.mysimon.com)

C-NET (http://www.cnet.com)

United States Post Office/Zip Code Locater (http://www.usps.com/zip4/)

Price Grabber (http://www.pricegrabber.com)

Computer Security Tools

Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware)
Do your PCs have hidden "spyware?" Ad-Aware is a free application that willalert you to such lurkers and give you the option of deleting them.

ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com)
You can set up a firewall for your stand-alone or networked PC. Very usefulif you are surfing the web from a laptop or desktop that has confidential data.

AdSubtract (http://www.adsubtract.com)
This product will enable you to surf the web without the nuisance of banner ads, pop-up ads, or other extras (background music, javascript, background images, animations) that waste time and bandwidth. You can also configure it to refuse cookies from all or some web sites.

Strategic IT Planning

The Information Systems Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Information_Systems_Forum)
An email distribution list for nonprofit professionals who want to use technology to help fulfill their organizations' missions. The members range from the techno-phobic to the techno-savvy, and share news, information, advice, and referrals on an informal, collegial basis.

Strategic Technology (http://www.strategicplanning.org)
A wealth of lesson plans, worksheets, and templates for nonprofit organizations.