By Ero Gray - Finding money to pay for technology, and especially to pay IT staff, is a perpetual problem for many nonprofits, especially those whose budgets are on the small side. The plain fact is that it's relatively easy to come by a grant or donation to provide a few computers, but it's often difficult to fundraise for the personnel costs involved in getting an IT pro to set up computers or software, and forget about maintaining them for your program staff, once they're in use, and once you start having problems with them.
Paying expensive IT consultants for maintenance can be a real drain on the general ledger, and finding a good IT consultant in the first place can be exasperatingly difficult. But while computers and software are expensive, personnel costs are far pricier, and when systems stop working, your staff stops working too. It's hard to prove effectiveness to funders when your spreadsheets are written in pencil.
CRE consultants often observe variations on a theme: small nonprofits working hard, on computers and networks that are hardly working.
Unfortunately, it's pretty much impossible to get around the need for expertise; if you don't have at least a little bit of access to qualified and knowledgeable IT staff, you're pretty much going to have broken systems sooner or later. The tools we use in modern offices are complex; maintenance is required, and staff members often need assistance. However, there are some things you can do to make the most out of not very much, and my intent in the following series of blog posts is to help executive directors and other managers of small nonprofits know enough about common IT topics to help make good decisions. This won't mean you can do without IT staff, but with any luck it will help you assess IT decisions a little better, even when IT staff aren't around, and perhaps help you communicate with IT staff more effectively when they're available.
The overview is simple enough: you want systems that are effective, stable, and easy to use. This doesn't seem like too much to ask, right? However, the specifics can get tricky, especially when the only help you can afford is from your geeky son-in-law or a grumpy consultant who comes once a month and doesn't like people. So I'll be addressing what makes computer systems effective; what makes computer systems stable; and what you can do to ensure that they're easy to use. These, to my mind, are what’s important about IT systems: effectiveness, stability, ease of use.
At this point you may be asking yourself, didn't I leave out inexpensive? Well, yes and no. Inexpensive is important, but effectiveness, stability and ease of use will save you so much money in the long run that they really should be considered top priority. I'll point out ways to save money where I'm able, but overall I'll be focused on the big picture.
So, to start with the obvious question: what makes for effectiveness in IT systems?
The easiest answer is this: IT systems are effective insofar as they serve your mission.
More practically, this means you want systems that you don't have to spend too much time taking care of; that are appropriate to your needs, and that require little as little maintenance as possible.
Every organization has different needs. Your mission and program are (hopefully) unique, at least in your community. Your staff, inevitably, are unique individuals too, with an ever-changing set of skills and motivations. Your office is going to be a little different from every other office, and what you use your computers for will be a little different as a result. So to some extent I'm going to make generalizations here in the hope that you'll be able to apply them to your specific case. Do remember that your specific case is what counts.
Let's look at the types of things we use computer systems for.
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We write documents and store and share those documents.
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We send email.
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We track and budget our finances.
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We track our program and measure effectiveness.
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We track donors and fundraising.
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We access the internet.
Out of necessity, I'm going to divide this discussion into individual blog posts, by topic, which will cover the above and more:
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Choosing and acquiring computers, printers, basic software
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Networking, the internet, and communications
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Email Document collaboration and backups;
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Security, viruses, and malware
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Financial software
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Donor databases
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Client and program tracking databases.
Next week: IT Without IT, Part 1: Choosing and acquiring computers, printers, and basic software.
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