Technology Strategy for Non Profits

During the last year I have spent a decent amount of time implementing a technology strategy for a Houston Non Profit Organization ASTD Houston of which I am a board member. I have learned quite a bit about what works and what doesn’t as well as the potential payoff for implementing various types of technology in this type of environment. I break the various technologies we use into five categories. Future posts will deal with each of these categories in detail.

Main Website
Collaboration Tools
Social Networks
Widgets
Back Office

I think we can safely make some generalizations about non profit organizations as a whole, particularly in the economy we face in the near future.

Budgets are tight and will get tighter - Most of the budget gets allocated to programs that add value to members or serve the client base of the organization, therefore, there is little money to spend on technology.

Volunteers run the show - Not all, but many non profits are primarily run by volunteers. This means that the skills, interests and motivations of those volunteers can vary widely.

Communication is a challenge - Attention is difficult to obtain , fragmentation of media makes this even more of a challenge.

Leadership is temporary - Great leaders are made and when leaders frequently change positions or leave the NPO it takes time to replace that knowledge base.

Members are multigenerational - Reaching out effectively and engaging members or clients from multiple generations is a challenge when different generations place different values on various types of programs.

A successful technology strategy has to take all of these factors into account and create a clear picture of how each technology contributes to overall goals of the organization. I can’t wait to dig into this topic further.