Bridging gaps

Published on June 14, 2005

Nonprofits can make more effective use of technology.


By Todd Cohen

Despite progress, nonprofits must do a lot more to get the technology they need and integrate it into their operations, experts say.

“Nonprofits still for the most part are not investing in their own technology-related needs in a smart fashion,” says Marc Osteen, president of Summit Collaborative, a consulting firm in Amherst, Mass.

Nonprofits also often fail to integrate the different pieces of their technology, experts say.

“Information is scattered and fragmented, and therefore useless for the organization as a whole,” says Susan Packard Orr, founder and chairman of Telosa Software, a software firm in Palo Alto, Calif.

And with high turnover at small nonprofits, she says, helping employees understand how an organization’s technology works is critical.

Working with the national office of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Oak Brook, Ill., for example, her firm is developing a technology-procedures manual that each of its local chapters can use and modify as needed.

Nonprofits also need to figure out how to use technology to better tell their stories, says Tim Mills-Groninger, associate director of the IT Resource Center, a Chicago nonprofit that provides technology assistance to local nonprofits.

“The whole infotainment world in general wants more content,” he says. “What role are we going to play in that, and is it going to be associated with our mission?”

Nonprofits also must make more strategic use of their technology, says Jason Saul, founder and CEO of B2P Commerce, a Chicago-based software firm.

“The fundamental game of fundraising is changing from contacting donors to convincing them that you are the most effective organization at generating a particular result that people care about,” he says.

Using the web and email to build communities and spur civic activism represent big opportunities and challenges for nonprofits, experts say.

“More and more nonprofits are beginning to think about how to use software to connect people with each other,” says Osteen.

Community Partners, a network of more than 600 health-care workers throughout Massachusetts, for example, has launched a Health Access Network website to connect its members.

Making online connections easier and more effective also is the focus of two increasingly popular technologies known as blogs and RSS.

By using weblogs to link to and comment on online information involving causes they care about, nonprofits can more easily share and focus attention on that information, and raise their own profile with constituents, partners and donors, says Marnie Webb, director of TechCommons for San Francisco-based CompuMentor.

And by using “really simple syndication” that lets visitors sign up to receive personalized notifications about new content at their websites, she says, nonprofits can more easily keep constituents informed about their work.

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