Non-profit technology

Organisation
Nonprofit technology is the deliberative use of technology by nonprofit organizations to maximize potential in numerous areas, primarily in supporting the organization mission and meeting reporting requirements to funders and regulators. Types of technology do not differ between nonprofit and for profit organizations. Nonprofit technology is differentiated by specific strategies and purposes. Numerous nonprofit organizations approach technology with an emphasis on cost effectiveness due to limited budgets. Information technology in particular offers low cost solutions for non profits to address administrative, service and marketing needs. Technology deployment grants nonprofits the opportunity to better allocate staff resources away from administrative tasks to focus on direct services provided by the organization.

Due to the topic's inherent breadth of reach and the constantly changing nature of technology in general, the sphere of nonprofit technology is somewhat difficult to define. Despite this, in order to provide a stable foundation upon which the remainder of this discussion can stand, it is necessary to engage in laying a groundwork of both baseline and integrated definitional constructs. Nonprofit technology can be generally defined as any technological tool that assists a nonprofit organization by helping it to work with greater social impact in forwarding the overall organizational mission. Technology is essential to effectively advancing and managing a nonprofit, playing an important role in the advertisement of goods and services offered, the communication of mission, and the recruitment of volunteers among other things. From thoughtful utilization to enhance both internal and external organizational communication efforts, to increased ability to measure, evaluate, and more successfully track and engage specific initiatives, the use of technology within the nonprofit sector is wide ranging. Technology use associated with nonprofits is not dedicated in nature, that is, technologies and specific uses of such technology by nonprofits cannot be linked solely to the nonprofit sector. Because of this, constructing a definition of nonprofit technology is based in large part on use.

Nonprofit organizations use computers, Internet and other networking technology for a number of tasks, including volunteer management and support, donor management, client tracking and support, project management, human resources (paid staff) management, financial accounting, program evaluation, research, marketing, activism and collaboration. Nonprofit organizations that engage in income generation activities, such as ticket sales, may also use technology for these functions. Some technology programs are created specifically for use by nonprofit organizations. For instance, there are more than 30 software packages designed for nonprofits to use to analyse donations, manage volunteers. There is software designed to help in the management of animal shelters, software to help nonprofit manage pets, animal rescue, county code management software to help nonprofit performing arts groups sell tickets and manage donors, software to manage sports clubs, and on and on. Nonprofit organizations also use both proprietary and open source software, as well as various online tools (the World Wide Web, email, online social networking, wikis, volunteer web blogs micro blogging, etc. ), that are also used by for profit businesses. Nonprofit groups may leverage web based services in their media outreach, using online newswires such as Nonprofit Newswire. com to disseminate their press releases. Because of their limited budgets, nonprofit organizations may not be able to upgrade their hardware or software, buy computers or Internet tools, or provide technology training for staff to the degree of for profit businesses. This means that, often, nonprofit organizations can be on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Implemented correctly, technology stands to benefit nonprofits in a variety of ways. One obvious benefit is the dissemination of information. Technological tools (e. g., computers and cellular telephones) and platforms (e. g., Facebook and Twitter) allow for the aggregation and wide scale distribution of knowledge and information. To the extent that tools and platforms can be integrated, nonprofits may better serve themselves and their clients. Krause and Quick discussed a melding of this sort in the area of "maternal health interventions". By combining Facebook's social networking platform with SMS text messaging, the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC) was able to launch a new initiative, which it dubbed "Mama." Mama's mission is to bring clinical practitioners together in a virtual forum (i. e., their Facebook page) for purposes of information sharing and support. Given the remote locales of many maternal health workers, regular access to the Internet can prove difficult, if not impossible. To the extent, then, that technology can be viewed as a long term administrative cost saver, it becomes increasingly likely that nonprofits will become adopters of information technology. Hamann and Bezboruah advanced this premise in a recent study, noting that nonprofits may have greater incentive to deploy technology for the accomplishment of administrative tasks as opposed to provision of care tasks. A final and largely unquantifiable benefit of nonprofit technology is the degree to which these tools can and do save lives. Mama, in particular, has developed a "Lives Saved Counter" to allow members to document each time they save a "woman's, girl's, or newborn's life". Referencing organizational partners and supporters is one way in which these ideals can be expressed through social media use. Examples of such interactional components for a nonprofit website might include: downloadable video, RSS feeds, chat rooms, polls or surveys, linked publications and always, contact information. Due to these issues, it has become increasingly important for non profits to be aware of best practices and potential pitfalls when adopting effective IT practices in the public sector. Planning has become one of the most important practices for the successful strategic utilization of information technology. A 2003 study found that 79 percent of organizations in 2003 (up from 55 percent in 2000) had some sort of "strategic plan" specifically for the use of the Internet, tending to be "medium sized charities with medium income and larger Web budgets, as well as those that set their sites up earlier and update them more frequently." Among the most important practices in IT planning are budgeting, training and staffing. A 2007 study from the Public Administration Review shows that the majority of nonprofits budget for purchasing and upgrading hardware (57 percent) and software (58 percent), as well as computer maintenance (63 percent), but only 36 percent budget for computer related training. However, these planning methods receive only 9 percent of the budget after personnel costs are removed, which is of particular importance because 56 percent of nonprofits report that less than 2 percent is available for these essential IT activities. The amount set aside for training varies considerablydepending on overall budgets, making training a luxury for lower budget organizations.