6 Steps to Getting Your Nonprofit to Embrace New Technology

TARGETED COMMUNICATION. MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT.

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GETTING YOUR BOARDON BOARD

6 Steps to Getting Your Nonprofit to Embrace New Technology

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10 South 23rd Street, Richmond, VA 23223 804.318.3522 www.muster.com 2

Many nonprofits struggle to keep up in today’s ever-changing technology environment. However, even when organizations suffer glaring inefficiencies, investing in new technology to alleviate these issues is rarely a top priority. Your Board might argue that the learning curve for adopting new technologies is too steep or that your organization has exhausted its budget. After all, nonprofits have limited resources and Boards are quick to shoot down any investment that will not provide an immediate benefit to members.

But the reality is that internal technologies directly affect an organization’s success in attracting and retaining members. Improving your backend systems will lighten your staff’s workload and allow them to focus on the programs and projects that your members value.

Presenting a comprehensive, well-thought-out proposal will force your Board to take you seriously and help you prepare for any objections. However, writing a formal proposal is a huge undertaking and many don’t know where to begin. Since many nonprofits are short on the staff, time and resources to streamline this process, we created a step-by-step guide to help you get started.

INTRODUCTION

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Identify Your Staff’s Biggest

Challenges

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Doing thorough research and mapping out your proposal’s ROI will get you a long way in convincing even the most stubborn Board of Directors to approve your proposal. But before you start mapping out the benefits that your proposal will provide, you must first convince your Board that your current systems are inadequate.

To convince a Board that antiquated technology systems are slowing you down, you will need to provide proof of inefficiencies. For example, if you send out invoices for membership-dues manually, you should record the average amount of time it would take a staff member to send each invoice out. Next, you should use that number to create a rough estimate of the amount of time your staff is wasting on repetitive, manual tasks. By providing your Board with concrete examples of inefficiencies, they will begin to see the value in automating some of these tasks.

01: Identify Your Staff’s Biggest Challenges

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Determine Your Organization’s

Needs

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Presenting your Board with your staff’s major challenges is not going to be enough to convince them to invest in technology for your organization. You need to do the legwork in determining what kind of technology will provide the most value to your organization.

Once you have determined some of your staff’s biggest challenges you will need to prioritize them. While you may not be able to find an all-encompassing service to solve every problem facing your organization, you should aim to solve the biggest challenges, even if it means implementing multiple platforms.

A good first step is to determine whether a comprehensive platform with cross-functional capabilities or a more specialized service is best for your organization. Keep in mind that most successful non-profits use several different software systems to accomplish their goals.

The number of nonprofits that believe

technology is a key in the organization’s strategy for

success is on the rise.

In 2014, 64% of nonprofits included technology as part of

their strategic plan.

Did You Know?

Source: The 8th Annual Nonprofit Technology Staffing

and Investments Reporthttp://www.nten.org/NTEN_images/reports/staffing_report2014_final1.pdf

http://www.nten.org/NTEN_images/reports/staffing_report2014_final1.pdf


02: Determine Your Organization’s Needs

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Comprehensive Services Specialized Services

Services like Memberclicks and Nationbuilder provide a vast array of nonprofit-management functions.

Muster – advocacy and communications platform.

If you opt for a more specialized service, you will first need to determine which functions are most important to your nonprofit and go from there.

DonorSnap – donor and fundraising tools.

Mailchimp – e-mail marketingservice.

Billhighway – platform for automating dues, finances, and fundraising

HigherLogic – suite of social networking, collaboration and community tools.

02: Determine Your Organization’s Needs

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EvaluateYour Options

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By thoroughly researching the different options available, you will be able to determine which software services are best-suited for your organization’s needs. The sheer number of software services designed to serve nonprofits is overwhelming and doing this research can be time-consuming but there are many resources available to speed up the process.

Once you have narrowed down your list to the 2 or 3 best options, schedule phone calls or demos with sales-representatives from each platform you are evaluating. They will be able to give you a good idea of how their software will bring value to your organization and compare their service against competitors. If the option is available, you should also take advantage of free trials to compare functionality and ease-of-use.

Capterra is a service that categorizes different B2B software platforms by core-function, making it easy to

compare similar services by features and price.Tip!

03: Evaluate Your Options

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Make a Recommendation

and Outline the Benefits

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Now that you have thoroughly researched, tested and compared your options, you should feel confident in making a recommendation on the software your nonprofit should purchase.

To convince your Board the software will solve some of your staff’s biggest challenges you will need to outline the technology-benefit link. The key is to connect each of the core features of your technology solution to time and money savings. As an added bonus, you can even map out how those savings can be reinvested in programs that benefit your members.

Did You Know?

04: Make a Recommendation and Outline the Benefits

While more than 65% of nonprofits

reported that their strategic plan includes technology

components, almost half said they “are not conducting any

assessments to figure out their return on investment from

technology spending.”Source: The 8th Annual

Nonprofit Technology Staffing and Investments Reporthttp://www.nten.org/NTEN_images/reports/staffing_report2014_final1.pdf



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Map Your Costs and

Project ROI

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The most common objections your Board members will have to investing in new technology will be related to cost or budgetary constraints. By projecting a return on investment, your Board willl be more

willing to fund the initial investment.

05: Map Your Costs and Project ROI

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Present Case Studies

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Fun Fact!

The James River Association increased their supporter-base by

14x using Muster!

Aside from the cost of implementing a new technology system, the next most common objection you will hear from a Board are the associated risks. When it comes to convincing your Board that a technology solution has worked for similar organizations, the proof is in the pudding. Most B2B companies have Case Studies available on their websites. If not, contact a Sales Representative and ask for Case Studies that are applicable to your organization’s major challenges.

Get Case Study

06: Present Case Studies

At Muster, we are committed to helping nonprofits unleash the power of technology. To learn more about our nonprofit solutions or

to view our resources, visit us at www.muster.com.

Government & Nonprofit

6 Steps to Getting Your Nonprofit to Embrace New Technology