Ten Things (Just Ten!) That Every Nonprofit Executive Needs to Know About Information Technology
Deborah Elizabeth Finn, is a local NPO tech maven. She has pulled together a concise list of 10 important things every NPO leader should know about technology.
1. Very little technical knowledge is required in order for nonprofit CEOs to participate actively in strategic IT planning.
2. Your board of directors should be calling for and participating in your strategic information technology planning.
3. A tremendous number of high-quality resources for strategic IT planning are available to nonprofits at no charge.
4. You can keep an eye on innovations in IT, and think about possible uses for them in the nonprofit sector, even if you don’t have a technical background.I
5. Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your nonprofit organization any money.It will, however, enable you to work more effectively.
6. You need an in-house IT committee.Convene an Information Technology team or working group, within your nonprofit, and make sure that you meet regularly to give input to the senior management on strategic IT issues.
7. Secretaries and administrative assistants should be the lynchpins of your IT infrastructure.
8. In the long run, IT training and support (and other operating expenses) will make up about 70% of your IT budget.
9. Donated hardware, software, and services can cost a nonprofit more than purchased products or services in the long run.
10. In a nonprofit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.I
BONUS ITEMS: Hands-on IT skills that the CEO, CFO, and COO of every small nonprofit ought to have:
How to compose, send, read, and delete email, using the organization’s standard application.
How to create and save a simple text document, using the organization’s standard application.
How to do the daily back up of the system.
How to bring down and bring up the network server.
More detail here:
Ten Things (Just Ten!) That Every Nonprofit Executive Needs to Know About Information Technology