Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) dedicate themselves to important missions to make the world a better place. Their success, however, doesn’t depend only on their seemingly bottomless determination and selflessness—it also depends on their ability to make the best use of available digital technology.
Alarmingly, only 11 percent of NPOs view their approaches to digital as highly effective, according to a long-running survey of technology use by NetCharge. The remaining 89 percent of NPOs don’t achieve their full potential because they rely on outdated processes, waste their limited financial resources by supporting legacy infrastructure, and spend valuable time trying to solve technical problems they’re not really competent to solve.
The solution? A partnership with a managed services provider (MSP) that has a keen understanding of technological needs NPOs have and plenty of experience to overcome the common constraints all organizations in the nonprofit sector face. The right MSP can then help in the following ways.
1. Hassle-Free Access to New Technologies
The information technology industry is evolving at a pace faster than most NPOs can keep up with. For the last several years, we’ve been witnessing a massive explosion of cloud computing.
Many organizations have moved their entire infrastructures to a cloud-based model to benefit from its scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness. In the near future, artificial intelligence and machine learning are expected to be the next huge drivers of competitive advantage and enhancers of productivity.
MSPs are dedicated to making new technologies accessible for their customers, and they leverage economies of scale to offer affordable prices so that even cash-strapped nonprofits can benefit from best-in-class digital solutions.
The IT experts employed by MSPs provide organizations assistance from initial planning through the implementation of the selected solution all the way to its ongoing maintenance, eliminating the need to staff an in-house IT department.
2. Predictable IT Budgeting
When finances are limited, every single IT expense has to be justified well and planned even better. The last thing any NPO wants to deal with is a sudden resignation letter from an important IT employee, especially now when the entire IT sector is experiencing a major shortage of skilled talent.
NPOs that decide to outsource their IT needs and worries to an MSP can rest assured, knowing their budget will never take a surprise hit. MSPs use several predictable pricing models that reflect the size of each customer and effectively reduce all IT expenses into a single fixed fee. When NPOs know exactly how much money to allocate toward IT each month, they can better support other important business functions.
3. Robust Data Security and Compliance
NPOs spend a considerable amount of effort building relationships with their donors, but a single data breach incident can be enough to harm them irreparably. The moment donors discover that their personal information has been exposed in a breach often marks the end of their support and the start of legal consequences.
Because of how complex the cybersecurity landscape has become, even small NPOs with limited online presence need to see cybersecurity as a necessary investment. A cybersecurity-savvy MSP can perform an initial vulnerability assessment to discover all weaknesses before suggesting the implementation of a set of controls and policies to eliminate them.
4. Ongoing Business Continuity Management
Smaller organizations sometimes believe the mere existence of backups provides sufficient protection against all kinds of data loss incidents. In reality, backups are useful only if they are up to date, regularly tested to ensure their recoverability, and stored in multiple safe locations.
Most organizations that don’t have a comprehensive business continuity management program don’t meet at least one of the three above-listed requirements. And the worst thing is that they typically realize how inadequate their backups are only when it’s already too late.
Instead of spreading themselves thin by implementing a business continuity management program from the ground up to maintain business functions and quickly resume after a data loss disaster has occurred, NPOs should leave this critically important task up to professionals.
An MSP that has a wealth of experience with backup and disaster recovery will be able to avoid common implementation mistakes to guarantee that all data is recoverable even under the worst conditions imaginable.
5. Workplace Flexibility and Scalability
We live in challenging times, and the needs and means of NPOs can change rapidly. One day, volunteers are collecting donations from the members of their communities. The next day, they are required to shelter in place and work only from their homes.
To cope with so much unpredictability, NPOs need to be both flexible and scalable—something that’s not possible with fixed IT resources and support staff.
MSPs expect their customers’ needs to fluctuate, and their services reflect this in every way. From flexible pricing to cloud migration support, a capable MSP makes it easy to achieve the desired level of workplace flexibility and scalability so that all challenges can be adequately responded to.
Managed IT Services for Nonprofits from Aligned Technology Solutions, LLC
At Aligned Technology Solutions, we’re always delighted to work with nonprofit organizations and help them take advantage of available technology solutions to better accomplish their important missions.
Our comprehensive IT services encompass everything from IT planning to cybersecurity to end-user support while being neatly bundled into a fixed-fee subscription model that makes unexpected expenses a thing of the past.
To learn more information about how our managed IT services can help your nonprofit organization thrive, contact us today.
