Running a non-profit organization always comes with big challenges. Securing donors, managing volunteers, and balancing a tight budget form only a few of the many tasks on a nonprofit’s daily to-do list, all of which requires a lot of effort and resources.
In today’s digital world, those challenges have multiplied. Not only that—to stay productive and competitive, an organization must be able to leverage data insights for agile, rapid solutions.
Managed IT support services can provide nonprofits with a group of dedicated technology experts, to help them navigate today’s fast-paced digital landscape.
Usually, the image people picture when it comes to IT is technology specialists working for a for-profit company. Certainly nonprofits have different priorities and needs than a traditional business; though nonprofits need just as much organization and efficiency to achieve their goals.
Nonprofits face many challenges including legal, regulatory, financial, and staffing for both day-to-day operations and achieving future goals for their organization.
Managed IT support services provide technology solutions to unite your IT and organizational goals and get the best outcomes out of both.
At Vudu, we want to bring the digital infrastructure and management frameworks used by enterprise businesses to nonprofits striving to make a difference. Our team helps nonprofits become more efficient in their daily operation, and we work with them to create a roadmap for the future.
Here’s how managed IT can help nonprofits optimize, strategize, and achieve their goals.
1. Discerning a Strategic Vision
2. Making the Right Tech Investments
3. Helping Volunteers Work More Efficiently
4. Managing a Smooth Execution
5. Managed IT Support Services in Action
When it comes to managing a nonprofit, there may be no single person or department spearheading the strategic vision of the organization. When strategy becomes misaligned, the organization can lose direction and momentum.
Investing in the right technology makes up only half the battle. The other half is building strong leadership and optimizing your strategy.
Where a traditional business might have a CTO or CIO to fill that role, managed IT support services can fill a void at a nonprofit’s leadership table. By bringing business and IT strategies together, IT leaders can work with your team to fine-tune your goals and get everyone on the same page to achieve them. With the insights of expert IT specialists, you can create a roadmap to success and adaptability.
Certainly, nonprofits must consider costs when it comes to investing in IT services. This may lead to going with the cheapest option or relying on volunteers to meet their IT needs.
Yet the inconsistency of relying on all these disparate tools and systems leads to more problems than it solves in the long run. Eventually, what you saved initially will disappear, and your existing IT framework will continue to cost you time and funds.
When you invest in a long-term managed IT partner, you can make technology investments with confidence and intention. By tapping into the experience of managed IT support services, nonprofits can vet new technology solutions to ensure they align with your operations and goals for future longevity.
Volunteers make up the lifeblood of any successful nonprofit. And the more efficient your volunteers, the more successful your organization will be.
In the U.S., volunteers gave almost 6.9 billion hours of their time, worth approximately $167 billion, according to AmeriCorps.
Yet inefficiencies in how volunteers complete their duties will keep them bogged down in repetitive tasks and keep nonprofits from achieving high-level goals.
According to Business Wire:
· Over two-thirds of workers feel they are always doing the same repetitive tasks.
· On average, workers said they waste four and a half hours a week on tasks they think could be automated.
· 68% of workers want more time to incorporate new responsibilities into their daily jobs.
· 58% don’t believe their jobs give them enough creative freedom.
The right IT ecosystem can help your organization work smarter by freeing up your volunteers to focus on higher-level tasks and goals, and open them to creative solutions and engaging work. From donor management to recruiting to onboarding, a digital infrastructure can bring consistency that helps handle the change of new leadership, new regulations, and new goals.
Many IT strategy firms bring technical expertise to the table. But few have the business acumen and project management skills to see projects through to completion and build a digital infrastructure to carry a nonprofit into future success.
At Vudu, we’re experienced in training and change management. We can help earn small wins along the way that encourage buy-in to the new system, transparency across departments, and new efficiencies in your workflow.
In 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Teresa Cook and Ginny Bass Carl set up the organization Community CARES Partners to help combat job loss, food insecurity, and potential homelessness in Oklahoma City. They would do this by partnering with the State of Oklahoma to distribute stimulus funds to businesses and individuals.
Community CARES Partners needed to distribute $13.5 million in assistance funds within six months.
To meet their technological needs, they partnered with Vudu’s managed IT support services team. Vudu assessed the organization’s needs and worked with Cook and Carl to build a fully functional digital infrastructure in just a few days.
· Vudu helped set up a variety of digital tools and systems, including Microsoft Teams, a website with an application portal, equipment for networking and WiFi, a cloud-based storage system, branding, and certain hiring policies and procedures.
· Vudu’s cloud repository compiled all information into one place, regardless of the system caseworkers preferred to use.
· Vudu set up an automated digital audit trail to help the organization to stay compliant with governmental and other regulations.
· Vudu helped onboard 25 new case workers on opening day to help community members navigate the application process, with a universal onboarding process to streamline training.
· Vudu built a ranking system to prioritize the most vulnerable applicants based on application information, to ensure funds went where they were most needed.
Through their partnership with Vudu, Community CARES Partners processed more than 18,000 applications with a 95% approval rate, helping more than 20,000 households and 1,845 landlords across 77 counties. They were able to distribute all $13.5 million in funds ahead of schedule, and later qualified for $240 million in the second round of funding.
For Vudu, our work with Community CARES shows the potential for societal betterment and growth through the strategic application of technology.
Vudu’s IT specialists are business-minded technology wizards. We move beyond the normal realm of managed IT to convert data into insights, insights into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. With that wisdom, nonprofits can make better decisions and achieve supernatural transformation.
At Vudu, we are technology wizards who want to bring IT magic to your organization and achieve supernatural results. Want to know more about how our managed IT support services can benefit your nonprofit? Tell us more about your goals.
