Ten things that every nonprofit executive needs to know about information technology
I just came across a great and short list of 10 things that every nonprofit executive should know about Information Technology via TechSoup and wanted to repost it as a resource here. My favourite of the list of 10?
10. In a nonprofit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.
Is it a CEO who is resistant to technical innovations? A board of directors that hesitates to make the commitment to raise the money need for the IT infrastructure? Line staff who are already stressed and overworked, and can’t stop to learn and implement new technologies? An inability to make outsourced IT consultants or in-house IT staff understand organizational processes? All the information technology in the world won’t resolve these issues, if you don’t address them at the organizational level.
I think we can all fall victim to wanting to believe that technology can solve all our problems — I for one like to fantasize that once I have enough apps installed my iPhone may actually save the world — but really technology alone isn’t the only answer. One of the things that we often do in our website development processes with our clients is help them work through a real life challenge/business case issue and then figure out how we can use their website to help them streamline things to work better/more efficiently, but without solving the initial challenge the website alone can not solve the problem.