How tech for nonprofits can help your organization’s impact

Here’s why you should become a tech-powered nonprofit

Nonprofits play a critical role in achieving meaningful societal change, they do invaluable work and drive results despite many challenges. With a lot at stake, nonprofits have always dealt with uncertain funding, limited resources and milestones to accomplish. However with digital’s omnipresence now, it’s time for them to make use of technology and operate more effectively than before.

Technology is revolutionizing the nonprofit world and making nonprofits more effective and result oriented organizations. Nonprofits are, however, facing a steep learning curve in keeping up with technology, especially marketing and fundraising efforts. In order to stay competitive, it is necessary for them to invest more resources into building their own digital maturity so that they can drive mission awareness and fundraising. As nonprofits digitize, they are not only going to save a tremendous amount of time and money, but also provide quality solutions to pressing issues within the community. Benefitting the ecosystem at large, tech for nonprofits helps further the goals of the organization, employees, donors and everyone involved.

Here’s how:

1. Reliable Funding

It's not uncommon for nonprofit donations to vary from one year to the next, making it difficult to ensure sustainability, and undertake long-term planning.

Utilizing relevant, existing technology can help drive in funds by enabling access to donors who prefer the ease of donating electronically. It also allows them to follow the end-to-end journey of an NGO with the transparency provided by digital means.

Tools such as a nonprofits website or social media handles are primary channels to communicate with donors, thereby providing them with the knowledge and means to readily donate. With platforms such as Razorpay, Facebook and several others offering access to easy donation CTAs and tools, donors are incentivized to contribute while being assured of the legitimacy of the platform, and security of their transaction.

With Covid having forced every organization to move online, many were seen driving digital campaigns that were far more effective, scalable and economically successful while utilizing existing grants available.

Technology grants allow nonprofits access to tools which enable digitization which in turn opens avenues for nonprofits to amplify fundraising By doing so, nonprofit leaders are able to increase their organization's budget while also creating a greater number of opportunities to create impact. By accessing technology grants, nonprofits can launch new projects, expand their community, and create meaningful ways for people to support them.

2. Streamlining Organization Operations

With limited resources in play, technology can help drive efficiency, and scalable growth by achieving more from existing assets. Allowing nonprofits to automate manual processes, organize daily communication and speed up erstwhile timely processes such as gathering donations, it increases the organization's overall productivity.

In facilitating day-to-day operations, it helps organize company assets by storing data on the cloud or building a digital infrastructure that the nonprofit team can systematically access. This addresses grassroot issues faced by the sector such as a lack of centralization, influx of multiple sources of information and fragmentation in daily functioning.

It also helps further marketing efforts by enabling outreach via mailers, push notifications and even social media presence, allowing the organization to reach a wider audience of donors, volunteers and partner organizations alike. A sound digital strategy is therefore key in bridging the larger disconnect faced by the industry stakeholders.

Not only does it substantially decrease operational costs, it ensures that everyone within and outside of your organization are on the same page.

3. Ensuring Long Term Sustainability

While this technology usually comes at a price to corporates, it is offered either free of cost or at a subsidized cost, for nonprofits, helping them improve mission awareness, drive further development.

With nonprofits attempting to bridge the social divide, technology is crucial to demonstrating efficiency, collaborating with all stakeholders and achieving the best possible outcome.

Digitization and automation of marketing and fundraising processes helps create time for the organizations to prioritize their core competence, and devote more of their effort towards driving the desired social impact.

As an essential tool, it brings together all stakeholders to the same table while lending immense transparency and credibility to the nonprofit and its undertakings. It helps reach a wider audience and carves a niche for the organization in an increasingly crowded landscape.

Embarking on digital maturity:

The sector has, historically, lagged behind in adopting new technology with a NetChange Survey stating that just 11% of nonprofits believe they manage digital resources effectively. Digital strategies have emerged as the most important pillar for growth and everyone needs to embrace these changes.

“Just 11% of nonprofits say they manage digital resources in a “highly effective” way” while “a mere 20% of nonprofits consider themselves leaders and innovators in tech adoption.” - NetChange Survey

With businesses adapting to real-time changes in consumer demands, especially with the realignment of priorities that consumers have undergone post the pandemic, leveraging technology is crucial in ensuring nonprofits accomplish more.

When done right, technology for nonprofits harbours massive potential in utilizing select digital tools and crafting a strategy to empower nonprofits and innovate further development.