Learn How This Nonprofit Uses Technology Services to Advance Social Impact

How This Nonprofit Leverages Tech Services To Help Other Nonprofits

TL; DR: It’s no secret that most nonprofits have to work with limited resources. Lower budgets can make it a challenge to leverage and manage the latest technologies. Tech Impact helps nonprofit teams understand how technology can fit into their strategies and makes it more affordable for them to onboard. Tech Impact is a leader in helping nonprofits onboard technology to drive impact and achieve more.

Every day, nonprofits work to impact our local communities and the world. I get an up-close view of some of this impact, as a donor and sponsor. It is a rewarding and humbling experience to see how my small efforts can help improve the long-term development of a child thousands of miles away.

I can also thank technology for making my donor experience smoother. Technology made it so easy to sign up, manage my payments, and follow updates. Although tech has improved my donor experience, I’m sure it wasn’t easy to adopt and implement for nonprofit organizations.

Linda Widdop has seen firsthand how nonprofits have shifted their approach to technology. Before she became the Chief Innovation Officer of Tech Impact, Linda’s journey with the nonprofit started when it had a much different name — NPower.

At the time, NPower would help nonprofits install on-prem Microsoft Exchange servers for their email management. When Microsoft 365 (then BPOS) was released, however, everything changed. This was its client base’s first move into cloud computing.

“We managed on-premise Exchange servers and the nightmare of updating and backing it up because this business-critical infrastructure rested on our shoulders. Then, I heard a guy talk about BPOS at a conference. Within six months, we had 87 of our exchange servers turned off and moved to the cloud with free licenses from Microsoft,” said Linda.

Tech Impact logo
Tech Impact helpts nonprofits integrate technology and IT-based strategies.

The move to cloud hosting enabled Tech Impact’s clients to do more, save, and reduce overall risk. Today, Tech Impact dedicates all its effort to helping nonprofits leverage the latest technologies and integrate them into their infrastructure strategically and effectively.

Understanding how nonprofits operate, the Tech Impact team is able to meet each client where they are and encourage them to take the leap with technological change. They do so while keeping their clients’ budgets and core values in mind.

Bringing Nonprofits Into the Digital Era

In a little over two decades, Tech Impact has helped more than 10,000 nonprofits effectively integrate technology and IT strategies across their organizations. Tech can be a difficult area for any company to address, but for nonprofits, it can present particular challenges.

The Tech Impact team steps in to assist nonprofits on their journey. Nonprofits often work with limited budgets and tend to have fewer resources than corporations. Tech Impact ensures they receive business-critical solutions for a fraction of the price.

“Nonprofits are either going to do the work with us or not going to do it at all because they can’t afford it because of their budgets. The fact that the licensing is either at a deep discount or free helps us have a competitive advantage,” said Linda.

Linda said the team loses revenue to migrate and support Microsoft 365 servers but makes it back with the revenue they gain on its consulting services. Having a consulting department has helped Tech Impact build a unique service that nonprofits can’t find anywhere else.

a screenshot of Tech Impact homepage
Here are the key areas where Tech Impact offers assistance.

“It’s an easy sell for me to show an executive director at a nonprofit, you’re paying this much for the server, support, and the online licenses. It’s not as easy of a sale for a for-profit that is making you pay the full price for the license with no additional services,” said Linda.

In today’s world, organizations must leverage technology to not only survive but thrive. People are prioritizing digital interactions more than ever. And Tech Impact empowers nonprofits to take advantage of new technologies to improve customer experience and future-proof their business.

Helping Nonprofits Navigate Change and a Surplus of Choices

Every nonprofit is on a different digital journey. As a consultancy service, it is Tech Impact’s role to help nonprofits choose the right solutions for their vision. In the past, nonprofits only had to choose between a few vendors, but today, a surplus of choices exists.

“Sometimes it’s analysis paralysis and they can’t plunk their money down on any one of them because they’ll immediately have buyer’s regret. So having our strategy team walk them through a process to get them down to the best two is a big deal,” said Linda.

Tech Impact takes into account the client’s budget and allows them to narrow down their pool of potential vendors across three big investment areas. Those areas include donor management, case management, and volunteer management.

Tackling the Next Big Thing(s) — Cybersecurity and AI

Cybersecurity has become crucial in the last decade. Although the instances of cybercrime have exploded, most nonprofits haven’t been quick to adopt cybersecurity strategies. That is because they didn’t think they would be targets.

“We spent a few years of this cyber criminal explosion thinking that nonprofits were safe or immune because we watched the criminals going after Home Depot and big targets like that,” said Linda.

But then, hackers began to attack nonprofits, seeing them as easy targets. Nonprofits didn’t have proper security infrastructure in place, which could make them easy to infiltrate. Linda said Tech Impact invested resources into increasing its labor force in cybersecurity.

The bigger challenge came with showing nonprofits why cybersecurity was essential. Linda said the team spent a lot of time educating clients on why they need to invest in cybersecurity services.

“It’s like, no, you have to take this seriously, and you have to budget for it. Otherwise you’re going to cease to exist because they are going to steal all of your money, your reputation will be ruined, and nobody’s going to donate to you anymore,” said Linda.

Cybersecurity is just another step that has prompted nonprofits to adapt to protect themselves and survive in their digital journeys. AI and data management are two other factors Tech Impact and nonprofits have adjusted to as well.

“So this is the challenge we’re in today. How do we provide the education to the nonprofit community about what AI really is and prepare them for either strategically using it or not using it,” said Linda.

AI can be integrated into workflows in a myriad of ways. Its models can be outsourced, built in house, or purchased from third-party vendors. There are also a variety of AI solutions to leverage, from automation to machine learning and large language models.

Acquisitions and partnerships with other tech providers have helped Tech Impact address these various challenges. It recently acquired a data innovation lab to facilitate its AI and machine learning processes and increase awareness of these solutions in the nonprofit sector.

Tech Impact also seeks to educate nonprofits on how to properly manage their data when it comes to AI and how to use AI correctly to align with their goals.

“We’re doing this work for large community gain. We’re looking to educate the nonprofit community around being prepared and understanding why they want to use AI. So they can use their data to do more, multiply outcomes and impact by using artificial intelligence and all of these new things,” said Linda.

Partnerships With Other Nonprofit Tech Providers

Creating partnerships has enabled Tech Impact to stay agile in an ever-changing digital landscape. Consumer demands change often and nonprofits need to keep up. So Tech Impact partners with nonprofit tech providers to learn more about current trends and how to address them.

“We have a community of learning and open, noncompetitive discussions, so we can just learn from each other and share information and ideas about how we can do more with limited nonprofit resources,” said Linda.

Tech Impact has also acquired multiple agencies to meet its client needs and extend its capabilities. For example, Linda told us Tech Impact acquired the Message Agency. This acquisition allowed it to have conversations with nonprofits around digital strategy and SEO.

What’s Next: Simplifying Adoption of Innovation Solutions

The Tech Impact team is currently building a measurement and evaluation practice within its strategy department. Linda said it used to be that nonprofits would come to them with their own frameworks and logic models but they wouldn’t align with the technology components.

By creating this practice, Tech Impact will solve this issue and have clients ready to go on the backend right away.

“I’m also excited about our data innovation labs mandate to take those giant statewide and government funded projects and make them repeatable for all of our nonprofit customers because we don’t want to leave smaller nonprofits behind,” said Linda.

The team is working on getting funding to support a repeatable AI implementation to help nonprofits boost impact. This project will help make AI solutions more accessible to every kind of nonprofit, from small to big.

“We have to first work with them so that they understand what that boost is going to be in terms of percentage and what they’re trying to accomplish. And then we’ll focus on how the technology behind the scenes can support that goal of theirs in an affordable way,” said Linda.