Technology use within not-for-profits

A number of small, seemingly, unconnected events have occurred in the past few weeks that have caused me to think a little more about this issue. A week or so back I received an email from Bill Wallace. Bill had found this blog through a Google search (which alone gave me the warm and fuzzies). Bill writes a blog on just about everything and I have found some of his comments interesting and thought provoking. Bill was seeking feedback on how not for profit organisations used technology such as blogging. You may see Bill's blog at www.billwallaceonline.com. Following my exchange of emails with Bill, I had a conversation with a client of mine, a not-for-profit, and it quickly became obvious they had absolutely no idea of the value and benefits that might be accrued from the use of online tools. The yesterday i received the monthly newsletter from Our Community. Within the newsletter was an article on trends impacting upon not for profit organisations. In that article was an piece about how the world is becoming more engaged through the use of online tools.

Now as you know I am no Luddite when it comes to technology but there is a limit to my knowledge and understanding. I have been using blogs and wiki's as marketing and communication tools for the past twelve months, I have had an online presence through websites for the past eight years, I was one of the original users of online banking when it was introduced. Yet my understanding of online space and online communication is restricted to ICQ and msn, neither of which I have used in years. Do they still exist? Since then I have heard about the likes of MySpace and a handful of others similar online places however I have never used them. Recently I graduated to an IMate phone which is effectively a mini-computer on steroids and the trouble I had setting this beast up so that it would do a small portion of the things I am paying for lead me to believe that I had reached saturation point in my ability to absorb any more technology. Unlike my 15 year old son who has been online in one form or another since he was five and knows nothing else, I, in my 50 years have had to shift from having a black ceramic box on the wall that routed all calls through a switchboard to todays situation where I have clients suggesting I install Skype and VoIP.

My point here is this. I am semi-computer literate, with perhaps an above average understanding of what is occuring within the online space, yet I am struggling to keep in touch with all the changes, never mind having a full understanding of how I may benefit from using this technology. Now I look at the not for profit organisations I have as clients and only one of them stands out as having the capacity to capitalise on this technology - yet they do not - that means there is little chance those that are smaller and even more limited capacity will do so.

Why are they missing out on these benefits? Simple. The information available is partisan, fragmented and confusing. What do they need? Someone to present them with a clear, concise overview of the various online options, an outline of the main benefits, some ideas on how to use this technology in a strategic manner and a step-by-step set of instructions on how to implement the technlogy in a low cost manner. When someone does this, and creates a white paper with this information, please send it to me and I, in turn, will place it on this blog and make sure every one of my clients recieves a copy.