10 Things every nonprofit executive needs to know about IT

Third Sector New England: In a recent blog entry, Deborah Finn, IT consultant to nonprofits, shared some guiding principles to help you, as a non-profit executive (and accidental techies, too), stay on track in keeping your technology working for you and subordinated to your mission.

Very little technical knowledge is required in order for non-profit CEOs to participate actively in strategic IT planning.
Your board of directors should be calling for and participating in your strategic information technology planning.
A tremendous number of high-quality resources for strategic IT planning are available to nonprofits at no charge.
You can keep an eye on innovations in IT, and think about possible uses for them in the non-profit sector, even if you don’t have a technical background.
Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your non-profit organization any money.
You need an in-house IT committee.
Administrative assistants and other support staff should be the lynchpins of your IT infrastructure.
In the long run, IT training and support (and other operating expenses) will make up about 70 percent of your IT budget.
Donated hardware, software and services can cost a nonprofit more than purchased products or services in the long run.
In a non-profit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.

Click here for more context on each guiding principle. Have you noticed or experienced any of these principles firsthand? What benefits or setbacks do you see? Weigh in here!

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10 Things every nonprofit executive needs to know about IT

10 Things every nonprofit executive needs to know about IT

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