Get a Fresh Pair of Eyes
Nonprofits have a tendency to become stagnant and insular in terms of culture. Much of this is inherent to the industry. Managers are promoted from within, while nonprofit boards and other oversight make change difficult and reforms sluggish. The lack of “competition” per se can reduce the urgency to adapt. While a nonprofit’s culture can be a strength, institutional inertia is lethal to organizations.
As the saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and this is particularly true with CRM. Many nonprofits have badly implemented CRM or managed to limp along with obsolete processes or administrative structures. Without a fresh pair of eyes, these can eventually be accepted as the “norm.”
Contractors provide a solution to this. Adding a fresh perspective can inject new ideas into the decision-making process and help nonprofits break away from their tendency towards bureaucratic fossilization.
Contractors, by their very nature, are external to the organization. They have no vested interest in the status quo or in making changes that may be unhelpful. Very often, decisions are made at the managerial level that have more to do with politics than efficiency. Contractors can act as impartial mediators in office dynamics.
Contractors are specialists in their fields and benefit from their narrowed focus. In addition to simply taking on tasks that would require hiring more employees, contractors can function as subject matter experts and consultants.
There’s no need to wait until a problem arises to bring an outside firm on board. It’s possible that over the years, your nonprofit may have accumulated considerable administrative drag. You may benefit from an audit of your business processes. Contact pfreeman@condotty.com to schedule a consultation and see how optimizing your CRM can streamline your business.
Scaling requires a robust organizational structure and solid governance. The use of contractors simplifies an organization’s structure considerably. Contractors can be easily assigned or removed from various parts of the organization as needed. An additional benefit is that if a contractor is no longer required, there is no need for HR to go through the process of terminating an employee. Furthermore, the politics surrounding increasing or shrinking employees’ areas of responsibility can be neatly avoided.
In the realm of information technology, scaling can pose significant challenges if a non-profit relies solely on in-house equipment. IT resources like servers and communications equipment can be costly. Scaling up would entail purchasing expensive assets, and it’s not uncommon for non-profits to unintentionally acquire suboptimal equipment or overestimate their needs and buy excessively. Scaling down would require selling off IT resources, often resulting in substantial losses. However, if a non-profit utilizes on-demand cloud-based services, there is no risk associated with hardware as it was never owned in the first place.
In the increasingly fast-paced business environment of the 21st century, non-profits already face a disadvantage in terms of administrative burdens. They have additional reporting requirements, legal obligations to maintain compliance, and unpredictable donations. To truly embrace agility, it is necessary to eliminate as much administrative drag as possible and proactively prepare for the challenges of scaling. This approach will greatly contribute to keeping an organization lean.
Contact pfreeman@condotty.com for more details on how information technology can help your organization become more responsive and adaptable.