NFPs are embracing the digital pathway to better support their staff in maximizing donor interactions and fundraising.
Raising funds and channeling available resources into frontline services is of highest priority for Not for Profits. NFP sector has some of the best social marketers around. They are very successful at running fundraising campaigns and connecting with donors and the wider public through social media such as Facebook, Twitter & You Tube. While the likes of Facebook and Twitter are great front-facing communication tools, they are not so effective for internal communications.
NFP staff need a digital platform that can streamline their operations, simply processes and help them optimise their tasks. A large portion of NFP workforce are casual and pro-bono workers. And so its always a big challenge to put in place systems that are usable and useful. Internal communications and the availability of information is a particularly important issue for NFP as they often have a large volunteer workforce that is geographically dispersed. Also, their governance structures involving boards and committees as well as stakeholders and employees means that there are diverse information and communication needs all within the one organisation. NFP have the data regulations that need to be followed defined by National State Archive and other governance agencies.
Finding a unified platform that will address all those requirements as well as being cost-effective is a challenge. Or is it?
At Prometix, we have developed digital work space platform for not for profit organisations based on Microsoft’s Office 365 as a platform. This solution provides following benefits:
- Increased communication
- Improved processes and information sharing
- Better engagement with staff and volunteers
- Cost-effectiveness and mobile access.
- Staff/volunteers on boarding/off boarding
- Documents sharing and collaboration
- Share content/documents with external parties
- Meeting management solution
- Staff/volunteers contact details search feature
This solution is a great enabler of communication and is particularly relevant for organisations and staff members that are in different locations or who work outside the standard office environment.
A intuitive Intranet forms the gateway to the digital platform. An intranet home page featuring your top news updates with what’s hot buttons, engaging visuals or videos is a great way to increase communication and knowledge sharing within the organisation.
Access to information on the intranet can also be controlled by permission rights (which are invisible to the user). In this way, intranet users, be it employees, board members or volunteers, can only see the information that is relevant to them. This negates the need for several slightly different versions of the same email being sent around the organisation, or for the endless forwarding of email messages. There are also savings to be made in the reduction of printing costs as demand for paper copies of documents decreases.
An intranet company calendar highlighting key events, fundraising campaigns or closing dates for funding applications is another great communication tool. Having this information in one place for all users to access is a great time saver and makes life much easier across the organisation.
Another aspect is improved opportunities for collaborative working. The Yammer (Facebook like solution), discussion forums and project areas within this intranet solution enable and encourage collaborative working across the NFP organisation. Furthermore, NFP can be confident that all information shared on the intranet is secured with the latest SSL encryption technology.
Similarly, internal processes can be streamlined using the intranet solution. For example, booking leave, completing an expenses claim or ordering stationery is a much easier process when completed online with a few clicks of the mouse. Again this represents a considerable saving for the NFP organisation in time and resources and releases funds that could be spent on frontline services.
Using the intranet’s interactive tools such as quizzes and surveys, blogs, staff biographies and messaging will improve the levels of engagement, team morale and loyalty to the non-profit organisation. Staff and volunteers of non-profits are traditionally highly committed and motivated individuals. Maintaining and enhancing that commitment and loyalty is, however, a real possibility with this intranet platform.
Integrate you line of business applications, Salesforce CRM and more with the platform to provide your users with a unified workspace for all their information needs.
Having mobile access for employees or volunteers that are out in the field is another must for non-profits. Cloud intranets can be accessed remotely using a PC, tablet or smartphone and an internet connection. Staff and volunteers will have access to all the company information they need, 24/7.
What is the cost to you as a non-profit organisation of not having an effective internal business management tool?
Inefficient processes, wasted resources, disengaged staff and volunteers, higher staff and volunteer turnover are all real possibilities. Keeping running costs and overheads to an absolute minimum is a priority for non-profits that rely on donor funding. Ask us how a digital platform could support your cause by empowering NFP staff and volunteers.
About Prometix: At Prometix, we design implement and support Microsoft based technology solutions that help our client’s staff to more easily use and share information as individuals and in teams. We work with our clients to establish a structure that makes information easier to create, store, find and share with others. We’ve worked hard to understand how people want to access and share information.
For more information on our success stories please feel free to call us on (02) 8072 0666 or email enquiries@prometix.com.au
