November 1, 2001 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Strategic Technology helps nonprofit executives assist one another and develop technology plans for their organizations. Now the program, which started in New England, is expanding to other cities.
Last fall, nonprofit organizations in Springfield and Worcester, Mass., participated in the first session of the Strategic Technology program, run by Summit Consulting Collaborative, a company in Amherst, Mass., in cooperation with local grant makers and organizations that provide management assistance. This year Summit will coordinate Strategic Technology programs in Baltimore, Boston, and Broward County, Fla., in addition to Springfield. Organizers also hope to offer the program in Dallas; San Jose, Calif.; and Worcester.
In each location, a group of nonprofit executive directors gathers eight times over a period of four to five months to discuss the technology challenges their organizations face. The executives also meet individually with technology and organizational-development consultants for advice on pulling together technology teams within their organizations and crafting technology plans.
Executive directors use a private e-mail discussion list to communicate with one another between meetings. A separate e-mail list is open to all members of the organizations’ technology teams.
Marc Osten, Summit’s founder, says the sessions help executives realize that the technology problems they are struggling with are not unique. He believes that participants have greater faith in the solutions proposed during the meetings because they originate with their peers.
Barbara A. Guthrie, executive director of the Rainbow Child Development Center, in Worcester, agrees that having a “sounding board” of other nonprofit leaders was one of the most beneficial aspects of the course. She says the program also helped her think about the role of technology in the organization’s larger management picture. When her center developed a long-term plan several years ago, no mention was made of technology. But now that the group is about to revisit its plan, she says, “you can bet that technology is going to be right up there as one of the issues.”
Ms. Guthrie and the other participants in the Worcester program last year continue to meet to discuss their progress toward meeting technology goals. They have also started a joint training program in which staff members from their groups learn about new technology and how they can teach what they’ve learned to their co-workers.
To get there: Go to http://www.strategictechnology.net.
