‘But It’s Free!’ and 9 Other Lines About Technology You Don’t Want to Hear

The software is three updates behind, the data is indecipherable, and – shh, don’t tell – people hardly ever use it anyway. If this sounds familiar, your nonprofit may need a new technology system.

Or maybe the staff just needs an attitude adjustment.

Not all technology problems stem from software, say nonprofit tech experts. Sometimes human dysfunction prevents a perfectly good database from doing its job. Insufficient commitment, murky project leadership, or even a stubborn employee can get in the way of even the most expensive, highly customized system.

“Organizational problems can be masked by technology,” says Dahna Goldstein, director of philanthropy solutions at Altum, a software company.

The following phrases all cause problems for nonprofit technology professionals – and their organizations. If you’ve heard them uttered at your nonprofit, it may be a sign of a problem – but the problem might not be the software.

1. “But it’s free!”

Small nonprofits with tight budgets are often tempted by free technology tools, experts say.

But, as Ms. Goldstein says, “free is never free.”

She likens free software to a free puppy: “There’s a lot of maintenance that goes into free puppies. You have to train them, walk them, and train them not to pee in the house.”

Without budgeting for training, even the best free tool can fail – and the zero on the price tag can blind an organization to that failure.

“Because it’s free, no one sees it as a real cost to continue on this failing project,” says Robert Weiner, a consultant who helps nonprofits assess technology and support systems.

Put the same care into selecting a free product as you would an expensive product, Ms. Goldstein and Mr. Weiner advise, and don’t assume there will be no costs involved.

2. “I’m not sure who’s in charge of that.”

Having a technology point person is essential, Mr. Weiner says.

While the success of a system depends on everyone at an organization, having a technology project leader who is ultimately responsible will help keep everyone else accountable. He or she should ensure other staff members are appropriately trained and follow policies, contact the system vendor if problems arise, and report frequently to management.

Putting someone in charge helps mitigate the benign neglect that can happen to technology systems when people are more focused on providing services.

“It’s a gradual scarcity of time” that tempts people to take shortcuts with software, says Steve Heye, manager of technology at The Cara Program, which provides services for homeless people. “They’re not doing it on purpose, but they’re daily making a decision not to do some things that don’t seem important, like documentation, writing down their processes, [or] doing more formal training.”

3. “She’s the only one who knows how it all works.”

While a point person is important, a single individual is not a safe repository for your nonprofit’s technology knowledge. Even the most loyal staff member will eventually retire, and if she’s the only one who knows how to run the reports, that skill leaves with her.

Mr. Heye recommends thinking about your nonprofit as a Justice League comic book rather than an issue of Spider Man.

“If you have a Justice League approach, or a team approach, one superhero gone on vacation is OK,” he says.

Have knowledgeable people write down their processes to preserve institutional memory for after they’re gone.

4. “You’re good at this – it’s now part of your job.”

Don’t assign technology responsibilities to someone -– even if that person has the right skills – without considering his other responsibilities and the organization’s needs as a whole, Mr. Heye says.

Just because the staff is small and the social-media director is also good with numbers doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense to put him in charge of program data collection, too. When that person leaves, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find someone new who can take on that combination of tasks.

“We need to build around a position, not a person,” Mr. Heye says.

He recommends thinking through an organization’s structure and creating a diagram illustrating the important steps for every process, then assigning tech duties based on what makes the most sense. That way, a nonprofit won’t have to look for another Twitter-and-statistics guru when its current one moves on.

5. “The vendor won’t call me back.”

A vendor should be a partner, says Peter Campbell, chief information officer at the Legal Services Corporation, which provides money to nonprofit legal-aid programs. If a representative won’t communicate or only takes quick calls while he’s in the car – something that’s happened to Mr. Campbell – he or she isn’t going to be helpful when it matters most.

Mr. Campbell recommends nonprofits conduct a formal search process to find a vendor that feels like a good fit. That means writing requests for proposals, checking references thoroughly, and hosting project demonstrations with the representatives who would actually be working on your nonprofit’s project.

6. “We don’t have the money for updates.”

“Nonprofits are always pleading poverty.” Mr. Weiner says. “Anything that isn’t a direct service for whatever programs they’re running is easy to ignore.”

But nonprofits ignore technology upkeep costs at their own peril. Tracy Kronzak, co-founder of BrightStep Partners, worked with a client a few years ago that received an $18,000 grant to implement a Salesforce system. There was no money allotted for training, licensing, or a staff member to serve as the program’s administrator. The system adoption ultimately failed.

“You open up Salesforce, you have a living, breathing animal that needs care and attention and strategy over time,” Ms. Kronzak says. “That project launched and then it fell on its face.”

Mr. Heye says having a small budget is no excuse for neglecting a technology system. Prioritize tools that affect the mission, such as a donor database or program-evaluation software, and spend less on email and phone systems.

And consider reassessing whether technology can be categorized as a program expense in your nonprofit’s accounting structure, he says.

7. “Who has time for training? We’ll just figure it out.”

Part of the reason the Salesforce project failed, Ms. Kronzak says, was the speed at which the nonprofit wanted to operate.

“They were very mission-driven, moving very fast,” she says.

But that’s no excuse to forgo training.

Mr. Heye says nonprofits often rely on hand-me-down instructions passed from one staff member to the next, a process that dilutes and corrupts the key information.

“It gets to the point where you’re not sure why you’re doing the things you’re doing,” he says.

While the cost to get a staff member officially trained can seem daunting – sometimes $2,000, Ms. Kronzak said – she thinks the opportunity cost of missing that training is even greater.

“The tradeoffs to not training a person is having someone on your staff responsible for something that’s supposed to outlive everyone and not knowing the best process for how to use it,” she said.

She sometimes hears from organizations that don’t want to train staff members who will likely leave eventually, thinking it’s a waste of money. That’s the wrong attitude, Ms. Kronzak says, because training employees will take those skills with them wherever they go.

8. “They’ll never give us funding for that.”

Many nonprofits would agree that it’s hard to get people enthusiastic about donating money for computers and software. But framing it as a “critical, mission-central tool,” as Ms. Goldstein puts it, can help change that.

The better you are at framing your argument for spending on new technology, Ms. Kronzak says, “the more people will see the value in investing in it as an organization.”

Just as technology may count as a program expense in your budget, it may be eligible for funding by program grants, not just technology grants.

9. “This is how we’ve always done it.”

New doesn’t always mean improved, but familiar doesn’t always mean better. No matter how important, a new database can be a tough sell to an organization that’s comfortable with its traditional operating procedures, and changing behavior can be difficult.

It’s important to listen to staff members about their technology practices and concerns and to get management support for any project, Mr. Weiner says. It only takes one person who won’t follow instructions to undermine an entire system.

“If people don’t have a really good sense of why they need a new system, then you’re really risking failure,” Mr. Campbell says.

Ms. Goldstein tells the story of a nonprofit that used rewards, rather than orders and punishment, to persuade staff members to use its new software. Every time an employee performed a task using the system, he or she received a gold-star sticker. It started as a playful gesture, but ended up really motivating people to take advantage of the new tool.

“People got really competitive about it, and they dove into this software so they could accumulate these gold stars,” Ms. Goldstein says. “We like to be recognized. We like to feel like we’re doing a good job.”

For more advice about how to win over colleagues, check out “7 Ways to Get Staff Support for Technology Projects.”

10. “Just make do – we’re a nonprofit!”

A superhero mentality. A Band-Aid culture. A MacGyver mind-set.

There are different terms for it, but the common attitude that nonprofits should work miracles without adequate resources makes it difficult to manage a new technology project.

“Unfortunately, nonprofit staffers are really accustomed to working in this deprivation model,” Ms. Goldstein says. “They never have the time and bandwidth and budget to take that step back to undergo assessment, evaluation, planning. I think the reaction to that is, ‘We’ll find something that will fix this one little thing that’s going wrong now.’ That ends up building on itself in ways that are not helpful. It’s hard to break out of that.”

Insisting that technology projects have adequate support is not asking for too much, the experts say. In fact, it’s essential to your nonprofit’s success.