Question

Instructions:

-Approximate number of employees (choose a small to medium-sized org) (10 employees)

My choice:

-Name of the organization I have selected: Society of St. Vincent de Paul 
-Your contact’s name and title (the person you’ll interview):Anelize Nader, Program Director. 
-Organization’s website: www.svdpcle.org

See the attached instructions before you start working on the paper.

Answer

Organizational Technology Assessment for Nonprofit Organization

Contents

Introduction. 2

Nonprofit Organization: Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP). 2

Literature Review.. 4

Methodology. 6

Technology Assessment. 6

Conclusion and Recommendations. 8

References. 10

Introduction

Information technology has become an important aspect of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations in the recent past. Most organizations have made an investment in information technology infrastructure a critical component of their budget because of the benefits that it offers the organizations. For-profit organizations consider technology an important factor in enhancing the profit capacity of the firms. Despite the high upfront costs in investing in infrastructure, the long term returns justify an organization’s commitment to investment in information technology. Despite the previous low investments in technology infrastructure by nonprofit organizations, the management understood the impact of technology; hence there is a current surge for most nonprofit organizations to upgrade their information technology so that it matches the current modern standards. This has been necessitated by the need to keep in touch with the volunteers, request for a donation from new volunteers, create relationships with potential donors, update the public on the activities of the organization, and maintain communication through technology networks that include emails, social media sites, voice over internet protocols, as well as through the organization website.

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Nonprofit Organization: Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP)

In my assessment of technology to determine the extent to which nonprofit organizations are investing in technology infrastructure as well as human capital, I conducted a case study of an organization known as, Society of St. Vincent de Paul – Cleveland, Ohio (SVDP). SVDP is a popular nonprofit organization that is located in Cleveland, Ohio. The nonprofit organization is involved in charity activities to help the needy in Northeast Ohio. The organization provides emergency person-to-person service to the poor people. It is a welfare and local human services organization that offers assistance to more than 250,000 people every year to people who are residents of Medina, Ashland, Geauga, Summit, Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, as well as Wayne counties. The Organization helps the local poor people of Ohio by offering services that include provision of free clothing, furniture, and clothing among other things through its multiple hunger centers; offering rent and mortgage assistance to prevent evictions as well as homelessness; providing emergency help to avert heat, water, and electric shut-offs; provides needy children with back-to-school supplies; and donates winter blankets as well as other forms of clothing and shelter to homeless individuals during winter. Due to its useful services that are helping to change the lives of the needy people, the organization has strong base of volunteers that number an estimated 1,200, who are known as Vincentians. Apart from material assistance the society also participates in the local neighborhood parishes (www.svdpcle.org).

SVDP is guided by both a vision and a mission in its charity operations. The organization’s vision is: “to offer service to those who require dignity, compassion, and generosity through efforts to improve spirituality among members and developing close friendships among them as well as those they serve. SVDP members follow the example of Blessed FrédéricOzanam, its founder, by aspiring to grow in terms of intimacy with Jesus Christ and embracing the spirit of charity (www.svdpcle.org).” SVDP’s mission is to: “lead men and women in joining hands to growth spiritually through person-to-person service to needy and suffering members of society in the tradition established by St. Vincent de Paul’s founder and patron Blessed FrédéricOzanam(www.svdpcle.org).

            The society is guided by its principle of nondiscrimination hence members are drawn from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, economic level, as well as age groups. Together, the members form a closely knit group that is referred to as the Vincentians. Vincentians are spread throughout the world but are united by the spirit of humility, poverty, and sharing (www.svdpcle.org). SVDP is a Catholic organization hence its charity services are nourished by both prayer and reflections. The organization is steered by nine permanent staff members, although it has a huge number of volunteers who assist in its operations throughout the hunger centers and parishes.

Literature Review

            Numerous studies that have been conducted demonstrate the importance of technology use in nonprofit organizations (Hackler & Saxton, 2007; Raleigh, 1998). According to Hackler and Saxton (2007) investing in information technology can help in increasing capacity and exploitation of untapped potential. Through information technology, organizations are able to reach a huge number of donors as well as volunteers who are willing to help in the progression of their course. Nonprofit organizations rely on donations from volunteers. It is thus important for them to have a network that n reach many of them. Through technology, the staff can create a website where they post organization activities, vision, as well as mission (Raleigh, 1998). The societies can also create blogs and news sections where they talk about the organization’s successes in their charity missions among other things. Through the websites, they can provide their contact numbers as well social media handles where they can be contacted by people who are willing to donate, volunteer, or provide feedback to the organization.

            According to Saigal (2008), investment in information technology is important because it helps in the increase of output and productivity. The organization is able to coordinate with the donors as well as volunteers so that they can boost the charity capacity of the organization. Besides, it is also easy to coordinate members of staff by using the modern communication channels that include emails as well as chat (Aykin, 2016). The organization’s staff can form a staff group chatroom in Facebook or Whatsapp where the organization’s activities relating to staff can be shared. This facilitates faster communication hence increasing efficiency (Guo& Saxton, 2014). Technology is also important as it helps to lower the costs of printing newsletters and sending them to stakeholders. The newsletters are printed on the organization’s computers then posted on the websites where interested persons can have access. There is also important organization information that needs to be sent to every volunteer regardless of their location in the world. With modern technology, the information can be sent to all volunteers via email within a click of a button. It therefore saves the organization the budget for printing and correspondence.

            The use of computers and the internet has created ease with which organizations look for funds that are directed to charity services. Through their websites, they create a tab for donation that one can click and then they will be able to choose an amount that they are willing to donate (Peizer, 2005). The donor will then be asked to provide billing information from which money is deducted from their credit cards. Besides, the organizations can provide various categories of donation to suit the interest of the donor. Technology increases ease of donation since the charity projects are posted on the web hence the donor can evaluate to determine if their donation would go to a worthy cause. While it is easy to find funders for charity projects, it is difficult to find ones that are willing to make donations that would be used to improve the technology infrastructure of the organization (Cohen, 1998). It, therefore, makes it difficult for nonprofit organizations to invest in technology infrastructure due to its initial high start-up costs. In most cases, they receive technology equipment from donors. In some cases, the donations are not modern enough to promote efficiency.

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Methodology

            Doing organizational assessment involved studying one nonprofit organization known as Society of St. Vincent de Paul – Cleveland. I collected my data from the organization by using survey method as well as conducting an interview on Anelize Nader, Program Director. The survey was guided by survey questions that I had earlier prepared to guide me. It was useful in guiding my observation of the infrastructure that is in place to facilitate information technology. The interview on the program director was guided by interview questions that I had also earlier prepared and typed on a piece of paper. I asked the questions from the interview questions, although the questions acted as a guide hence I did not follow them strictly. I would ask some questions depending on how a previous question was answered. The interview helped in establishing the plans that the organization has had concerning information technology and the way they had implemented them. It also helped to establish the value that the organization places on information technology.

Technology Assessment

            The survey and the interview questions revealed the state of the nonprofit organization in terms of information technology. The study established that the top-level management of SVDP understood the importance of investing in technology for the organization. Based on the interview, the program director revealed that as a result of the benefits of technology, they had dedicated five percent of their total budget to infrastructural investment as well as human resource in technology. The organization has a total annual budget of approximately $12 million. A huge part of the money goes to the charity as most of the staff work on a volunteer basis.

            In terms of information technology infrastructure, the organization had significantly invested as there were modern computers for every member of staff and the office had Internet. The company had invested in the latest computers with some staff member also having tablet computers that they would use while on the field. The officer was also equipped with a quality laser printer, a photocopying machine as well as a fax machine. In terms of software, the organization had also invested in the latest software with all the machines operating on MAC operating system. They had also installed software that aided in publishing of articles, accounting, as well as presentations. The company had internet that was connected to every computer through a server. There was also a Wi-Fi hotspot for staff members who would have liked to connect using the tablets or their phones. The program noted the importance of having such infrastructure by stating that it had helped them to reach out to more volunteers through their website (www.svdpcle.org) as many people were able to understand their charity activities at a first glance by observing the website. They had also opened accounts on social media in both Twitter (https://twitter.com/svdpcle?lang=en) and Facebook under the username (Society of St. Vincent de Paul-Cleveland). Through their website and social media sites, they were able to share the organization objectives, programs and initiatives, as well report their charity activities. The society also wrote blogs and news articles that it posted on its website. All the staff members had company emails that were used for internal as well as external communication.

            In terms of human capital, the society had a well trained staff that understood the importance of information technology. According to the program director, the staff members had been employed with the knowledge. However, periodic training was also done in the organization. The organization had a dedicated information technology department that was responsible for updating the website, and maintaining communication over the social media accounts.

            In terms of planning, the organization had a clear path on their intention in information technology that was even captured on the strategic plan. The company was keen on transforming its operations to fully incorporate all technological process so as to increase efficiency and productivity. I rated the organization as being at the service level in terms of information and technology.

Conclusion and Recommendations

            SVDP has an elaborate plan on information and technology. As a result, they have begun reaping the fruits of their investment. There is increased volunteering and donor funding that has been facilitated through the company website as well as the social media accounts. The organization is also able to connect with all the staff and volunteers regardless of their location. SVDP shares every program its website and social media accounts hence attracting large numbers of volunteers. Therefore, the society is benefiting from its investments.

            I would like to make the following recommendations:

1. The organization should use consultants to further help in supporting their information technology department as it is not yet strong enough. They would help in the implementation of the IT projects.
2. The organization should provide continuous as opposed to spontaneous training of the staff so that they are kept updated on the latest information and technology trends.
3. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul should aim at attracting more donors to fund its IT infrastructure through creating clear proposals that outline the organization’s vision and mission while outlining how technology would facilitate their objectives.        
   
   

References

Aykin, N. (Ed.). (2016). Usability and internationalization of information technology. Princeton, NJ: CRC Press.

Cohen, Todd (1998). Study backs nonprofits’ need for information technology: [Final Edition]. News & Observer. Raleigh, NC: The McCarthy Company.

Guo, C., & Saxton, G. D. (2014). Tweeting social change: How social media are changing nonprofit advocacy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(1), 57-79.

Hackler, D., & Saxton, G. D. (2007). The strategic use of information technology by nonprofit organizations: Increasing capacity and untapped potential. Public Administration Review, 67(3), 474-487.

Peizer, J. (2005). The dynamics of technology for social change. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.

Saigal, A. (2008). A study on the impact of information technology use on nonprofit organizations. London: Routledge.