Nonprofits and charitable organizations provide great services to communities, but while caring community organizers are the essential part, running an organization requires more than passion. As organizations increase their numbers of workers, clients, donors and projects, the technical needs all increase as well. If you have a growing nonprofit, here are some technical needs to consider, to continue serving your community at your most efficient.
Network Management
Nonprofits need good network support in order to serve their employees, volunteers, clients, supporters, and communities. Having Internet connection for your office is just the start. It’s good to have your own computer servers to maintain a website for the organization or databases of donors. Setting up a network of your own can be a challenge, especially when it comes to integrating all the systems together. There’s also the security, updates and hardware to consider.
Email Hosting and Backup
Whether it’s coordinating with volunteers, emailing newsletters to supporters, event planning or working with clients, communication is key for a nonprofit. At some point, an email account and a Facebook page won’t cut it anymore.
When messages come from an official email, it looks professional and helps convey the importance of your nonprofit at a glance. Having a single email host can also make it easier to communicate with your employees and volunteers.
Email backup is also useful, especially if your organization is small, run from one or two computers. Back up your systems to protect against any errors, viruses, accidents or hardware damage.
Security
When dealing with personal information from donors, volunteers and clients, security is paramount. An increasing online presence opens you up to cyber threats, especially as your organization grows.
Organizations need to protect against malware and intrusions while maintaining their website and network security. It’s always better to consider these ahead of time before problems arise.
The Solution
If these technical considerations seem like a lot, we can help. Mainstream Nonprofit Solutions offers all-in-one network, backup and recovery, email and security services. A nonprofit organization itself, Mainstream Solutions will do what it does best, handling your IT needs, and allow your organization to focus on what it does best.
Contact us today to see how we can help your growing nonprofit run efficiently and securely.