Assessment & Planning
Planning for technology is the single most important ingredient to effectively using technology in your organization. The assessment and planning process will help minimize technology-related crises, use staff time efficiently, and avoid wasting money on equipment. Create a plan to help you think through your priorities in order to use technology in a way that directly furthers your mission.
NPower has 2 standardized approaches to Assessment & Planning and an online tool:
1. Stable and Secure
The crucial first step to accomplishing NPower's mission to ensure that all nonprofits can use technology to better serve their communities is ensuring that nonprofits have Stable and Secure technology infrastructures from which to conduct their day-to-day operations. If an organization is operating outside of minimum standards, they will likely face frequent system instability, security breaches, and a general lack of performance and productivity. This distracts and detours you from working on your core mission and service delivery.
This methodology is a substantial opportunity to elevate nonprofit organizations from "Technology Constrained" to "Stable and Secure" status. Many nonprofits, especially small- to medium-sized organizations, face significant vulnerabilities in their infrastructures, emanating from such factors as outdated hardware, older and unsupported operating systems, dangerous security loopholes, inadequate backup procedures, lack of network documentation, and relaxed password policies.
The "Stable and Secure Assessment" provides an initial step in addressing these challenges that affect so many nonprofit organizations. This survey, designed by NPower specifically for use in the nonprofit field, is designed to measure whether an organization meets each of 12 key technology benchmarks. For any benchmarks that a nonprofit fails to meet, they are provided a customized set of recommendations and resources to strengthen their technology - and give them a stronger base from which to realize their mission.
Learn about the 12 key benchmarks for creating a reliable and productive technology infrastructure.
2. Strategic Technology Planning
A technology plan can help you budget for stability, increase efficiency, and lower your technology costs—and NPower has resources for leading your agency through that process. We help you create a strategic technology plan to ensure that your organization's use of technology is in sync with your overall objectives.
We strive to provide technology strategy and planning planning services to nonprofits of all sizes because we believe it is a critical component of every nonprofit's success. We have developed p a streamlined, effective methodology for helping you identify the best technology solutions for your organization. We help you develop your list of requirements and prioritize them. We then use our research, nationwide network, and tools and processes to find a solution that exactly meets your needs.
TechAtlas
In addition to receiving hands-on assessment and planning assistance from NPower. We also have an online planning tool to assist you: TechAtlas
TechAtlas is a tool that helps nonprofits assess, plan for and manage the technology they need to make an even greater difference in their communities. TechAtlas walks nonprofits through the technology planning process, from creating a vision of how technology could be most effective in their organizations, to assessing and prioritizing their needs, to generating a final report that can be shared with board and staff.
Additionally, advanced features of TechAtlas (available through an annual subscription of $69) provide tools to manage existing technology more effectively, such as online inventorying, help desk tracking and special assessments. To date, more than 13,000 nonprofits have used TechAtlas to help manage their technology and plan for future needs www.TechAtlas.org
CONTACT US ABOUT assessment & planning services
302.256.5015 x4
