Category Archives: technology

A Software Fable

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Suppose you join a small nonprofit organization with one office.  As the new IT person, you decide to build a software application to help the office to work more efficiently.  Everyone is anxious to see your results, so you push through the requirements gathering stage and come up with a reasonably good solution.  Your colleagues are pleased.  Management praises your work and all is well.

A short time later, your organization decides to open a second office, which has a different business focus than the first location.  But they ask if you can adapt your application for their needs, saying that they would like to go live in a month.  You try to get specific details about what they would like to see in the new system, but everyone is frantically busy and you end up having to make certain assumptions to revise the application for their needs.  But you push forward, and somehow are able to finish by the deadline.  Again, everyone is pleased.  Management again applauds your efforts.

Before you can savor your latest success, the first office asks if you can add some reports to the application which they hadn’t included in the original specifications.  (You had asked about reports, but were told that they would deal with that later.)  When reviewing their request, you realize that much of this information isn’t collected by the application, so you have to go back and revise some screens before creating the new reports.  And because of the tight deadline, you don’t have time to develop a front end interface to run the reports, but you say that’s OK because as the IT person, you can run them when requested.

You roll out the new reports and application changes, but then realize that your edits have broken something that is used by the first office.  So you need to go back and tweak the code a bit more and do more testing so that the application will work properly for both locations.  Due to some personnel changes at both locations, you also realize that you need to schedule user training.  And when they ask for user documentation, you realize that this was not done due to the rush to get things finished.

Eventually, your nonprofit keeps growing, and so does the use of your application was you originally designed for one office.  You keep making modifications, but these changes end up making the code increasingly complex.  (When you hire a new programmer to help you, it takes him months to figure out how everything works.)

Now your small application is in use by over 10 offices, all which use it a bit differently.  You’re now getting many requests for user support, and your tech support team can’t always help because they don’t fully understand how the application works.  When you speak to users from some of the earliest opened offices, you find out that many have established parallel systems in Excel and Access to handle situations that your software can’t accommodate.  Apparently, the business needs of your offices have changed so much that your application will need to be redesigned.

Finally you decide to have a meeting where you invite representatives from all of your offices to discuss what to do next.  Everyone says that their needs are unique and that they should receive special priority.  Many staff seem happy to continue using their personal spreadsheets and databases since it allows them to more easily manipulate and report on their data.  But your research department, which is trying to prepare organization wide reports to show the effectiveness of your work, is increasingly frustrated, saying that the data that they pull from your application is no longer accurate.

What to do next?  My recommendations:

  1. Evaluate hosted solutions.  Unless your business need is very unusual, there’s probably something else out there that will meet at least 75% of your needs.
  2. Look for the commonality between your offices’ work.  Even if you do end up having to build something yourself, there’s probably much functionality that will work for all.
  3. Decide up front what reports will be needed, and in what format.  Give users the ability to manage their own data, otherwise they’ll again be tempted to enter data again in a parallel system.
  4. Find out how other nonprofits of your type are handling similar requirements.  You may be able to learn from others’ experiences.
  5. Sometimes you will need to say no when you don’t have the time to do the job right, or if you’re not getting the cooperation from stakeholders in defining requirements.  Better to be unpopular in the short run than to be blamed later for a system which doesn’t work as expected.
  6. Use agile project management techniques to focus on short term deliverables.  This will allow you to more effectively respond to changing organization needs
  7. Provide ongoing training for both new and experienced staff members.  Most systems aren’t easy enough for people to easily ‘figure out’ how they work
  8. Get top management support, especially when you have to remind colleagues that not every request for program customizations can be handled.
But I’m sure this situation has never happened to you.  Right?

Blackbaud Will Buy Convio – My Thoughts

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Having watched many nonprofit vendors combine over the years, I probably shouldn’t be surprised by this week’s news that Blackbaud intends to acquire Convio.  But since the companies have taken such different paths with contrasting cultures, it’s hard to imagine that a merger will go smoothly and provide significant benefits to nonprofit customers.

Blackbaud’s most popular product has long been Raiser’s Edge, which provides unmatched functionality but is also beyond the financial reach of many small to medium nonprofits.  Despite efforts recently to make it more web based, RE is still primarily locally installed.  Of course Blackbaud has bought many other companies over the years which provide web options, such as eTapestry, Kintera, and PIDI, so many that it’s often hard to know how the multiple products all fit together.

In addition to its foundation online marketing platform (now Luminate), Convio took a significant risk by developing Common Ground, a web application built on Salesforce.  While Common Ground offers much less functionality than software like Raiser’s Edge, it offers the strong advantage of being able to connect well with other products due to its Salesforce infrastructure.  (Integration between platforms has been a major issue at every nonprofit I’ve worked for.)

While Blackbaud has been most active in acquisitions, let’s not forget that Convio also bought GetActive – and the transition of GetActive customers to the Convio platform was long and painful.

As many of my colleagues have said this week, it’s hard to know how this acquisition will pan out, and which products will continue to be maintained.  I have friends at both Blackbaud and Convio, and I can only hope that the inevitable personnel shakeup will be handled respectfully.

In my view, this merger may have the effect of reducing competition and innovation, which is always a bad thing.  However, this may also be a wake up call for those organizations who have not discovered the benefits of using open source solutions which are not tied to the fate of a particular vendor.

If you’re on the Progressive Exchange and Nten email lists, I encourage you to read the comments of my colleagues Peter Campbell, Michelle Murrain, Robert Weiner , Allen Gunn on Aspiration Tech and Alyson Kapin’s on Frogloop.  Also see Nten’s take and then join the free Nten conference call this Wednesday to further sort out what is likely to come next.

More Highlights from 5 Years of Nonprofit Bridge

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More blasts from past posts from Nonprofit Bridge:

How a nonprofit is organized can greatly impact its online success.  From mid-2008, here’s Building a Successful Online Team.  In mid-2009, I followed up with a review of Convio‘s study on Why Organization Structure Matters.  Then in early 2011, I offered this Job Description for an Integrated Fundraising / Communications Position.

For more advice on digital strategy, read Tips for Online Success and How to Succeed Online – Even When You Think You Can’t.  It’s always worthwhile to learn from those who are doing it well in Practical Examples of Cross-Channel Success.

Website redesign is often a challenging process.  Here’s some Reasons Why (and Why Not) to Do a Website Redesign, and some additional tips.

Creating great content is key to engaging constituents.  Learn How to Develop Content Your Constituents Will Want to Read, how to Develop a Content Strategy and then What Content to Put in Each Channel.

Most nonprofits need to partner with companies who provide hosted software.  Here’s how to get the most of the relationship in Tips in Selecting and Working With an Online Vendor.

Do you give and attend webinars?  Here’s tips on how to present and how to get the most from participating in online events.

Finally, the hottest topics now are social media and mobile / tablets.  Read Insights into Developing a Social Media Strategy and my take last year on the New World of Mobile.

Thank you again for following my thoughts on the intersection of technology, communications and development for nonprofit organizations.

Reviewing 5 Years at Nonprofit Bridge

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Next month will mark my fifth year since beginning my blog at Nonprofit Bridge.  Since my first post on Jan 23, 2007, I’ve expanded my focus well beyond technology and providing a place for ‘positive thoughts.’  Below is part 1 of my favorite posts (to be continued next week):

More highlights from past posts next week.  Meanwhile, thank you for reading my thoughts for the past five years.  I wish you a wonderful 2012!

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you missed this week’s Social Media for Nonprofits NYC event, you can get a great summary from Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter, who presented a great step by step tutorial on implementing Multi-Channel Campaigns.  (More session slides from this and past events are available here.)  See also Kivi Leroux Miller’s post highlighting Convio’s recently released Multi-Channel Marketing Report.

Coming up with strong content is the key behind any online strategy.  As I and many of my nonprofit colleagues around the country do, I try to find the most worthwhile posts to share with my followers.  Beth Kanter explains that Content Creation is Listening and Engaging, then followed up with this look at Scoop.It as a way to organize your content.

How can you make your website more ‘social’?  Debra Askanase explains how and gives several examples of nonprofits that are doing this well, and will follow up with a Nten webinar next month.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen says you must focus on essential content when writing for mobile platforms.  If you’re new to email marketing, learn about Email Marketing 2.0, then learn how segmentation can help you to get better results.

Finally, if you’re trying to find a format to send to your management to summarize social media and results of other online activity, Beth offers this guest post highlighting the Smithsonian Institution’s in-house dashboard, then suggests using a small pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media.

 

Too Much Content? Less is More

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OK, we’re all trying to keep up with email, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus.  So we’re scanning our messages quickly, and consider it an accomplishment when we’re ‘up to date’ (at least for a brief moment).  I’ve realized lately that sometimes less is more when it comes to actually absorbing the content we are reading.

Back when we were in school, we had to memorize facts so we could repeat them on a test.  Afterwards, we could clear our memory banks and start the process again.  Now that we’re ‘adults,’ there’s so much more information coming at us and it’s become increasingly difficult to retain the major ideas of what we’re reading.

I realized this recently when I found myself often sharing content with others that I hadn’t actually read beyond the brief Twitter summary or at best having read the first few sentences.  This became a bit embarrassing when others ask follow up questions about the content and I realize that I didn’t really understand the gist of what was said.

I recently read Hamlet’s Blackberry, which describes how many of us have become so distracted by constant access to information online that we can’t concentrate on any one article / post for more than a few seconds.  Interestingly, this isn’t a new phenomenon, but has happened every time a new type of communication channel has been introduced.

So do we turn down the spigot of information, and read less?  This can help, but more importantly, I’ve found that it helps to remind myself to focus a bit more on what I am reading online to make sure I’ve actually absorbed the material.  Especially if I want to share content and engage others, I have to be able to add my own insights to others’ thoughts.  Obviously I can’t do this if I haven’t taken the time to understand the content’s main messages.

By the way, if you’re spending this weekend on the beach and enjoying the sun and the surf, put the phone away so you can enjoy the moment.  Checking emails and the many social networks can wait.

What’s Next for Me – Center for Court Innovation

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Since moving to the nonprofit sector in August 2000, I’ve held a wide range of roles at multiple organizations, promoting technology to help achieve nonprofits’ overall goals.  Although I’ve usually been part of a technology group, my role in project management has brought me into daily contact with colleagues in development, marketing and communications.  I’ve also worked closely with consultants, developers, designers and programmers in building websites and other online applications.

CCI logoAs the next step in my career, I will join the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) on Monday, an organization which has used technology to revolutionize who things are done in criminal justice, creating demonstration projects throughout New York which have been used as a model for similar initiatives elsewhere in the United States and internationally.

As Project Manager, I will be supporting and enhancing the use of technology at many of these projects, as well as helping to create new programs.  CCI describes its goals as helping victims, reducing crime, strengthening neighborhoods and improving public trust in justice.

As I learned more about the organization during the interviewing process, I’ve been impressed by the Center for Court Innovation’s focus on innovation and having won numerous awards for its achievements in only 15 years of existence, as well as the professionalism of those I met with.

If you’re not familiar with CCI’s work, please visit its website, Facebook page and Twitter stream - or watch this overview video – as I begin another chapter in my career serving nonprofits.

Taking a Look at Website Usability

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In his latest book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug debunks the misconception that it takes a lot of money and resources to test your website for usability.  You can actually accomplish a lot in one morning a month by offering three users a relatively small amount to do basic tasks while you watch and listen.  So if this is so simple, why do so many sites suffer from what seem to be obvious usability problems?

  1. Testing is done, but with staff from your organization (to save money).  For the best results, you need to recruit users who are not already familiar with your company, product or services and who don’t have any vested interests in how to respond
  2. Testing occurs too late in website development process, when it is too late to address the issues that come up
  3. Management isn’t involved in the usability testing process, and as a result they don’t understand why its findings are so valuable
  4. Organization decides not to make changes until the next major site redesign;  as Steve mentions, often a minor tweak is enough to solve a problem
  5. There is confusion about what your major site objectives are;  this often causes your home page to have too much information and satisfies your internal departments but not your intended user audience
  6. Trying to do too much;  it’s best to focus on those issues which are causing confusion for the most users and are the most serious (not simply an inconvenience)
  7. Site design requires too many steps to complete most common objectives or provides too many distractions which take user off task

Many of us have looked at our website so often that we know how everything works, and where in the menu we need to go to find certain tasks.  But we are not our audience. Take the time to do some website usability testing, and you will be surprised how frustrated your users get trying to do simple things, like complete a financial transaction.  To learn more, read Steve Krug’s earlier book Don’t Make Me Think, and subscribe to updates from Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt.com site.

You Don’t Need to Recreate the Wheel

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Trying to figure out how your organization can be more effective online?  There are many nonprofits that are already succeeding that you can learn from.  Probably the most publicized success story in recent years is the astounding growth of charity: water, featured in a recent post by davidconnell.net.  One particularly interesting point is how charity: water has partnered which local organizations that actually do much of their core work (the nonprofit didn’t build an infrastructure to do it themselves).

In addition, when charity: water communicates with its supporters, the focus is on the cause, not the organization.  If your organization does many different things and you’re having difficulty what to focus on, take Katya Andresen’s suggestion to make modules out of your mission.  Not all of your constituents will care about everything you do, but there is probably some program or activity that particularly interests them.

Hearing a lot about mobile?  Nten‘s Holly Ross discusses 5 Nonprofits That Are Innovating with Mobile.  Even if you decide that you don’t have the bandwidth for a mobile approach yet, don’t forget to test outgoing emails on cell phones since so many more constituents are reading emails on cell phones.

The old model of technology focused on getting support from product vendors.  While I still work closely with my vendors’ customer support staffs, I also rely on checking in with my colleagues across the country, many who are asking the same questions as I am.  (Some issues I’m currently working on are how can I increase engagement with my organization’s Facebook followers and how can I integrate online forms from my vendors in social media platforms – since this is where many of my constituents are spending time online, never reaching my nonprofit’s website).

Another way to learn from others is to follow the most frequently used nonprofit hashtags, as nicely summarized by Kerri Karvetski.  (Don’t forget to use these hashtags when you post on Twitter!)

Fortunately, the nonprofit sector is a very open, sharing community.  Instead of struggling on your own, take the time to learn from what other organizations have already done, and ask for help if you need assistance in making your nonprofit shine online.  And don’t be afraid to fail.  As I was recently reminded by social media superstar Danielle Brigida, most of us are still figuring things out, especially since online products / services are constantly changing.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you’re convinced that integrated fundraising / marketing would help your organization but are finding it a challenge to implement, read these tips from Convio on how to break down your silos.  Also listen to this week’s free webinar from Fundraising Success on Strategies for Seamless Integration Across Fundraising Channels.  If multiple departments maintain their own calendars of constituent outreach activities, this is a good place to start by using an integrated calendar (and keeping it current).

Email isn’t dead yet, and many of us are still asking questions about what’s too much and how can we increase open / action rates.  For help, see 14 tips for making your nonprofit email more effective,   Make sure you think carefully about the subject line (which will affect whether or not readers decide to open your message) and test for stronger email performance.    Here’s more ideas on how much communication is too much.   Struggling with content ideas for your next enewsletter or direct mail piece?  Try these three stories every nonprofit should know how to write.

After this week’s announcement of the upgraded iPad, is it time to retire the PC in favor of laptops and tablets?  Seems to me that having a real keyboard is still helpful, especially on mobile phones which continue to boom.

If you’re planning to re-do your website, consider first what platform will serve you best, such as WordPress or Drupal.  The newly updated Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits is also a great reference.

Coming next week – a preview of Nten‘s Nonprofit Technology Conference, which I’ll be attending later this month.