[Editor's note: The following first appeared in the September 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete issue of NTEN's new quarterly journal for nonprofit leaders by subscribing to the journal for free!]

By Judi Sohn, Outgoing VP of Operations, Fight Colorectal Cancer

Fight Colorectal Cancer:
> 6 year-old Org
> 6 Full-time Staff
> $1.1 Million Budget

In small organizations like mine, more often than not, the Executive Director or senior leadership of the organization also wears the technology leader hat, accidental or not. As a senior staff member for my organization, I don’t have the time or expertise to learn every API call. I also don’t have the budget to bring in a consultant or vendor to solve every non-program problem. But I do have to do my homework and make smaller, strategic technology decisions.

Fact is, if you lead a small organization, you are going to have to work twice as hard to do what other organizations can hire someone to do. But you know every corner of your organization. Use that to your advantage. Technology isn’t going to create a business process where one doesn’t exist. Focus first on process, not technology. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. You know your organization. You know your constituents. You know your co-workers and volunteers.

My priority is to not silo or duplicate data. For example, the more time it takes my staff to process a donation and see that the donor is acknowledged, the less time they have to work on mission-critical tasks. My job as both an organizational and technology leader is to make sure our technology is serving our mission.

Here’s an exercise that a technology leader can do to help identify where process is working, and where it isn’t: first, step away from the computer. Map out on paper (or use OmniGraffle or Visio like I did) how each of your audiences move through your organization, from first contact to the desired action they should take. Take a high enough view to see the entire picture. Draw a red line where information/communication is in a silo (if this spreadsheet was lost or destroyed, could you get the same information easily elsewhere?) or has to be duplicated (are you entering the same donor data in 3 different places?). Draw a green line where information is flowing smoothly.

Mobile, cloud, social media, platforms, servers...technology just carries the water. When you have a clear and focused plan for how information should move in your organization, in the end it almost doesn’t matter whether you’re using Microsoft Exchange or Google Apps. The hard work is in planning, not implementation. Put your limited resources and attention where it matters: up front. Then you can more easily implement technology that lessens your organization’s red lines without creating new ones.

(Note: You can read the entire September Issue of NTEN:Changeonline for free.)

We want to hear your feedback on this article: What strategies have you tried to improve data and communications flow among your staff? Have you ever mapped out data flow on paper like Judi?

Please leave your suggestions, stories, and questions in the comments below!