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A phishing simulation is a controlled, fake cyberattack designed to test employee awareness and resilience against phishing scams. It involves sending realistic, malicious-looking emails or messages to identify security gaps, with common examples including fake credential login pages, simulated ransomware, and targeted spear-phishing. However, in an increasingly adversarial cyber landscape, they are no longer simply about observing who clicks; they are about getting our workforce fully prepared. As attackers use AI and automation, security teams must also innovate in terms of their training methodologies to move beyond the low-hanging fruit of 2010s-era scams. A realistic simulation that runs today must mirror the modern threat landscape, focusing on psychological triggers, technical authenticity, and a culture of proactive reporting.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The gradual decline of the generic phish</h3>



The most significant innovation in phishing simulation is the move toward hyper-personalization. Traditional one-size-fits-all campaigns, such as a generic &#8220;Your package is delayed&#8221; email, often fail to challenge savvy employees and produce misleadingly low click rates. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-09-22-gartner-survey-reveals-generative-artificial-intelligence-attacks-are-on-the-rise" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gartner</a>, nearly 29% of cybersecurity leaders reported that their organizations have faced GenAI-driven attacks in the past year, with GenAI used across a broad range of use cases, including phishing, deepfakes, and social engineering. The simulations of today must leverage new-age tactics, such as Business Email Compromise (BEC). These tactics leverage no malicious links at all, but rather a request for a conversation or a change in banking details. According to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2023_IC3Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI IC3 2023 Report</a>, BEC remains one of the most financially devastating forms of cybercrime, with losses exceeding $2.9 billion, underscoring that the human element is the ultimate exploit.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
By replicating the exact essence and cadence of corporate communications, employees can be pushed to look for the subtle technical red flags rather than obvious stylistic ones.
</blockquote>



To simulate this effectively, internal security teams should analyze the specific software and communication styles used within their own organization. If an organization uses Slack for 90% of its internal chatter, an email-based &#8220;Internal Memo&#8221; will look suspicious from the start. On the contrary, a simulated direct message on a collaboration platform or a notification from a specific SaaS tool like Jira or Workday is far more likely to test the user&#8217;s actual judgment. By replicating the exact essence and cadence of corporate communications, employees can be pushed to look for the subtle technical red flags rather than obvious stylistic ones.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-technical-sophistication-and-mfa-bypass">Technical sophistication and MFA bypass</h3>



We are gradually going to an era where a simple message such as &#8220;don&#8217;t enter your password&#8221; warning is insufficient. Threat actors are increasingly using Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) techniques to bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). In such cases, the victim is directed to a certain proxy server that mimics a real login page. After the victim enters their credentials and enables MFA, the attacker captures the session cookie, granting them full access without ever needing the password again. <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2022/07/12/from-cookie-theft-to-bec-attackers-use-aitm-phishing-sites-as-entry-point-to-further-financial-fraud/">Microsoft’s Security Blog</a> highlights how these session-theft attacks are becoming a standard in the criminal toolkit.



Innovating simulations in organizations means moving toward &#8220;session hijacking&#8221; simulations. Instead of a static page that tells the user they failed, the simulation should demonstrate the danger of &#8220;proxy phishing.&#8221; This involves using tools that can simulate the redirection of a user through a middleman server. When employees see that their MFA code, something they previously thought was an &#8220;invincibility cloak,&#8221; can be intercepted, the educational impact is significantly higher. This shift in training aligns with <a href="https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1566/">MITRE ATT&amp;CK Technique T1566</a>, which categorizes the various ways attackers subvert traditional defenses.



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/compliance-requirements-smarter-workflows" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meet rising compliance requirements with smarter workflows</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-psychology-of-the-teachable-moment">The psychology of the &#8216;teachable moment&#8217;</h3>



The goal of a simulation is not to catch people; it is to teach them. The &#8220;teachable moment&#8221; occurs within seconds of a user failing a simulation. If a user clicks and is met with a 30-minute mandatory training video, they will feel punished and likely grow resentful of the security team. Innovation in this space involves Just-in-Time micro-learning. A successful landing page after a click can be visually engaging and immediately highlight the missed cues in the specific email they just interacted with.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
The &#8220;teachable moment&#8221; occurs within seconds of a user failing a simulation.
</blockquote>



Furthermore, the <a href="https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2020/09/phish-scale-nist-developed-method-helps-it-staff-see-why-users-click" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NIST PhishScale</a> provides a framework for security leaders and teams to understand why certain emails are more effective than others. It analyzes the cue visibility and the human context of a phish. For example, an email sent during a busy period, such as year-end accounting, is naturally more difficult to handle than one sent during a quiet summer week. By using the PhishScale, innovators can ensure they aren&#8217;t just making hard phishes, but relatively fair ones that provide measurable data on employee resilience under different levels of cognitive load.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-accessibility-for-all-the-nonprofit-strategy">Accessibility for all: the nonprofit strategy</h3>



It goes without saying that nonprofits often operate under very tight constraints, such as limited budgets and skeleton IT teams, making them a prime target for threat actors who know that their defenses are not that robust. However, the reality doesn’t have to be that expensive with modern phishing simulation tools and techniques. They can innovate using powerful open-source tools like Gophish, which is an industry-standard toolkit for managing phishing campaigns for free. As outlined in the <a href="https://github.com/gophish/user-guide">Gophish User Guide</a>, the platform allows organizations to clone their own login pages and track results without a recurring subscription fee.&nbsp;



For a low-friction approach, nonprofits can also utilize the starter or free tiers of commercial platforms. For example, certain organizations offer a free phishing simulation starter tool that includes incident insights. Additionally, for the educational component, the <a href="https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch">SANS OUCH! Newsletter</a> provides high-quality, free security awareness materials that can be linked directly to the failure pages of a Gophish campaign. This allows a nonprofit to run a professional-grade simulation program with limited or even zero software spend, focusing its limited resources on remediating the vulnerabilities identified during the tests.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-click-rates-to-a-reporting-culture">From click-rates to a reporting culture</h3>



The final frontier of innovation in phishing simulation is the metric of success. For too long, the industry has obsessed over the click rate. However, a low click rate might simply mean the simulation was too easy. The more valuable metric is the reporting rate. A high reporting rate indicates that with humans in the loop, they can actively contribute to the company&#8217;s threat intelligence.&nbsp;



A high reporting rate indicates a vigilant human team that actively contributes to the company&#8217;s threat intelligence. When an employee clicks the ‘Report Phishing’ button, they are not just protecting themselves; they are alerting the SOC to a potential campaign.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
When an employee clicks the ‘Report Phishing’ button, they are not just protecting themselves; they are alerting the SOC to a potential campaign.
</blockquote>



Building this culture requires positive reinforcement. According to a <a href="https://www.knowbe4.com/press/knowbe4-report-reveals-security-training-reduces-global-phishing-click-rates-by-86">benchmark report</a>, it is observed that organizations that gamify the reporting process, including regular simulation, training, and reporting mechanisms, see a drastic reduction in their phish-prone percentages. Instead of shaming those who fail, companies that thrive tend to celebrate their top reporters. This shifts the perception of the security team from simply being digital police to partners in defense. Ultimately, a realistic simulation program should strive to turn every employee into a sensor, creating a mesh network of human intelligence that is far more difficult for an attacker to penetrate than any single technical control.

Blog header image. Guest post As attackers use AI and automation, cybersecurity teams must also innovate their phishing simulations to move beyond 2010s-era scams.

Innovative phishing simulations to build cyber-resilience

Nonprofits have always strived to leverage digital tools to advance their missions. The sector is famously scrappy—always finding creative ways to do more with less, even in the face of chronic underfunding and resource constraints. Despite these challenges, nonprofit professionals persistently seek out new technologies to better serve their communities and drive impact. NTEN’s <a href="https://www.nten.org/accelerate">Tech Accelerate</a> is one such tool – a free assessment that helps nonprofits evaluate their technology adoption, practices, and policies across four key areas: engagement, infrastructure, leadership, and organization.



Last summer, I had the privilege of completing a student capstone paper,&nbsp;Contemporary Practices in Nonprofit Technology Use and Management: An Exploratory Data Analysis, that was a collaborative effort between NTEN and our University of Minnesota team, composed of Nick Bovee-Gazett and me. Our goal was to conduct an exploratory analysis of NTEN’s Tech Accelerate dataset. Our work included quantitative analysis, and a structured literature review to contextualize findings within broader nonprofit sector trends.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-the-data-confirms-size-age-and-staffing-matter">What the data confirms: Size, age, and staffing matter</h3>







Our analysis examined a dataset of Tech Accelerate assessments from almost 1,300 organizations spanning the past eight years. We found clear, consistent patterns:



<ul>
<li>Smaller organizations (by staff and budget) report higher technology risk across all categories. Micro-sized nonprofits with fewer than one full-time employee trigger risk flags on 65% of survey answers, compared to just 34% among organizations with 150+ staff.</li>



<li>Newer organizations face greater digital vulnerability. Nonprofits founded in the 2010s and 2020s show significantly higher risk levels than those established in earlier decades.</li>



<li>Dedicated technology staff make a difference. While disparities were evident across multiple dimensions—size, budget, age—the number of technology staff employed by an organization appeared to have the biggest impact. Organizations with no tech staff averaged nearly 60% risk flags, while the rate among organizations with more than ten tech staff dropped to 28%. Investment in people—not just tools—appears to be the most effective lever for digital readiness.</li>
</ul>



These findings may sound familiar, but the granularity of the Tech Accelerate data brings some disparities lurking underneath into sharper focus. Fifteen individual assessment questions show risk flag rate differences of 50 percentage points or more between the smallest and largest organizations. These gaps aren’t just statistical—they’re indicators of structural deficiencies that shape how nonprofit staff perceive and self-report on their digital readiness.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Investment in people—not just tools—appears to be the most effective lever for digital readiness.
</blockquote>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-repeat-engagement-appears-to-drive-improvement">Repeat engagement appears to drive improvement</h3>







Our most encouraging finding was that organizations conducting multiple Tech Accelerate assessments over time tend to show improving scores. Among 181 organizations with repeat assessments, 61% reduced their overall risk flag rate, with average risk levels falling from 44.2% to 40.8%. The share of organizations in the lowest-risk quartile increased by 50%, suggesting that repeated engagement may support real progress.



This trend raises important questions: Are these improvements actually a reflection of substantive organizational change, and if so, what role does Tech Accelerate play in driving that change? While the data cannot establish causality, it points to the potential of self-assessment as both a diagnostic and developmental tool. Further research is needed to explore whether score improvements correlate with real-world outcomes and how assessment use or cohort participation contributes to that journey.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cohort-participation-a-promising-advantage">Cohort participation: A promising advantage</h3>







Since 2024, organizations participating in NTEN’s <a href="https://www.nten.org/learn/nonprofit-tech-readiness">Nonprofit Tech Readiness cohorts</a> have reported lower average risk levels than non-group peers. While pre-2024 data showed similar distributions, cohort scores have since diverged in a positive direction. This suggests that structured engagement and support through cohort programs may yield cumulative benefits, though more research is needed to confirm the link between participation and lasting organizational change.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-beyond-the-numbers-technology-adoption-is-not-just-technical">Beyond the numbers: Technology adoption is not just technical</h3>







The evidence gathered in this analysis reinforces a critical lesson: technology adoption in the nonprofit sector cannot be treated as a purely technical exercise. Progress requires:



<ul>
<li>Cultural change</li>



<li>Leadership commitment</li>



<li>Equitable governance</li>



<li>Intentional alignment of digital tools with mission outcomes</li>
</ul>



Emerging technologies, especially AI, bring both transformative potential and new risks. The urgent need for clear policies, robust data hygiene, bias audits, and cross-functional governance structures is more apparent than ever. The sector stands at a critical juncture: opportunities for impact are expanding, but so too are the risks of exclusion, inequity, and strategic drift.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-toward-integrated-intentional-strategies">Toward integrated, intentional strategies</h3>







Meeting modern challenges requires strategies that weave technology into every layer of organizational planning and practice—strategies grounded in equity, informed by data, guided by community voices, and supported by sustained investment in people and systems. The path forward is not about adopting the newest tools for their own sake, but about building the technical, ethical, and organizational capacity to ensure that technology serves as a true enabler of mission and social good.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Organizations conducting multiple Tech Accelerate assessments over time tend to show improving scores.
</blockquote>



The challenges are real, but so are the opportunities. By embracing integrated approaches, investing in people, and centering equity and mission, nonprofits can harness technology to lead.

Organizations conducting multiple Tech Accelerate assessments over time tend to show improving scores.

Technology adoption in nonprofits: An analysis of NTEN’s Tech Accelerate data

Let’s set the scene: your nonprofit&#8217;s annual report page used to get 5,000 visitors per month from people searching &#8220;climate change statistics.&#8221; Now it has dropped to 1,200. Google&#8217;s AI is answering those questions directly, without sending anyone to your carefully researched content.



These changes to website traffic and search are happening right now to nonprofits everywhere. We&#8217;re seeing this pattern across organizations, from small local charities to major international NGOs.



The good news is that there are concrete steps your team can take to adapt to keep your website traffic up. This guide covers what&#8217;s happening to nonprofit search traffic, how to make your content AI-readable through structured data, the types of search terms that still drive visitors to your site, and how to measure success.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-exactly-is-happening-to-nonprofit-website-traffic">What exactly is happening to nonprofit website traffic?</h3>







Google&#8217;s AI Overviews now appear above traditional search results, answering questions without requiring clicks. When someone searches &#8220;how to help homeless veterans,&#8221; Google&#8217;s AI pulls information from your website but displays it directly in search results. The person gets their answer, but you lose a potential volunteer, donor, or advocate.



This creates zero-click conversions where users get answers without visiting your site. AI Overviews could reduce organic traffic by<a href="https://searchengineland.com/how-google-sge-will-impact-your-traffic-and-3-sge-recovery-case-studies-431430"> 18-64%</a> for websites with informational content. That&#8217;s exactly the type of educational content nonprofits create.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
What’s reassuring is that donation conversions seem to be holding steady as traffic being lost comes primarily from informational queries that don&#8217;t typically convert to donations immediately anyway. 
</blockquote>



The timing couldn&#8217;t be worse. Many organizations are already stretching limited budgets while depending heavily on organic search for awareness and donor acquisition. Unlike businesses that can quickly pivot marketing spend, nonprofits often lack the resources for rapid digital strategy changes.



What’s reassuring is that donation conversions seem to be holding steady, as traffic being lost comes primarily from informational queries that don&#8217;t typically convert to donations immediately anyway. The real challenge lies in losing that crucial top-of-funnel awareness that eventually leads to engagement.



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/build-equitable-website" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Seven ways to build an equitable website</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-do-you-make-your-nonprofit-s-content-ai-readable">How do you make your nonprofit&#8217;s content AI-readable?</h3>







Think of structured data as creating a &#8220;nutrition label&#8221; for your content that AI can easily read. 



This structured data, also called &#8220;schema markup”, is a short snippet of code that labels key information on your web pages, like your mission, donation options, or upcoming events. It helps search engines and AI tools interpret and surface your content more accurately, and can be added manually, through a CMS plugin, or with tools like Google’s Markup Helper.



This is code you add behind the scenes that doesn&#8217;t change how your site looks to visitors, but dramatically improves how AI understands your content.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Think of structured data as creating a &#8220;nutrition label&#8221; for your content that AI can easily read.&nbsp;
</blockquote>



This approach includes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and it&#8217;s different from traditional SEO. Instead of optimizing for human searchers clicking through to your site, you&#8217;re optimizing for AI systems that need to understand and reference your content in their responses.



Google&#8217;s algorithms now prioritize content with clear, structured information. When AI systems can quickly identify your organization&#8217;s mission, contact information, and donation opportunities, they&#8217;re more likely to reference your content in responses.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-essential-schema-types-for-nonprofits">Essential schema types for nonprofits</h4>







Organization schema helps search engines display your contact information, mission, and credibility indicators. This markup tells AI systems exactly what your organization does and how people can support your work.



<a href="https://schema.org/DonateAction" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DonateAction schema</a> makes your fundraising pages more visible to AI systems:



<ul>
<li>Add to donation landing pages and fundraising campaign pages</li>



<li>Include donation amount options and currency</li>



<li>Specify recipient organization details</li>



<li>Link to your secure donation processing page</li>
</ul>



<a href="https://schema.org/Event" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Event schema</a> helps your fundraising events and program activities appear in AI-generated event listings:



<ul>
<li>Mark up fundraising galas, volunteer training sessions, and awareness events</li>



<li>Include date, time, location, and registration details</li>



<li>Add performer or speaker information when relevant</li>



<li>Specify ticket prices and availability</li>
</ul>



<a href="https://schema.org/FAQPage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FAQPage schema</a> structures your common questions about your cause:



<ul>
<li>Use for &#8220;How can I help?&#8221; sections on your website</li>



<li>Include donation process explanations</li>



<li>Cover volunteer opportunity questions</li>



<li>Address common misconceptions about your cause</li>
</ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implementation-approaches">Implementation approaches</h4>







Google&#8217;s <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Structured Data Markup Helper</a> provides a free, user-friendly way to add this markup to your pages. The tool walks you through tagging different elements on your pages without requiring extensive coding knowledge.



WordPress users can leverage several nonprofit-focused plugins that automatically generate appropriate schema markup. These plugins handle the technical implementation while you focus on content creation.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Organization schema helps search engines display your contact information, mission, and credibility indicators. This markup tells AI systems exactly what your organization does and how people can support your work.
</blockquote>



For complex websites or organizations with extensive technical needs, bringing in developer support makes sense. A developer can implement complex schema markup across your entire site so it integrates properly with your existing systems.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-your-structured-data">Testing your structured data</h4>







Google&#8217;s<a href="https://search.google.com/test/rich-results" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Rich Results Test</a> tool shows you exactly how your markup appears to search engines. Paste your URL into the tool and it reveals which schema elements Google can detect and any errors that need fixing.



Common mistakes include marking up content that doesn&#8217;t actually exist on your page or using incorrect schema types. The testing tool catches these issues before they affect your search visibility.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-which-search-terms-should-nonprofits-focus-on-now">Which search terms should nonprofits focus on now?</h3>







AI Overviews appear most often for broad, informational queries. Specific, actionable queries still drive clicks to your website. Understanding this shift helps you create content that keeps reaching your audience despite AI changes.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-query-types-that-still-work-vs-those-that-don-t">Query types that still work vs. those that don&#8217;t</h4>







Queries that still drive clicks:



<ul>
<li>&#8220;How to donate to [specific cause]&#8221; &#8211; requires transaction completion</li>



<li>&#8220;Volunteer opportunities in [location]&#8221; &#8211; needs real-time, local information</li>



<li>&#8220;[Organization name] contact information&#8221; &#8211; branded searches</li>



<li>&#8220;Register for [specific event]&#8221; &#8211; requires interactive registration</li>
</ul>



Queries now answered by AI (fewer clicks):



<ul>
<li>&#8220;What is climate change?&#8221; &#8211; general educational content</li>



<li>&#8220;Homelessness statistics 2024&#8221; &#8211; factual information AI can summarize</li>



<li>&#8220;How to help endangered species&#8221; &#8211; broad advice AI can compile</li>



<li>&#8220;Nonprofit fundraising best practices&#8221; &#8211; general guidance</li>
</ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-content-strategy-shifts">Content strategy shifts</h4>







Focus on &#8220;how to take action&#8221; rather than &#8220;what is this issue.&#8221; Instead of writing &#8220;What is food insecurity,&#8221; create content like &#8220;How to volunteer at your local food bank this weekend.&#8221; The difference matters because AI can easily summarize abstract concepts, but it can&#8217;t help someone actually show up to volunteer.



Create interactive content like donation calculators, volunteer matching tools, or impact assessments. These require user engagement that AI can&#8217;t replicate. When someone needs to input their zip code to find volunteer opportunities or calculate their potential tax deduction for a donation, they have to visit your site.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
AI Overviews appear most often for broad, informational queries. Specific, actionable queries still drive clicks to your website. Understanding this shift helps you create content that keeps reaching your audience despite AI changes.
</blockquote>



Build content around specific, local needs rather than general topics. For instance, &#8220;Animal rehoming shelter in Miami&#8221; performs better than &#8220;animal rehoming shelter information&#8221; because people searching for local help need current details that can change daily. Your Miami shelter content might include specific locations, supply drop-off times, and volunteer coordinator phone numbers.



Think about the questions people ask after they&#8217;ve learned the basics. AI handles &#8220;What is climate change?&#8221; well. But it struggles with &#8220;How do I start a climate action group at my workplace?&#8221; or &#8220;What supplies should I bring to the beach cleanup this Saturday?&#8221; These actionable queries still send people to your website.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protecting-your-brand-visibility">Protecting your brand visibility</h4>







With organic clicks declining, Google Ad Grants become even more critical. Nonprofits get up to<a href="https://www.google.com/grants/"> $10,000/month</a> in free advertising to maintain visibility for branded searches and high-intent keywords.



Focus paid campaigns on branded terms and high-intent phrases like &#8220;donate to [your cause]&#8221; or &#8220;volunteer with [your organization].&#8221; These queries have clear commercial intent that AI responses can&#8217;t fulfill.



Google Search Console now shows which queries trigger AI Overviews for your content. Monitor this data to understand how AI affects your specific keywords and adjust your strategy accordingly.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-should-nonprofits-measure-success-when-clicks-disappear">How should nonprofits measure success when clicks disappear?</h3>







Traditional metrics like total organic traffic become less meaningful when AI answers questions without sending visitors to your site. New measurement approaches focus on engagement quality and brand visibility.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Set realistic expectations for both timeline and results. Schema markup might take 3-6 months to show measurable impact, and Google continues tweaking how AI Overviews work.
</blockquote>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-metrics-that-matter">New metrics that matter</h4>







Track brand mentions in AI responses rather than just click volume. When AI references your organization&#8217;s expertise or data, that builds authority even without direct traffic.



Monitor conversion rates rather than total visitors. Higher-quality traffic that converts at better rates can be more valuable than previous traffic volumes with lower engagement.



Email sign-ups and newsletter subscriptions become leading indicators of engagement. These metrics show whether your content resonates with the people who do visit your site.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tools-for-tracking-ai-impact">Tools for tracking AI impact</h4>







Setting up Google Search Console tracking:



<ul>
<li>Performance report filtered for &#8220;AI Overview&#8221; impressions</li>



<li>Query data showing which terms trigger AI responses</li>



<li>Click-through rate changes for high-volume keywords</li>



<li>Brand name search performance trends</li>
</ul>



Third-party tools for AI tracking:



<ul>
<li>SEMrush: AI Overview keyword tracking (premium feature)</li>



<li>Ahrefs: SERP feature monitoring for AI responses</li>



<li>BrightEdge: AI impact measurement dashboard</li>



<li>Custom Google Alerts for brand mentions in AI responses</li>
</ul>



Set up Google Alerts for your organization name and key terms to monitor when AI systems reference your content. This helps you understand your brand&#8217;s AI visibility beyond traditional click metrics.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reporting-to-your-board-or-leadership">Reporting to your board or leadership</h4>







Explain the shift from quantity to quality metrics. Board members need to understand that fewer, more engaged visitors can drive better outcomes than high-volume, low-intent traffic.



Create dashboards that show multiple traffic sources rather than focusing solely on organic search. Include email traffic, social media referrals, direct visits, and paid advertising performance. When board members see that email newsletter clicks are up 40% while organic search drops 25%, they understand you&#8217;re successfully diversifying your digital reach.



Set realistic expectations for both timeline and results. Schema markup might take 3-6 months to show measurable impact, and Google continues tweaking how AI Overviews work. Let leadership know that early wins might include better brand mention tracking rather than immediate traffic recovery.



Frame the challenge as an opportunity to strengthen owned media channels. While you can&#8217;t control Google&#8217;s algorithms, you can build email lists, social media followers, and direct relationships that don&#8217;t depend on search engines. Building these owned channels often creates more reliable long-term engagement than chasing organic search rankings.



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/cybersecurity-strategies-for-nonprofit-websites" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cybersecurity strategies for nonprofit websites</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ready-to-take-action">Ready to take action?</h3>







Google&#8217;s AI changes require immediate action, but you don&#8217;t need to overhaul everything at once. Start with these foundational steps that will protect your nonprofit&#8217;s search visibility as AI continues evolving.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Immediate next steps:</h4>



<ul>
<li>Audit your current content&#8217;s AI Overview presence by searching for your organization&#8217;s key terms and noting when AI responses appear and whether they reference your content</li>



<li>Implement basic organization schema markup on your homepage and about page to help AI systems understand your organization&#8217;s basic information and mission</li>



<li>Begin tracking new metrics in Google Search Console by setting up custom reports that monitor impression data and AI Overview performance alongside traditional click metrics</li>



<li>Train team members on structured data basics so your team can make informed decisions about content optimization and technical improvements</li>



<li><a href="https://imagexmedia.com/blog/ai-web-strategy-tips-higher-ed-nonprofit">Establish ongoing optimization processes</a> rather than treating this as a one-time project, since AI search continues evolving and successful nonprofit website ranking requires consistent attention to these changes</li>
</ul>



Many nonprofits haven&#8217;t realized what&#8217;s happening to their search traffic yet. If you’re reading this you likely have a head start. Time to use it.

Google's AI is answering search questions directly, without sending anyone to your carefully researched content.

Keep your website traffic up in an AI-first search world

Over the past year, nonprofits have seen a surge of new requirements at both the federal and state levels. <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/five-alarm-fire-how-new-tax-law-could-decimate-nonprofits-and-what-can-be-done" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tax-reform proposals</a> in Congress threaten to reshape or even revoke 501(c)(3) status for certain organizations, while state legislatures from Louisiana to beyond are demanding more <a href="https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/nonprofit-champion-may-19-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">frequent audits, performance data, and on-site reviews before releasing funding</a>. Tackling this growing compliance burden with only people power is a recipe for burnout; and risk. Below are five expanded automation approaches to help nonprofit teams streamline compliance workflows, reduce manual toil, and stay focused on mission impact.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Build a centralized “compliance calendar”</h4>



Effective compliance starts with knowing exactly what’s due and when. Rather than relying on tribal knowledge or siloed spreadsheets, catalog every federal, state, and grant-specific filing requirement, everything from IRS Form 990 to quarterly foundation reports, and capture its due date, frequency, and required attachments. Feed that into a shared calendar or project-management tool that can:



<ul>
<li>Trigger multiple reminders. Configure notifications at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days out so teams have time to gather data, draft narratives, and route drafts for review.</li>



<li>Assign clear ownership. Tag each deadline with a primary and secondary owner so responsibilities are never ambiguous.</li>



<li>Archive automatically. When a filing is marked complete, have your system save a timestamped PDF to a designated folder (e.g., “2025_Federal_Filings”) and notify key stakeholders.</li>
</ul>



Over time, this living calendar becomes a single source of truth, eliminating last-minute scrambles, over-reliance on individual memory, and the risk of missing a critical deadline.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-embed-policy-checks-into-everyday-requests">2. Embed policy checks into everyday requests</h4>



Rather than catching policy violations in after-the-fact audits, shift controls to the moment of spend. Translate your finance and procurement policies into simple rules such as “any expense over $2,000 needs executive sign-off” or “office supplies must come from approved merchants” and integrate them into your purchase-request workflows. Many nonprofit spend management platforms now offer:



<ul>
<li>Virtual cards programmable by merchant category. Limit usage to office supplies, travel, or vendor codes you predefine.</li>



<li>Real-time transaction controls. Block or flag charges that fall outside policy thresholds.</li>



<li>Automated approval routing. If a request exceeds policy, it automatically creates a ticket for the appropriate manager; if it’s within policy, it logs and processes without manual intervention.</li>
</ul>



By embedding these checks directly into the tools your team uses daily, you reduce the volume of post-transaction reviews, minimize human error, and ensure every dollar flows through pre-approved paths.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-centralize-and-tag-all-key-documents">3. Centralize and tag all key documents</h4>



Audits and grant renewals often hinge on your ability to produce board minutes, contracts, and financial statements within minutes. To make document retrieval frictionless:



<ol>
<li>Adopt one repository. Whether you choose a cloud-based drive, an open-source document management system, or a repository within your CRM, funnel all compliance-related files into a single platform.</li>
</ol>



<ol start="2">
<li>Standardize filenames. Use a clear pattern, such as YYYYMMDD_Type_FunderOrVendor_Name.pdf, so documents are sorted chronologically and by category.</li>
</ol>



<ol start="3">
<li>Implement metadata tagging. Beyond just folders, apply tags like “audit,” “grant2025,” “boardMinutes,” or program-specific labels.</li>
</ol>



<ol start="4">
<li>Don’t forget receipts. Use a mobile scanning app or your spend management platform’s receipt-capture feature to digitize every purchase, then upload and tag those images alongside corresponding invoices.</li>
</ol>



With these conventions, a quick full-text search or filter by tag will unearth exactly what you need, whether it’s “all 2024 audits” or “grant agreement for ParkAccess project,” in seconds, not days. The push for <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/louisiana/article_5df578bf-8db5-49bc-828b-48f1c3f69495.html">more frequent state-level oversight</a> makes instant access even more critical.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-generate-real-time-reports-with-one-click">4. Generate real-time reports with one click</h4>



Preparation for board presentations, annual reviews, or funder check-ins often drains dozens of hours as teams copy data from accounting systems into slides or spreadsheets. Instead:



<ul>
<li>Connect systems via API or secure export. Link your general ledger, CRM, or spreadsheet tool to a reporting dashboard.</li>



<li>Design reusable report templates. Create your standard views—budget vs. actual, cash-burn forecast, program spend breakdown, and save them as templates.</li>



<li>Enable one-click refresh. At the start of each reporting cycle, hit “refresh” to pull in the latest data and export directly to PDF or presentation format.</li>
</ul>



This approach slashes report-prep time from days to minutes, eliminates version-control headaches, and ensures leadership always sees accurate, up-to-the-minute insights.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-seek-out-nonprofit-discounts-for-your-tools">5. Seek out nonprofit discounts for your tools</h4>



Investing in compliance-automation software can feel costly, but many vendors offer generous programs for registered nonprofits. To maximize savings:



<ul>
<li>Search proactively. Before purchasing, Google “[tool name] nonprofit discount” or check for an “Education” or “Social Impact” section on vendor sites.</li>



<li>Track eligibility periods. Note when proof of status needs renewal and set calendar reminders to resubmit documentation, so you never lose discount eligibility.</li>



<li>Leverage free tiers and grants. Some platforms provide free credits or grants (especially during open calls for social-impact tools) that you can apply toward consulting hours, extra seats, or advanced modules.</li>
</ul>



By systematically hunting down and documenting available discounts, you can give your finance team breathing room to reinvest savings into programs rather than overhead.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-conclusion">In conclusion</h3>



By cataloging every deadline in a shared compliance calendar, embedding policy checks at the point of spend, centralizing and tagging documents, automating real-time reporting, and taking full advantage of nonprofit discounts, you’ll transform compliance from a reactive scramble into a proactive, transparent ecosystem. Your auditors, funders, board members, and most importantly, your team, will thank you.

Tackling the growing compliance burden with only people power is a recipe for burnout – and risk. Automate your workflows with five simple strategies.

Meet rising compliance requirements with smarter workflows

Strong data storytelling is like a decoder ring that unlocks the insights within your datasets and propels your teams onward, to the decision-making and action-taking that takes your work to the next level. It’s the key to becoming a truly data-informed organization.&nbsp;



The default charts you can produce with your go-to software, like Excel or Google Sheets or even Tableau, will never get you to a data story. Because, even if enhanced with AI, they don’t know your story. You do.&nbsp;



That said, you can reshape those default charts so that the story you see is clear and direct for your team, your audience, and your stakeholders. It’s easier than you might think.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-defaults-don-t-do-you-justice">The defaults don&#8217;t do you justice</h2>



Let’s say you&#8217;re evaluating the effectiveness of your nonprofit&#8217;s email strategy. You’ve run three types of email campaigns this year: Advocacy, Fundraising, and Newsletter. Now you want to show how they performed over the last four quarters.



A default chart of that campaign data would look like this:


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN1.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN1.png" alt="A bar chart titled 'Click Through Rates (CTR) by Email Campaign Type'. The x-axis is the CTR for 4 quarters - Q1 CTR through Q4 CTR. The y-axis is percentage, going up from 0 to 7. Each quarter has a grouping of three bars with varying lengths – blue, orange, and green respectively. The legend below the chart reads: blue - advocacy, orange - fundraising, green - newsletter. " class="wp-image-191555" style="width:1112px;height:668px" width="1112" height="668"/></a></figure></div>


This column chart might not seem so bad at first glance. But try to pull out a story. It’s a challenge that requires some insight, some data literacy, and some mental effort &#8211; all of which will clog up your team meeting and slow down your progress.



The reasons this default chart drags you down:



<ul>
<li>Vague title: “Click Through Rates by Email Campaign Type” states what the data is about. But it doesn’t tell you the story in the dataset. What a wasted opportunity!</li>



<li>Overly colorful: A different bold color on each email campaign makes a viewer’s eyes bounce all over the chart, never landing on the evidence that conveys the story.</li>



<li>Cluttered labeling: The repeated (%) along the x-axis is redundant of the “percent” y-axis label. Additionally, the data labels on every column are redundant of the y-axis altogether! All that excess creates more noise for your viewer to dig through.</li>



<li>Hard-to-follow comparisons: The chart type itself makes for some needless strain. In order to see how, for example, Newsletter performed over the 4 quarters, a viewer’s brain has to try to un-see the blue and orange columns to try to piece together the green columns &#8211; which is very difficult for human cognition.</li>
</ul>



Let’s adjust these defaults and make over this chart so the story pops out.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Change the title to state the key takeaway</h2>



Truly, the simplest way to tell a story with your data is to maximize your chart’s title space to, well, tell the story.



Rather than the vague “Click Through Rates by Email Campaign Type” use your insider knowledge and your data literacy skills to interpret the data and highlight what you see: “Click through rates for advocacy emails gained ground while fundraising lagged behind.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN2.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN2.png" alt="The same chart as earlier, with a new title: &quot;Click through rates for advocacy gained ground while fundraising lagged behind.&quot;" class="wp-image-191556" style="width:1112px;height:668px" width="1112" height="668"/></a></figure></div>


The title is now a complete sentence that tells the audience exactly what you want them to notice about the email campaign data.&nbsp;



Now that we have a clear story to highlight, we need to reformat the rest of the chart so the evidence that supports that story is more obvious.&nbsp;



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/build-equitable-website" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Seven ways to build an equitable website</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Use color intentionally to highlight the story</h2>



Bold colors on every data series will create visual competition. Once you see the story, reserve your bold colors for those data points and tone down the other data with gray.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN3.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN3.png" alt="The same chart as before, except in the title, &quot;Click through rates for advocacy emails gained ground while fundraising lagged behind&quot;, the words 'advocacy emails' are bolded in blue, while 'fundraising' is bolded in orange. 

The color scheme has been changed so that the advocacy and fundraising bars in each quarter are in blue and orange respectively, while the third bar - newsletter - is in gray. " class="wp-image-191557" style="width:1112px;height:668px" width="1112" height="668"/></a></figure>



Gray will fade the rest of the data into the background and let the more important data points jump out.&nbsp;



When you apply action colors to the salient points in your chart, your audience knows exactly where to look.&nbsp;



Even better, leverage that storytelling title and color-match the words that correspond to their associated data series. Now you have a chart title and a dataset that unite. But we can make this chart even clearer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Simplify axes and labels</h2>



Despite the smart changes we’ve made so far, viewers can still get bogged down by the redundancy and clutter in the graph. And it isn’t your fault! Every software program we use to make charts will include clutter by default. You just need to learn to recognize the clutter and cut it out.



Look for repetition that doesn’t add clarity. For example, we don’t need CTR in every label along the x-axis if the title is already telling everyone that this data is about click-through rates. We can ditch the (%) all along the x-axis AND the y-axis label “percent” if we just add percentage signs to the data labels.



In fact, if we have data labels on every column, we don’t need the y-axis at all. Bye!


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN4.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN4.png" alt="The chart no longer has a y axis. The x axis only reads Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. Also, there are no lines to denote the x-axis, just the labels Q1 etc., under each cluster of three bars. " class="wp-image-191558" style="width:1112px;height:667px" width="1112" height="667"/></a></figure></div>


Clutter also shows up as excessive and unhelpful lines.



If we remove the y-axis, we don’t need its associated horizontal gridlines either. Also, you can almost always remove your chart border.



These might seem like minor tweaks &#8211; and they are so minor it will only take you a moment to implement them &#8211; but they add up to a chart that’s much easier to read.



We could stop right here and we’d have a suitable chart that does the data justice and sparks conversations with our team. But let’s go one step further.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Try a different chart type</h2>



Though we have significantly improved this visual, the chart type itself is still posing a problem. To track progress on any one email campaign, our brains have to weed through and attempt to ignore the data for the other email campaigns. This dilemma is inherent to every clustered column chart.



Convert to a line chart.



Line charts do a better job of showing trends over time. They connect the data points for each series so our brains don’t have to work overtime to see where we increased sharply or where we stayed flat.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN5.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NTEN5.png" alt="The chart is a plain white backgrond, with the title 'Click through rates for advocacy emails (bolded in blue) gained ground while fundraising (bolded in orange) lagged behind.&quot;

There are no grid lines or borders. The x-axis is simply four quarters - Q1 through Q4. There is no legend.

The chart has three lines running from left to right, with advocacy on top in blue, newsletter in the middle in gray, and fundraising at the bottom in orange. On the right-edge of each line are the words 'Advocacy 6.3%', 'Newsletter 4.2%', 'Fundraising 3.0%' respectively in their corresponding colors. " class="wp-image-191559" style="width:1112px;height:666px" width="1112" height="666"/></a></figure>



Because the inclines are now so clear, I took a risk and removed the exact data label from most of the data points and only retained it on the most recent time period. I assumed the most recent quarter would be of most interest to my audience, but you know your audience and what they’ll want to see.&nbsp;



The remaining data label was also an opportunity for me to embed the legend directly into the chart. No more attention bouncing back and forth between the legend entry and its corresponding line. Saving everyone’s mental energy is always a win.



The story told in the chart’s title is now much more obvious in the chart itself.



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/what-user-centered-could-mean-to-you" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What &#8216;user-centered&#8217; could mean for you</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bottom-line">Bottom line</h2>



You are the person best positioned to know the story in your data. You just need to adjust the default chart formatting so the story you see is just as evident to everyone else.&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>Use the chart title space to articulate your point as a complete sentence.</li>



<li>Gray out the less germane data and apply an action color on the data you want your audience to notice.</li>



<li>Strip out clutter like redundant labeling and unnecessary lines.</li>



<li>Explore alternative chart types that can better highlight your data.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



With just a few moments of effort (that will get even faster with practice), you will end up with a chart that produces clearer insights, easier decision-making, better engagement, and tells your data story effectively.

With a few tweaks, learn how to transform default charts so that the data story you see is clear to your audience. It’s easier than you might think.

How to tell a story with your data

As Juneteenth and Pride Month prompt many nonprofits to reflect on equity, it&#8217;s a good time to remember that equity doesn’t stop at your programs, policies, staffing, or who’s in the room. Your website is part of that equation too. It’s often the first—and sometimes only—place where the public interacts with your organization. And for many people, that interaction shapes whether they feel welcome, respected, and able to access what you offer.



An equitable website isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a core part of serving your mission and your community—and not just in June, but all year long.



Also read: <a href="/blog/opportunity-mapping-elevate-brainstorms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">6 steps to elevate brainstorming with opportunity mapping</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-a-website-equitable">What makes a website equitable?</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">1. It reflects your full community</h3>



The people who visit your site should see themselves represented — not just visually, but culturally and contextually. That starts with the language you use and the photos you choose, and extends to how you frame your services.



<ul>
<li>Honor different lived experiences – Make sure your instructions and examples respect diverse family structures, income levels, gender identities, and life situations.</li>



<li>Show real diversity – Use images that reflect the racial, cultural, and generational diversity of the people in your community — not as tokenism, but as an honest reflection of those you serve and a welcome to those you’d like to include. Make sure you show diversity in people in different roles — not just in the people you’re serving.</li>



<li>Don’t focus on people suffering, in sadness or poverty. These images are dehumanizing. Instead, show people so that it’s easy to imagine them with strengths, relationships, and lives beyond the challenges they may face.</li>



<li>Avoid assumptions – Think through how your webpages will be perceived by people of different marital statuses, income levels, cultural backgrounds, gender identities, or family structures, to make them inclusive to as wide a range of people as possible.</li>
</ul>



Representation helps build trust. It shows your organization sees the full humanity of your audience—and values it.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2. It prioritizes accessibility</h3>



An equitable website works for everyone, regardless of ability, device, or sensory needs.&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>Meet technical accessibility standards – Ensure your site is navigable by screen readers, works without a mouse, has readable contrast, and follows <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WCAG guidelines </a>for contrast, alt text, labels, and keyboard access.</li>



<li><a href="https://prototypr.io/post/neurodiversity-and-inclusion-choosing-kinder-design?utm_source=swlinks-tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Support neurodiverse users</a> – Go beyond minimum standards by reducing visual clutter, keeping layouts predictable and easily scannable, offering a dark mode or other display options, and avoiding moving images on a page. These changes help users focus and feel more in control. </li>
</ul>



Accessibility is not an add-on; it’s fundamental. If your website isn’t working for everyone, it isn’t truly working.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">3. It works on visitors’ devices</h3>



Not everyone accesses your website on a giant desktop screen — and equity means designing with that reality in mind. Your site should:



<ul>
<li>Work well on mobile – Many people, including lower-income users and people of color, rely on phones as their primary (or only) way to get online. Make a habit of <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/2025-0506-walk-a-mile-on-your-mobile-site" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using your own mobile site!</a></li>



<li>Load on slow connections – Reduce large images, unnecessary animations, and bandwidth-heavy features so your site stays usable for people with limited data or spotty internet access.</li>



<li>Run on older devices – Ensure compatibility with outdated phones, older browsers, and public computers like those in libraries, which may have slower speeds or outdated software.</li>
</ul>



Designing for these constraints is about meeting people where they are. If your site only works in perfect conditions, it doesn’t work equitably.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">4. It uses inclusive language and forms</h3>



Small choices in language and form design can have a big role in building an equitable website. They signal whether people are respected or erased.



<ul>
<li>Avoid insider language – Steer clear of jargon, acronyms, or references that assume a white, middle-class, liberal, English-speaking default.</li>



<li>Respect gender diversity – <a href="https://www.ohsu.edu/inclusive-language-guide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Use gender-neutral language</a> (like “they” instead of “he” or “he/she”) and include pronouns and nonbinary options on forms.</li>



<li>Support diverse names – Make sure <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/create-accessible-and-inclusive-forms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">form fields accept names with accents, hyphens, and multiple parts</a> to accommodate cultural and linguistic differences.</li>
</ul>



Inclusive design shows people they belong — and that your organization is thinking beyond default settings.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">5. It provides language access, if relevant</h3>



If your site provides essential services — such as housing assistance, legal aid, healthcare, or crisis support — your website must be readable for the people who rely on it.&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>Translate key content – Offer translated materials for the most common languages in your community (even if just the most critical content).</li>



<li>Make translation options easy to find – Place language choices in obvious, prominent places — not hidden in a footer or dropdown.</li>
</ul>



For many sites, language access is just as important as accessibility for people with disabilities.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">6. It prioritizes clarity and usability for all</h3>



Equity includes making your site easy to use for everyone, including those under stress, with limited literacy, or unfamiliar with your systems. Good design and clear writing are powerful tools for inclusion.



<ul>
<li>Use plain language – Write at a 6th–8th grade reading level to ensure broad understanding.</li>



<li>Design for readability – Break up text with clear headings, short paragraphs, and generous white space.</li>



<li>Organize content by user needs – Structure your site around what visitors are trying to do, not your internal departments.</li>



<li>Be transparent and actionable – Make it clear what someone can do, how to do it, and what to expect. Typically, visitors care much more about understanding what they can do next rather than the detailed context (for instance, legal, legislative, or scientific details).</li>
</ul>



Clarity is an act of respect. It honors people’s time, energy, and attention and helps your site serve its purpose.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">7. It’s built with (not just for) communities</h3>



Equity isn’t just about what’s on the site—it’s also about how the site is built. An equitable website is shaped with the input of the people it serves.



<ul>
<li>Involve your community early – Talk to potential visitors before you design to understand their needs, challenges, and expectations. Listening at the start helps you build something that actually works for them.</li>



<li>Center lived experience in decisions – Use surveys, <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/user-interviews-on-a-shoestring" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interviews</a>, and <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/building-a-habit-of-tiny-user-studies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">user testing</a> to gather real feedback, and prioritize input from those directly impacted by the issues your organization addresses.</li>
</ul>



A site shaped with community input helps ensure it meets real needs, making it more relevant, and more trustworthy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-equity-is-a-foundation-not-a-feature">Equity is a foundation, not a feature</h2>



An equitable website doesn’t require perfection or a big budget. But it does require intention. It means asking better questions, centering the people you serve, and being willing to adjust how you work.



Websites have the power to reinforce injustice—or to challenge it. Embedding equity into your website helps ensure your organization isn’t just reflecting the world as it is, but helping shape it for the better.



<div style="display: grid; gap: 2rem; grid-template-columns: 1fr;" class="wp-block-fellinidev-divider"><h3>Divider (MUI component)</h3><hr/></div>



This article was written by a cis, heterosexual white woman with a consulting practice built in part on generational privilege. What business do I have talking about equity? It’s everybody’s business. It’s especially the job of white people to learn, listen, and then educate other white people about how they can move in an anti-racist and more equitable direction. <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/equity-commitment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read my full equity statement</a>.

Your website is often the first place the public interacts with your organization. For many people, that interaction shapes whether they feel welcome, respected, and able to access what you offer.

Seven ways to build an equitable website

Access to the internet enables access to many crucial rights and freedoms necessary for a functioning democracy and upholding the human rights of people in this country. From accessing education to jobs to starting small businesses and staying in touch with our loved ones, the internet is the great enabler to participation in civic and political life. Yet, for millions of people in the U.S. &#8211; <a href="https://www.digitalequityact.org/why/">nearly 30% </a>&#8211; this is not possible because they do not have broadband internet at home or the devices and skills to use it.&nbsp;



The Digital Equity Act, passed with bipartisan support by Congress, enables all 50 states to build locally contextual digital equity plans to shrink digital divides across the country. It enables infrastructure support to expand broadband coverage, and programmatic support to local organizations who work with their communities to build digital literacy and confidence among new users. In the <a href="https://www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murray-blasts-trumps-attack-on-resources-to-close-digital-divide-republicans-will-have-to-explain-why-middle-schoolers-in-rural-districts-shouldnt-get-laptops/">words of Senator Murray,</a> who passed this Act in 2019, attacking the validity of this Act would impede “local libraries from getting funding to help seniors navigate telehealth options or middle schoolers in rural districts from getting laptops.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
The Digital Equity Act, passed with bipartisan support by Congress, enables all 50 states to build locally contextual digital equity plans to shrink digital divides across the country. 
</blockquote>



Accusations that the Digital Equity Act is unconstitutional are blatantly false and a direct reproach of what Congress, state leaders, and communities in every region have already committed to. This is not a moment to stop the progress that creates more jobs, positively contributes to the economy, and increases opportunities for veterans, seniors, low-income families, communities of color, and rural communities across the country.



Through 10 years of NTEN’s Digital Inclusion Fellowship, we have worked with hundreds of local organizations helping local populations who are cut off from internet access get online and get access to the thousands of resources that the people reading this online take for granted every day. What does digital equity really mean for these communities? Here are some stories of individuals whose lives changed through internet access and digital literacy.&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>A frequent library patron who had never used a computer before would visit the library to fill out paper job application forms in her job search. She was trained to use the internet by a digital literacy trainer, and was able to find many more jobs online, apply directly, and land a new job.</li>



<li>A mother from a low-income family wanted to support her children’s education, but didn’t know how to use a computer or communicate with her children’s teachers. She attended a free training program at the school district’s parent center, earned a free laptop for completing the training, signed up for her first email account, and learned t access the school’s communication platform.</li>



<li>A senior citizen joined an activity with neighbors in the community center’s computer lab, where a digital literacy trainer showed him how to use the internet to find recordings of concerts from his favorite bands from his youth. Inspired, he began to host regular listening sessions and created a community built around music sharing.</li>



<li>A veteran who already had valuable leadership and entrepreneurial skills, but wasn’t connected to the internet, found a local nonprofit’s internet skills course. After training, he started a business and launched his first website.</li>
</ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
This is not a moment to stop the progress that creates more jobs, positively contributes to the economy, and increases opportunities for veterans, seniors, low-income families, communities of color, and rural communities across the country.
</blockquote>



The internet is a powerful and necessary tool. It is vital that the internet is affordable and accessible to all people. NTEN will continue to work in collaboration with organizations of all sizes and mission areas to advance initiatives that help everyone be part of the digital world.&nbsp;

Statement is support of the Digital Equity Act - NTEN

Digital equity is a key enabler to public participation and stronger communities

Technology isn’t merely an overhead expense like rent or utilities. It is a mission enabler that facilitates nonprofits&#8217; ability to achieve greater impact, generate efficiencies, and deepen engagement with their constituents.



From data-driven decision-making that helps <a href="https://foodbanknews.org/greater-boston-food-banks-5m-tech-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">food banks better meet the needs of their constituents and reduce food waste</a> or an <a href="https://www.aicareercoach.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI-powered chatbot that expands opportunities for underserved communities</a>, funding technology empowers organizations to do more with limited resources.&nbsp;These innovations demonstrate that when leveraged effectively, technology isn’t just an operational tool—it’s a force multiplier for social good.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-encouraging-progress-meets-concerning-trends">Encouraging progress meets concerning trends</h2>



The 2024 <a href="https://www.tagtech.org/report/2024-state-of-philanthropy-tech-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">State of Philanthropy Tech Survey</a> from the <a href="https://www.tagtech.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Technology Association of Grantmakers</a> reveals a mixed landscape regarding funder support for nonprofit technology. The survey, released biennially, includes responses from more than 350 private, community and family grantmaking organizations on their technology practices, applications and strategies.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Adequate funding ensures nonprofits can scale their impact and serve communities that need them.&nbsp;Grantmakers have an obligation to ensure that their grantees can deliver on their promise. 
</blockquote>



While the survey showed strides have been made in some areas, ongoing challenges risk undermining nonprofits’ ability to deliver on their missions without adequate investments in technology.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TAG-Graph-1-1.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TAG-Graph-1-1.png" alt="A line graph of: How is your organization continuing to support nonprofit partners in 2024?

Each option shows the percentages from 2022 and 2024, respectively.

Other – 15%, 12%
Use paperless payments – 64%, 72%
Provide training and technical assistance – 36%, 42%
Provide tech &amp; tools – 23%, 20%
Use streamlined reporting – 51%, 56%
Remove funding restrictions – 34%, 30%
Use streamlined applications – 62%, 67%
Auto-renew grants – 7%, 8%" class="wp-image-189680" style="width:835px;height:467px" width="835" height="467"/></a></figure>



The good news is that a majority of funders are committed to streamlining grant applications (67%) and reporting processes (56%). Additionally, the transition to paperless payments is gaining traction, with 72% of funders adopting digital payment practices.



However, troubling trends have emerged:



<ul>
<li>Only 20% of funders are providing technology tools and resources to nonprofits, down from 23% in 2022.</li>



<li>Unrestricted funding has also declined, with just 30% of funders offering this flexibility, a drop from 34% in 2022.</li>
</ul>



According to <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/form/sfdo/ngo/6th-edition-nonprofit-trends-report/">Salesforce’s Nonprofit Trends Report</a>, digitally mature nonprofits are four times more likely to achieve their mission goals than their less-equipped peers. While these declines may reflect a return to pre-pandemic norms, in an era defined by AI, increasing cybersecurity threats, and evolving nonprofit needs, technology funding is more critical than ever.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The equity implications of technology funding</h2>



Why should grantmakers take notice? Technology is not just an operational need — it&#8217;s a driver of equity and enabler of mission.



According to <a href="https://www.nten.org/publications/2024-nonprofit-digital-investments-report?creative=483787436530&amp;keyword=&amp;matchtype=&amp;network=g&amp;device=c&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA4-y8BhC3ARIsAHmjC_GcweftiGeubTMerevdtKd3Q0NoKH4dQDe1p7uowQ-R2zZDKsmG9kEaAtONEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NTEN’s Nonprofit Digital Investment Report</a>, nearly half of nonprofits (45%) say they aren&#8217;t spending enough on technology. The top barriers include lack of budget (77%), funder support (47%), and donor support (38%). Small organizations, which make up 92% of nonprofits, often lack the resources to prioritize technology. Without intervention, this disparity risks deepening inequities for grassroots organizations serving underserved communities.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
According to <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/form/sfdo/ngo/6th-edition-nonprofit-trends-report/">Salesforce’s Nonprofit Trends Report</a>, digitally mature nonprofits are four times more likely to achieve their mission goals than their less-equipped peers
</blockquote>



When nonprofits can invest in technology, the impact is undeniable:



<ul>
<li>96% report improved program and service delivery.</li>



<li>89% experience increased organizational capacity and growth.</li>



<li>82% achieve better fundraising and financial stability.</li>
</ul>



Whether it’s engaging constituents, securing funding, or delivering services efficiently, technology is the backbone of nonprofit operations. Adequate funding ensures nonprofits can scale their impact and serve communities that need them.&nbsp;Grantmakers have an obligation to ensure that their grantees can deliver on their promise. By removing barriers, offering unrestricted funding, or supporting specific technology needs, funders are supporting organizations ability to increase their capacity, be more impactful and efficient, and achieve shared goals more effectively.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tips for nonprofits applying for technology funding</h2>



Securing technology funding requires nonprofits to articulate their needs clearly and strategically. Here are three tips:



<ol type="1" start="1">
<li>Articulate impact: Frame technology as an enabler of mission outcomes, not just a tool. For example, highlight how improved systems will enhance program delivery or constituent engagement.</li>



<li>Demonstrate need: Connect technology investments to your strategic plan. Use data to illustrate gaps or risks that technology funding will address.</li>



<li>Tailor requests: Understand funders&#8217; priorities and align your proposals. Show how your technology needs directly support their goals and values.</li>
</ol>



By leveraging these strategies, nonprofits can strengthen their applications and advocate effectively for the technology resources they need to thrive.



Funders also need to recognize that funding for tech is not arbitrary overhead; it is a mission-critical investment. Closing the technology gap doesn’t just lead to stronger organizations, it contributes to healthier and more vibrant communities, better outcomes, and a more equitable world.

Funders need to recognize that funding for tech is not arbitrary overhead; it is a mission-critical investment.

How donors are approaching nonprofit technology funding

It’s a reality as old as the cubicle: departments within an organization experience “siloing.” It doesn’t matter whether the organization produces goods or services or is for-profit or not-for-profit. Except for the smallest organizations, as soon as there is enough organizational complexity to merit the beginning of staff specialization, there will be an inexorable shift to siloing.



This might look like the marketing department not fully understanding the program with resulting accusations of “false advertising” (or the program team doing its own advertising!). It might look like the finance department enforcing policies and procedures that don’t align with the other teams&#8217; workflows and slowing down work across all departments.



Is there a better way? Definitely. Let’s consider how each functional area within a nonprofit organization can effectively interact with its counterparts toward mission fulfillment. For the purposes of this article, we’ll consider four functional areas: programs, development, marketing, and finance/administration. Whether some or all of these functional areas are “departments of one” at your organization, the ideas here are meant to be broadly applicable and start conversations between colleagues across different functions.



We’ll identify how siloing manifests at the intersections of those functional areas, and then explore how to de-silo those pairings. We’ll conclude with a brief look at how executive leadership fits into this effort to de-silo.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-programs-and-marketing">Programs and Marketing</h2>



We hinted at how this cross-functional relationship can go awry above. If marketing doesn’t know what’s happening in programs, how will they ever tell the story to the public toward garnering new clients or customers? In a healthier relationship between these areas:



<ul>
<li>Program invites Marketing to attend or observe events.</li>



<li>Program suggests clients and customers who can provide testimonials.</li>



<li>Program helps Marketing access the best opportunities for capturing content.</li>



<li>Marketing uses the knowledge and content library to expand the number of people who know of the organization&#8217;s programs.</li>
</ul>



If your organization provides services for a fee or has other earned revenue, there’s an even greater need for marketing to have the content library to support the sales and contracting process.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Programs and Finance/Administration</h2>



Finance and administration is a broad functional area, covering needs such as payroll, insurance, and interface with regulatory agencies. One especially significant process is preparing the annual operating budget. Budgets reflect an organization’s priorities, and since programs are the entire reason the organization exists:



<ul>
<li>Finance must shape the budget to reflect how programs operate.</li>



<li>Financial resources should be allocated and optimized according to the programs’ taxonomy.</li>



<li>Finance should be willing to alter their budget templates as programs evolve year over year, rather than annual copy-and-paste exercises.</li>



<li>Program must keep accurate records and notes of their work – including future plans such as the anticipated number of future clients – so that finance has the data needed to shape the budget accurately.</li>
</ul>



Also read: <a href="/blog/opportunity-mapping-elevate-brainstorms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">6 steps to elevate brainstorming with opportunity mapping</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Marketing and Development</h2>



A nonprofit organization doesn’t just need to communicate with its clients and customers; it must also communicate with its donors and funders. There may be overlap in recipients, but even so, the messaging is different when offering services as compared to inviting support.



<ul>
<li>Communication is needed not only to reach new donors, but also to steward current donors.</li>



<li>Leverage the work done between Programs and Marketing and re-package that content for the donor audience.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Development and Finance/Administration</h2>



This pairing of two critical support functions requires a dose of humility for each function to understand the other’s particular nomenclature and professional standards. Accrual accounting rules can run against the grain of donor stewardship timelines. Ambiguous pledges are seen differently depending on which side of this pairing one falls.



A healthy relationship between these two functions looks like:



<ul>
<li>Finance understanding the campaign calendars.</li>



<li>Development understanding Finance’s documentation needs and building those considerations into the solicitation and stewardship workflows.</li>



<li>Both teams having a regular cadence of reconciliation so that donor records match revenue records.</li>



<li>Finance recognizes its role is to support development, so that development can support programs, the mission of the organization.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Executive Leadership</h2>



The above ideas will help start the conversations among colleagues and teams – and there’s a lot of value to be had from this work beginning between peers. At the same time, there is a critical role for executive leadership. Nonprofit executives often rise through their organizations, or at least through the sector, from one of the functional areas, and must thus:



<ul>
<li>Resist the tendency to favor that functional area.</li>



<li>Take time to learn the nuances of the other areas.</li>



<li>Foster a culture of collaboration.</li>



<li>Encourage teams to find synergies.</li>
</ul>



The organization’s board has a role here as well if there is an established committee structure. Similar to how the management-level finance and development function must work against siloing, so too must the finance and development committees of the board recognize the dependencies between those functions and encourage collaboration from their oversight perspective.



Where do you see siloing in your organization? Are certain intersections more prone to it than others? Try some of the above ideas, and see how your organization can overcome those silos and the different teams work better together toward fulfilling your important mission.

Blog header on how to de-silo your nonprofit with this text: As soon as there is enough organizational complexity to merit staff specialization, there will be an inexorable shift to siloing.

De-silo your nonprofit workplace

Many of us invested countless hours, months,&nbsp;and years learning how to use Twitter and Facebook&nbsp;to build followers, promote our organizations, and&nbsp;engage&nbsp;and mobilize&nbsp;new folks with our projects and campaigns. The <a href="https://progressivetech.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Progressive Technology Project</a>&nbsp;even held&nbsp;organizing and strategic communication&nbsp;trainings to help nonprofit organizations avoid getting left behind&nbsp;during the&nbsp;Web 2.0 mania.



Fast forward a decade and Twitter, now renamed X and owned by Elon Musk, has gotten so bad that the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/x-white-supremacist-site/680538/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Atlantic has officially declared it a &#8220;White Supremacist Site&#8221;</a>.



Never one to be left behind, Facebook’s parent company Meta has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/12/12/meta-donates-1-million-to-trumps-inaugural-fund-weeks-after-ceo-zuckerberg-met-president-elect/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contributed a million dollars to Donald Trump’s inauguration</a> while announcing the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/01/07/facebook-fact-check-mark-zuckerberg-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elimination of its fact checking team</a>&nbsp;in an obsequious capitulation to Donald Trump.



Being seen on X is not only unhelpful, but has become a liability. And, given the direction of Meta, Facebook is not far behind.



Are X and Facebook exceptions, or is this the future of&nbsp;Big Tech?&nbsp;



Silicon Valley, once known for its support of liberal causes, has&nbsp;pivoted to&nbsp;the right;&nbsp;a move accelerated&nbsp;and exacerbated&nbsp;by Trump&#8217;s victory. This&nbsp;change&nbsp;is&nbsp;largely fueled by economic realities. Big Tech corporations&nbsp;are&nbsp;some of&nbsp;the&nbsp;largest&nbsp;companies on the planet,&nbsp;now&nbsp;representing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/global2000/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">three of the top ten&nbsp;largest&nbsp;corporations&nbsp;in the world</a>—Amazon, Microsoft, and&nbsp;Google.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
What does this trend towards the right&nbsp;mean for our organizations&nbsp;when we not&nbsp;only use these&nbsp;technologies, but&nbsp;many of us are&nbsp;downright dependent on them?
</blockquote>



How does a technology company&nbsp;worth billions of dollars stay on top&nbsp;when strategies like inventing yet another new app or adding even more features to Gmail are played out?&nbsp;They pursue&nbsp;<a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/11/17/tech-industry-trump-military-contracts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">military and police contracts</a>.&nbsp;The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/tech/pentagon-cloud-contract-big-tech/index.html">Pentagon has signed multi-billion dollar contracts</a> with&nbsp;Big&nbsp;Tech, <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/federal/defense/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon</a> makes no effort to hide their military ambitions, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/3/24311951/google-project-nimbus-internal-documents" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Project Nimbus</a>&nbsp;includes a deal between Google and the Israeli Ministry of Defense worth&nbsp;$525 million dollars.



In the case of Amazon, their&nbsp;facial recognition contracts&nbsp;with the police&nbsp;were so offensive that a mass organizing effort <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/12/1003482/amazon-stopped-selling-police-face-recognition-fight/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forced&nbsp;the corporate behemoth&nbsp;to pause the program</a> back in 2020. But now, with every Big Tech giant pursuing artificial intelligence, we can expect&nbsp;<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/19/1106979/how-the-largest-gathering-of-us-police-chiefs-is-talking-about-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more and more&nbsp;contracts&nbsp;with police&nbsp;and military&nbsp;forces</a> around the world.



And now we hear&nbsp;Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">end of independent fact-checking&nbsp;for Facebook</a>, including ending most content moderation policies on&nbsp;what he called&nbsp;&#8220;hot-button&#8221; issues such as immigration and gender. Zuckerberg&nbsp;has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/07/nx-s1-5251151/meta-fact-checking-mark-zuckerberg-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">changed his tune to parrot right-wing MAGA talking points</a> with statements like&nbsp;&#8220;the company&#8217;s content moderation approach resulted too often in censorship&#8221;.&nbsp;



Many in the&nbsp;nonprofit&nbsp;sector are raising the alarm.&nbsp;What does this trend towards the right&nbsp;mean for our organizations&nbsp;when we not&nbsp;only use these&nbsp;technologies, but&nbsp;many of us are&nbsp;downright dependent on them? Will other&nbsp;social media platforms&nbsp;like&nbsp;BlueSky&nbsp;meet our needs in the same way, or will they fall to the right as well?&nbsp;What if&nbsp;artificial intelligence-powered algorithms flag our content&nbsp;as too political,&nbsp;banning our accounts&nbsp;and cutting off our organizing before we even have an opportunity&nbsp;to&nbsp;download&nbsp;our data?&nbsp;Will Trump further erode privacy laws and, in what seems like a growing partnership with Big Tech, increase surveillance of our internet use, our email, and our data?



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-aren-t-more-of-us-leaving-corporate-technology-behind"><a>Why aren’t more of us leaving corporate technology behind?</a></h3>







For the 25 years that Progressive Technology Project has been doing technology justice work, one of our major focal points has been on increasing understanding about why Big Tech is so detrimental to our movements, our organizations and our communities. Over the past 10 years as the U.S. and global political climate has pivoted to the right and it’s become more widely known that Big Tech is in bed with right-wing extremists, we’re seeing some organizations reach a deeper understanding about the importance of embedding technology into their wider strategies. But, even as organizational leadership acknowledges that a move away from Big Tech is needed, the number of groups actually committing to transitioning doesn’t match the level of alarm. Why is this?&nbsp;Over the past 6 months, the Progressive Technology Project has been conducting a research project to ask the movement this very question so that we—and our network of technology justice partners—can be better prepared to help.



Our research surveyed 460 individuals and organizations, and we focused our questions to ask about the barriers to leaving Gmail and Google so that we could get specific data that could then be applied beyond Google and Gmail transitions. Our&nbsp;<a href="https://mayfirst.coop/en/audio/cutting-the-cord/slide-show.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">initial findings</a> indicate that the biggest barrier to leaving Google is not a lack of features or concerns over the stability of alternatives, instead it&#8217;s the fact that everyone else is on Google. Through follow-up interviews, we found that people had similar reasons for hesitating to leave Facebook, Zoom, and Apple. The top three additional barriers to leaving Big Tech services like Google included 1) a concern about whether all of a person’s data would transfer seamlessly to a new system, 2) people felt they had too much data to make a transition, and 3) people were concerned that an alternative, non-corporate technology would not be able to integrate with other systems the way that their current technology tool could (for example, people use their Google information to log into masses of other tools and websites).



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
The biggest barrier to leaving Google is not a lack of features or concerns over the stability of alternatives, instead it&#8217;s the fact that everyone else is on Google.
</blockquote>



Encouragingly, people were not generally concerned about the security of non-corporate technologies, and we found this was reinforced in our follow-up interviews, where respondents expressed that alternative technologies were probably more secure than Big Tech tools. People also thought that alternative technologies had no issues with government and other compliance requirements, and they felt that non-corporate options were stable and reliable.



This research is proving incredibly valuable as PTP and our partners work to strengthen the network of values-aligned technologies and providers, add and improve functionality for the technologies themselves, and create more capacity to help organizations transition away from the technologies owned by the very same Big Tech corporations that they fight.&nbsp;



We’ve got a whole network of providers poised to help organizations start transitioning away from Big Tech, but what if you’re not officially ready for that step? What can you and your organization do to start thinking about technology more strategically and take steps towards a transition?



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How to find the Big Tech off-ramp</h3>







Building political education about technology strategy into your regular organizational planning and discussions is a good place to start. Thinking about technology as a tool in a silo is not helpful. Thinking about technology politically as an integral part of your campaigns will help increase understanding among your staff and teams about the importance of this issue. Many people don’t know that Google has contracts with the Israeli military or that Amazon assists the police with improving facial recognition software meant to surveil us or that Zoom is using AI to comb through our meeting data. Without political education and a concerted effort among all of the stakeholders in your organization to see a transition through its inevitable learning curves and pain points, any technology transition is unlikely to be successful.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
While Big Tech options can seem cheaper and sometimes prettier than some of the alternatives, their costs—both monetary and otherwise—are much higher. 
</blockquote>



Secondly, it is important to start slowly. Go for the low-hanging fruit. Let&#8217;s face it—technology transitions are painful, and the learning curve is usually steep. People are comfortable with what they are already using, and as we saw from our research, are comfortable that everyone else is using it as well. This may mean that your organization keeps all of your current technology and doesn’t mandate some huge, immediate change, but starts to use an open-source collaborative note-taking pad for some virtual meetings like those offered by&nbsp;<a href="https://riseup.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Riseup</a>. Or, instead of using Zoom for every meeting, try using the alternative <a href="https://jitsi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jitsi.meet</a> or <a href="https://bigbluebutton.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Big Blue Button</a> for smaller meetings to see how you like it. <a href="https://nextcloud.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Next Cloud</a> is an open-source alternative to Google Docs that you could try out for specific, non-urgent tasks, and organizations like <a href="https://cloud68.co/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cloud68</a> can help host and support Next Cloud for you if needed.



Transitioning to using new technology will require a cultural change in your organization—and this will take time. A strategy that can be useful and sustainable during the early phases of considering a technology transition is to develop organizational policies and protocols on how and when to use different communication channels. For example, it may be critical for your organizers to use <a href="https://signal.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Signal</a> rather than texting through corporate phone providers for sensitive communications during mobilizations or protests. Building internal agreements about what information can or cannot be shared, and creating policies describing when it’s okay to use corporate platforms for general outreach and announcements are also examples of what to consider.



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/publications/data-empowerment-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Data empowerment for nonprofits</a>



As you and your staff slowly grow comfortable with some of the alternative options and learn that the politics of many of these options are aligned with yours, you may consider taking the next step. Perhaps you could decide to transition just one of your main technology systems to a liberatory alternative. If you use a <a href="https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=23c640fc15bca8deabcbdc872&amp;id=bd778d92fe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bonterra</a> CRM database for example, explore what a transition to <a href="https://civicrm.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">civiCRM</a> or <a href="https://ourpowerbase.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Powerbase</a> would look like. Plan ahead and get input and feedback from every part of your organization, making sure you commit to the time and resources it takes to truly integrate a technology into your work (which includes loads of post-transition time and dedication and a commitment to seeking ongoing support). Maybe you choose to transition all of your virtual meetings from Zoom to Jitsi or Big Blue Button. Or you move your organizational email away from Gmail to <a href="https://mayfirst.coop/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">May First Movement Technology’s</a> email client.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
A strategy that can be useful and sustainable during the early phases of considering a technology transition is to develop organizational policies and protocols on how and when to use different communication channels.
</blockquote>



Another step you could take is to build technology strategy more thoughtfully into your budgets. While Big Tech options can seem cheaper and sometimes prettier than some of the alternatives, their costs—both monetary and otherwise—are much higher. That being said, the network of liberatory alternative technology organizations and providers is grossly underfunded and under-resourced. We need to start divesting from Big Tech and investing in these liberatory alternatives to scale their viability for the movement and to do that, we need funders to pay attention to technology strategy. If organizations build budgets and fundraising efforts that include technology strategy, it will go a long way to lift up movement technology.



Finally, as you begin thinking about a technology transition away from Big Tech and towards open-source and movement-aligned alternatives, it helps to get lots of support. Organizations like <a href="https://progressivetech.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Progressive Technology Project</a>, <a href="https://mayfirst.coop/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">May First Movement Technology</a>, the <a href="https://www.eff.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, <a href="https://mediajustice.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Media Justice</a>, the <a href="https://www.apc.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Association for Progressive Communications</a>, and many more can help point you in the right direction whether it be about strategy or finding alternative tools. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has one of the best resources for learning about the importance of digital security, and the why and how of technology transitions—their <a href="https://ssd.eff.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Surveillance Self Defense</a> article.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
The network of liberatory alternative technology organizations and providers is grossly underfunded and under-resourced. We need to start divesting from Big Tech and investing in these liberatory alternatives to scale their viability for the movement and to do that, we need funders to pay attention to technology strategy. 
</blockquote>



Any conversation about technology transitions inevitably becomes about the tools. But the meaning behind the technology we use goes much deeper than that. It is where the data about our constituents’ immigration status is stored. It’s where we track cases about reproductive health needs. It’s where we post our political viewpoints for all the world to see. It’s where we store our credit card information. It’s where we text our best friends about our deepest fears. Progressive Technology Project and our partners work tirelessly to make this data about us—about every part of our lives—safe, more secure, and firmly in the hands of the people, rather than with Big Tech billionaires using extractive surveillance of our lives to increase their power and profit and to censor our speech and track our actions.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Join PTP at 25NTC!</h3>







If you are interested in learning more, reach out to us or any of the organizations we mentioned in this article! We also invite you to join the Progressive Technology Project for our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nten.org/gather/ntc/program/sessions/cutting-the-cord-understanding-our-dependence-on-surveillance-capitalism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cutting the Cord: Understanding our Dependence on Surveillance Capitalism</a>&nbsp;session at the 2025 Nonprofit Technology Conference to learn more about the political and security reasons to consider transitioning off of Big Tech, the challenges to these transitions uncovered by our research, and some practical steps that nonprofit organizations can take to overcome them. Finally, we invite you to visit our website at&nbsp;<a href="https://progressivetech.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://progressivetech.org/</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://ptp.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/profile/create?gid=23&amp;reset=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sign up for our newsletter</a>.

Building political education about technology strategy into organizational planning is a good place to start.

How nonprofits can off-ramp from Big Tech

Brainstorming is a great way to tap into collaborative creativity and generate innovative ideas. But too often, open-ended brainstorming lacks focus and leads to ideas that are not realistic, don’t have a clear ROI, and are hard to prioritize.



Leveraging structured frameworks can make brainstorming sessions more impactful. One such framework is opportunity mapping, a structured way to identify and prioritize ideas to solve key challenges. It starts with a clear focus area and relevant quantitative and qualitative data. This will help identify opportunities and actionable ideas to achieve your goal.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-define-the-focus-area-or-goal">1. Define the focus area or goal</h4>







What problem are you trying to solve? Which metrics are you aiming to improve? Be clear about the outcome you want to achieve. Example: We want to increase monthly recurring donations.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Gather relevant quantitative data</h4>







Quantitative data can be measured, counted, or expressed using numbers. This could include past performance, metrics, benchmarks, and user demographics. Quantitative data will tell you what is happening. Examples: How do donors donate? Through your website, Facebook, events, email campaign links, or elsewhere? Which past campaigns have been successful? What are the demographics of your donors? What percent of new donors convert to recurring donors? What are current donation trends?



Also read: <a href="https://www.nten.org/blog/what-user-centered-could-mean-to-you">What “user-centered” could mean to you</a>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Gather relevant qualitative data</h4>







While quantitative data tells the “what,” you will need qualitative data to understand why something is happening. Qualitative data is non-numerical and captures subjective experiences, opinions, or observations. This could include survey feedback, user interviews, stakeholder feedback, and other qualitative research. Examples: Survey results about why donors choose to give, what motivates them. Insights from one-on-one interviews with donors to understand their giving priorities and what made your organization stand out to them. Insights from user research by watching users navigate your donation platform or interact with your campaigns to identify pain points or barriers to donation.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Identify opportunities</h4>







This is where some of the magic happens. Analyzing all the quantitative and qualitative data will help you identify opportunities. Maybe you realize that most of your donations come through Facebook, but the number of daily users visiting your website is far larger than the engagement with your social posts. You might realize that you have more questions: Why aren’t website visitors converting to donors? What are website visitors looking for, and is there a potential to increase conversion? Since only qualitative data can answer your “why” questions, you might need to gather more qualitative insights if you don’t already have the answers. Opportunities should be specific and focused on the user who is key to your focus area. Write the opportunities in the voice of the user, whether that’s a donor, volunteer, or beneficiary of your services. Examples: I can’t set my donation as recurring on the website. I want to know what my donation will be used for before I donate. I want to be recognized for my contributions in a public way.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. Opportunity mapping workshop</h4>







Gather relevant stakeholders from different parts of your organization for diverse perspectives (staff, board members, volunteers). During the workshop, walk them through the quantitative and qualitative data you collected. Explain the opportunity you have identified and how it ties in with the data. Using a whiteboard and sticky notes or digital tools, encourage everyone to contribute ideas related to the opportunity. Optionally, ask workshop participants to group ideas by theme to identify trends and vote on the strongest ideas to get a temperature check from the group that might help during prioritization. Example agenda: • Introduction to quantitative and qualitative data (10min) • Write ideas on sticky notes (20 min) • Group ideas by themes (5 min) • Everyone votes on the top 3 ideas or themes (5-10 min)



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">6. Prioritize ideas</h4>







After the workshop, use prioritization frameworks to identify which ideas to act on. I like using the Impact/Effort matrix: A 2&#215;2 matrix showing Impact (high/low) vs. Effort (high/low). For this activity, I define “Impact” as the likelihood that the idea will help us get closer to achieving our goal and “Effort” as the combination of time and resources needed to implement the idea. Sort the generated ideas in the four quadrants, then focus on the ideas that fall within the high-impact quadrants:



• Quick wins: high impact, low effort • High-priority opportunities: high impact, high effort



If you have identified multiple opportunities, you can hold a longer workshop and pivot from one opportunity to a second halfway through. More than two is a lot to ask of engaged participants and I recommend scheduling a separate workshop if you have more than two. As a Product Manager, I hold these types of opportunity mappings several times throughout the year as we uncover more quantitative and qualitative data and better understand the opportunity spaces around our focus area.

Opportunity mapping is a structured framework to make brainstorming actionable and data-driven.

6 steps to elevate brainstorming with opportunity mapping

As nonprofit organizations navigate the complexities of managing donor relationships, a significant decision looms every three to four years: Should we stay with our current donor management system (DMS), or is it time to switch? According to the <a href="https://www.nten.org/publications/2024-donor-management-systems-survey">2024 Donor Management Systems Use and Satisfaction study</a>, over the past five years, more than half of nonprofits opted to stay put, primarily due to familiarity with their current system and the desire to avoid the disruptions that come with switching. However, this decision is far from straightforward, and understanding the key factors can help organizations make an informed choice.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-case-for-staying-put">The case for staying put</h3>







One of the most compelling reasons to stick with your current DMS is product familiarity. In the <a href="https://www.nten.org/publications/2024-donor-management-systems-survey">study</a>, 60% of respondents cited this as a top reason for staying with their existing provider. Familiarity with the software translates to productivity. In my experience, DMS users have enjoyed the feeling of confidence they have when using a familiar tool–and they even feel some pride in the workarounds they devise for situations in which the current tool is not a perfect fit.&nbsp;



Another consideration is the desire to avoid disruption. 53% of respondents cited this as a reason to stay with their current provider. Some fear that switching systems would introduce a level of disruption that could hinder their operations, and this fear is not unfounded. Implementing a new DMS requires a significant investment of time—not just in the direct management of the process, but also in the indirect time lost as staff learn and adjust to new workflows. Additionally, the opportunity cost of focusing resources on a DMS transition rather than other critical initiatives can be substantial.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-right">
DMS users have enjoyed the feeling of confidence they have when using a familiar tool.
</blockquote>



It’s no surprise that many people who chose to keep their current provider at the most recent decision point said that general satisfaction with the solution was a factor.&nbsp; Satisfaction with existing DMS solutions is relatively high, with an average rating of 6.2 out of 10 across various features and attributes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



While new product risks were only a top concern for 17% of respondents, they are worth considering. Even with a thorough selection process, there’s always a chance that some critical feature does not perform as expected. Added to that are the possibilities that a provider new to the market is unsuccessful or that the chosen product is acquired by another company.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-case-for-switching">The case for switching</h3>







<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-10-at-10.59.32 AM-1.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-10-at-10.59.32 AM-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-188306" style="object-fit:cover;width:610px;height:204px" width="610" height="204"/></a></figure>



Source: <a href="https://www.nten.org/publications/2024-donor-management-systems-survey">Donor Management Systems Use and Satisfaction study</a>



Despite all this, many thousands of nonprofits switch to a new DMS every year, and there are compelling reasons to consider doing so.&nbsp;



More than half of the respondents who switched did so to gain additional capabilities that their current system lacked. Nonprofits often find that their needs evolve over time, and waiting for an existing provider to develop new features can be a gamble. Switching to a provider that already offers the needed features could be prudent. An even more strategic move is to look at the provider’s pattern of product development and responsiveness to customer needs and emerging fundraising practices over time, and partner with a vendor you can trust to anticipate needs you haven’t even thought of yet.



Ease of use is another critical factor, and it was the second most commonly cited reason for switching. This presents a dilemma, since ease of use often decreases as system capabilities increase, forcing organizations to prioritize one or the other. Ease of use is tricky, too, because it can be a people or strategy problem masquerading as a technology problem. It’s tempting to pin your hopes on an intuitive user interface, but without well-trained and committed users and a solid fundraising plan, the easiest system in the world won’t help you reach your fundraising goals.



Increased integration options were the third most commonly cited reason for switching. Because integration satisfaction tends to hover around the overall average, with relatively little variation across products, I suspect that organization-specific integration needs rather than general integration capabilities are driving this. For example, if your DMS has an array of strong third-party integrations, but that list does not include the one event ticketing system you wish to use, it might provide enough motivation to switch to a DMS that does integrate with the tool.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Ease of use often decreases as system capabilities increase, forcing organizations to prioritize one or the other.
</blockquote>



Some respondents reported switching due to general dissatisfaction with their former DMS. As with ease of use, general dissatisfaction can be as much about internal practices and user adoption as it is about the system’s capabilities or customer service. What I’ve found is that even if the software itself is a minor factor, in certain cases, a complete reset on a new DMS can offer a fresh start, provided it comes with a renewed commitment to change management and strategy.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-expect-during-software-selection-and-implementation">What to expect during software selection and implementation</h3>







As you think through the pros and cons of switching, it’s helpful to consider the steps involved.  The process typically begins with a needs assessment, where key stakeholders – perhaps working with a consultant – identify the features and capabilities required to support the organization’s goals. Next, you will research and evaluate potential solutions, considering factors such as scalability, integration options, and user experience. Once you’ve created a shortlist of vendors, engage in detailed demonstrations, request proposals, and check references to ensure the solution&#8217;s reliability and fit. 



After selecting a provider, the implementation phase begins. This includes planning, system configuration, data migration, and integration with existing tools. You may need an internal project manager and a cross-functional steering team. Throughout the process, invest in staff training to ensure users are comfortable with the new system, as well as communication to set expectations and foster enthusiasm for the change. Finally, conduct testing before going live, and establish ongoing support mechanisms to address any issues that arise post-implementation.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-maximizing-roi-whether-you-stay-or-switch">Maximizing ROI, whether you stay or switch</h3>







What if this sounds like too much effort, expense, and risk, and you decide to stay with your current DMS? Then let’s focus on strategies to maximize your return on investment over the next three to four years. Regularly meet with your account representative, stay updated on product releases, join user groups, and systematically optimize your processes. Enhancing your data through standardization, deduplication, and enrichment with wealth data or other data can also yield significant benefits. Most importantly, ensure all users are thoroughly trained to maximize the system’s capabilities.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
If you switch, a comprehensive change management plan is crucial for minimizing disruption and capitalizing on new features.
</blockquote>



If this all sounds like it’s well worth it, best wishes! But don’t just trust your luck – if you decide to switch, a comprehensive change management plan is crucial for minimizing disruption and capitalizing on new features. Designate an internal project manager for the implementation and make sure that person has the skills and resources to make the project a success. Conduct a risk analysis and discuss how to avoid or mitigate potential problems. Instead of a “lift and shift”, examine your business processes and consider what you could redesign to take advantage of the new product’s capabilities. As with staying put, thorough user training is key to a successful transition.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-conclusion">In conclusion</h3>







Whether you stay with your current DMS or switch to a new one, key themes to consider are minimizing disruption, optimizing processes, and training the software users. A well-considered decision, supported by effective change management and a commitment to user adoption, will position your nonprofit to leverage your DMS – current or new – for fundraising success.

An icon of a laptop with graphs on them. There is a small banner called "Guest post". The text reads: Key themes to consider: minimizing disruption, optimizing processes, and training the software users.

Switching to a new donor management system

This month, NTEN bid adieu to Thomas Negron, our Communications Director, as he embarked on his well-earned retirement journey. Grateful for his enduring legacy, we now warmly welcome Asmita Ghosh as our new Communications Director. Asmita brings to NTEN her passion and experience in grassroots digital advocacy and campaigning for feminist nonprofits in India, and her work leading communications at an international coalition of nonprofits in the public digital health sector. I asked her five questions to help you learn more about our newest team member.



At NTEN, we love good food and enjoy sharing recipes, trying new restaurants together during staff meetings, and ensuring we have the best snacks during the conference. What&#8217;s your favorite meal from growing up?



Ooh, this is a tough one — I take my food seriously. Having grown up in a Bengali family in the non-Bengali, South Indian city of Chennai, my palate was fortunate to experience the wildly different flavor profiles of Bengali (slightly sweet, lots of mustard) and Tamil (tangy, spicy, lots of tamarind) cuisines.



My happy place is the traditional big Sunday afternoon Bengali meal of luchi-mangsho. Luchi is a type of puffed bread (also called poori in other Indian languages), and mangsho – literally, &#8216;meat&#8217; – is a rich, wholesome, drips-off-the-bone mutton curry.



But the food I miss the most since moving to the U.S. is dosa—a South Indian fermented crispy flatbread made from lentils with a deliciously crispy-soft texture and a mildly sour taste. Fun fact: It is the oldest type of &#8220;bread&#8221; in the world, with references to it being eaten as early as 1 AD. Perfect then, perfect now.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Blog-social-images-2023.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Blog-social-images-2023.png" alt="A photo of luchi-mangsho and another one of dosa, as described above." class="wp-image-187791" style="width:806px;height:353px" width="806" height="353"/></a></figure>



What was your first job?



I owe so much to my first job! Right after graduating college, I joined the founder of a then-small feminist digital media startup, Feminism in India, as its first and only employee. As our small team gradually grew, so did our online following, and by the time I left 3.5 years later, it was one of India&#8217;s largest intersectional feminist digital media platforms.



This was the job that grew my feminist consciousness beyond the liberal upper-caste feminist bubble in which I had previously been ensconced. I learned and grew so much, both in my politics and my digital media production and marketing skills. We partnered with grassroots nonprofits to amplify their communities’ stories, shared Indian feminists’ struggles and victories while existing in a deeply patriarchal society, covered rallies and marches, and organized folks&#8217; attendance to the many protests against India&#8217;s fascist Citizenship Amendment Act in the winter of 2019 that sought to delegitimize Indian Muslims. I am very grateful for that experience.&nbsp;



The NTEN team is spread across the U.S. in 8 different states. Where do you live now, and what do you like about it?



I moved to the U.S. less than a year ago for grad school with a very specific objective — to live in New York. (I don&#8217;t recommend gleaning career advice from my whimsical life choices.) I have always been a big-city girl, having lived in three of India&#8217;s largest metropolises prior — Chennai, Delhi, and Bangalore. New York is the big city, and it had fascinated me for years through the many TV shows I&#8217;d watched that captured its vibrancy.



I loved the city instantly. Its chaos reminded me of home (New Yorker jaywalkers have nothing on Indian pedestrians), and its diversity made me feel a lot less out of place as a foreigner in this vast country. On my second day, I spotted a subway ad written in my native Bengali script! My favorite things about this city are its diversity (someone once told me, &#8220;Immigrants are automatically and instantly New Yorkers!&#8221;), its gorgeous, sprawling parks, and its walkability and public transit system.



While we are certain there will be many incredible things we do with you on the team, we know there are some great things you&#8217;ve already been part of. What&#8217;s something you are proud of from your career already?



Trigger warning – mentions of gender-based violence and rape.



One of the projects I am proudest of having worked on while at Feminism in India, the digital media platform I mentioned earlier, was the<a href="https://www.asmitaghosh.com/gbv-in-media"> #GBVinMedia project</a>.



With a grant I&#8217;d received from Women Deliver, I developed a<a href="https://feminisminindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GBVInMedia_Report_FII.pdf"> toolkit</a> for journalists and media students on how to write about and report cases of rape and other forms of gender-based violence ethically and responsibly. Research for this involved months of reading news reports of rape and sexual assault to trace narrative patterns that reinforced rape culture. Whew, do not recommend! But the output from this report was something I was very proud of. We presented the toolkit I&#8217;d developed in dozens of journalism schools and conferences around the country.



I also designed a digital advocacy campaign on this issue. A part of this campaign was creating a crowdsourced art campaign to develop a license-free<a href="https://feminisminindia.com/2020/02/20/new-stock-images-rape/"> image bank</a> of empowering images that newsrooms could use alongside their reportage, instead of the victimizing and triggering imagery that were commonly used at the time. Following this campaign, many leading media houses began using our image bank for their news reports.



And, what&#8217;s something you hope to put on your resume one day?



I have flirted with the idea of someday running my own communications and campaigns consultancy – but even saying it out loud feels scary! Communications are often overlooked and under-resourced in most nonprofits, with small teams managing big mandates.&nbsp; I&#8217;d like to develop tools, products, systems, and services for nonprofits and other changemakers to use communications more effectively in their advocacy and campaigning efforts. However, entrepreneurship is a daunting and stressful journey, so I am very much in two minds about it. Check back in with me in ten years.

Meet Asmita Ghosh, NTEN’s Communications Director

In a time when organizations are trying to market on a budget, many may be wondering — how can nonprofits market themselves and their mission, even with less money to spend? The answer: investing in <a href="https://mediacause.com/our-services/seo-services/">search engine optimization</a>. This affordable option also has one of the highest returns on investment and is a true long-term strategy. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-marketing-on-a-budget-utilizing-the-power-of-seo"><a></a>Marketing on a budget: Utilizing the power of SEO</h2>



SEO is the practice of optimizing a website&#8217;s content to rank higher in search engine results, thus increasing website traffic. While it may seem complex and technical, it&#8217;s a crucial aspect of online visibility. Nonprofits can leverage the power of SEO to increase your reach and attract your target audience without breaking the bank. Other than the cost of SEO tools (which we&#8217;ll get into below) or working with an agency, there really aren&#8217;t any other costs to implement SEO.



What does this mean for nonprofits? Being found in the search engine results pages holds numerous benefits for nonprofits, offering a unique set of advantages tailored to your specific goals and mission. Here are some key benefits:



<ol type="1" start="1">
<li>Increased visibility and reach Ranking high in SERPs ensures your nonprofit&#8217;s message reaches a broader audience. More visibility means more people become aware of your cause and initiatives.</li>



<li>Targeted audience engagement Appearing in search results when someone is looking for information related to your nonprofit allows you to engage with an audience actively seeking your cause. This targeted engagement increases the likelihood of connecting with individuals genuinely interested in supporting your mission.</li>



<li>Donor acquisition and retention Being visible in search results for donation-related queries helps attract potential donors. Individuals actively searching for donation opportunities are more likely to contribute to your cause. Additionally, for existing donors, consistent visibility reinforces your nonprofit&#8217;s presence in their minds, increasing the likelihood of continued support.</li>



<li>Cost-effective marketing Compared to paid advertising, SEO offers a cost-effective means of acquiring new supporters. The organic nature of search means reaching your target audience without a substantial financial investment.</li>
</ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-putting-seo-into-practice-what-s-included-and-how-do-you-start"><a></a>Putting SEO into practice: What&#8217;s included, and how do you start?</h3>



First, you need to know your goals, audiences, and <a href="/blog/improve-your-outcomes-with-these-3-tactics-from-marketing">KPIs</a>. From there, here are some top tactics to start a successful SEO campaign:



<ol>
<li>Keyword research Identify relevant keywords that resonate with your nonprofit&#8217;s mission and goals. Tools like <a href="https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/">Google Keyword Planner </a>or <a href="https://www.semrush.com/">Semrush</a> can help you discover high-impact keywords with lower competition, ensuring your content stands out.</li>



<li>Quality content creation Craft compelling and informative content that aligns with your chosen keywords. This could include blog posts, articles, infographics, or videos. Quality content engages your audience and improves your website&#8217;s ranking on search engines.</li>



<li>On-page SEO Optimize your website pages with your chosen keywords for search engines by incorporating keywords into the meta titles, meta descriptions, and header tags. Ensure that your content is <a href="/blog/10-things-to-consider-when-planning-a-website-design-or-re-design">easily accessible and user-friendly</a>, catering to both search engine algorithms and your audience.</li>



<li>Technical SEO Unless your website is perfect, it likely has some errors causing ranking or user experience issues! Errors like broken links, broken images, missing meta descriptions, and site speed can cause users to bounce off your site quickly.</li>
</ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seo-in-action"><a></a>SEO in action</h3>



Media Cause worked with redefinED atlanta to create a holistic SEO strategy, working on optimizing their content, creating new content, and fixing site errors. This led to 200 new keywords ranking in the top 100, 10 keywords in the top 10 position, and a 32% increase in organic traffic, which led to more awareness about their mission.



Read the <a href="https://mediacause.com/our-work/case-study/seo-to-drive-organic-visibility-around-equitable-education/">case study on how redefinED atlanta increased website traffic and rankings</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-low-cost-marketing-strategies-on-a-budget-to-enhance-seo"><a></a>Low-cost marketing strategies on a budget to enhance SEO</h2>



In addition to SEO, consider implementing these low-cost marketing strategies to maximize your nonprofit&#8217;s impact:



<ol>
<li>Social media engagement Harness the power of <a href="https://mediacause.com/guides-and-trainings/social-media-for-nonprofits-guide/">social media</a> platforms to connect with your audience. Regularly share your SEO-optimized content across channels, fostering engagement and expanding your nonprofit&#8217;s reach.</li>



<li>Email marketing Build and nurture relationships with your supporters through <a href="https://mediacause.com/harnessing-email-services-for-nonprofits/">email marketing campaigns</a>. Share success stories, updates, and calls to action, keeping your audience informed and engaged.</li>



<li>Collaborative partnerships Forge partnerships with other nonprofits, local businesses, or influencers. Collaborative efforts amplify your message and open up opportunities for cross-promotion, expanding your reach organically.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-find-success-when-marketing-on-a-budget"><a></a>Find success when marketing on a budget</h2>



In nonprofit marketing, a limited budget should not hinder your organization&#8217;s ability to make a meaningful impact. By strategically investing in SEO and embracing low-cost marketing strategies, you can enhance your online presence, connect with your target audiences, and drive positive change without breaking the bank. Remember, the key to success lies in creativity, consistency, and a commitment to maximizing every resource.

Optimize site content to rank higher in search engine results and increase traffic.

How nonprofits can invest in marketing — even with a lower budget

Virtually everyone wants their technology project to be &#8220;user-centered.&#8221; But what does that mean in practice? Implementing every possible applicable technique could easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. For a giant project, this could be a great investment. But for most of us nonprofit technologists, that’s just not practical.



But it is practical — and, I would argue, essential — to know what the possible tactics are and how useful they might be for you. Below, I describe twelve things you might do to make your project more user-focused and their importance in a typical technology project.



<ol>
<li>Identify and prioritize your users (Critical) It’s crucial to start with a solid understanding of who your “users” are. Your project might serve multiple external and internal audiences with varying needs. Prioritize them to how vital their effective use of the system is to the project&#8217;s success so you can strategically allocate your focus and resources.</li>



<li>Conduct interviews or surveys (Important) Interviewing just a handful of people from each of your main audience segments can really focus the project on user needs. Surveys can occasionally be useful, particularly when you need numbers to make a case, but I find the data is usually less helpful than the detailed context from interviews. Learn more from my own site on <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/user-interviews-on-a-shoestring">how to conduct interviews</a> and <a href="https://laurasquinn.com/why-i-dont-usually-use-audience-surveys">why I don’t typically use surveys</a>.)&nbsp;</li>



<li>Analyze existing metrics (Important) Data you’ve already collected, for instance, website analytics and system logs, can tell you a lot about how users interact with your current technology.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Consider participatory design (Likely unimportant) While the design thinking movement brought attention to participatory design workshops, I find them to be time-intensive for the value they bring unless wide stakeholder engagement is a critical goal. They’re primarily helpful when organizations want to develop new approaches, and most nonprofits benefit more from relying on proven models. <a href="https://uxmag.com/articles/participatory-design-in-practice">Learn more about participatory design.</a></li>



<li>Define user goals (Critical) What are your users trying to accomplish? Articulating this details what your project needs to achieve to be truly “user-centered.” Ideally, this would be based on research, as per #2 and #3 above. However, brainstorming user goals with your team works when there aren&#8217;t resources for anything else.</li>



<li>Balance user goals with other realities (Critical) Balance user goals against your organization’s goals and technological realities. Even in the most user-centered processes, organizations also need to understand what the organization is trying to accomplish for each audience, what’s easy or hard to build, and use all of that information to define the scope of the system.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Create personas (Can be useful) A persona is a fictional character that embodies the characteristics, needs, and goals of a larger group of users. It acts as a stand-in for a segment of your audience, helping the team visualize the audience when making decisions. Modern best practices are increasingly moving towards personas focusing on users&#8217; behavior rather than demographics. This shift toward “functional” or “behavioral”&nbsp; personas can lead to more inclusive and effective designs. <a href="https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them">Learn more about personas</a>.</li>



<li>Map out user journeys (Can be useful) If your project involves a complex series of interactions, creating a “user journey map” or “customer experience map” can be enlightening (these terms are relatively synonyms). Those, along with &#8216;page flow diagrams&#8217; or &#8216;user flows&#8217; (which are more tactical diagrams showing how different pages interact), help you think holistically about how users move through your system. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-journeys-vs-user-flows/">Learn more about user journeys and user flows</a>.</li>



<li>Wireframes (Critical, unless you’re implementing an existing system) Before any code is written, wireframes (black and white sketches of each page) allow you to map out in detail how people will use each page to complete tasks within your system. Tools like Figma can turn wireframes into clickable prototypes that preview the holistic user experience. <a href="https://www.flux-academy.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-wireframing-for-website-design">Learn more about wireframes</a>.</li>



<li>Embrace inclusive design (Critical) “Inclusive design” is a broad term for processes to ensure that the system can be used by people of all backgrounds and abilities. For instance, all technology projects should ensure that the graphic contrast between text and backgrounds is high enough to read and that font size can be increased as needed. Other considerations include support for names with hyphens or accent marks, inclusive options for gender fields, use of illustrations or photographs, and much more. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/inclusive-design/">Learn more about inclusive design</a>.</li>



<li>User test early and often (Important) User testing doesn’t have to be expensive. Testing a prototype to see if a handful of people can succeed with a few tasks often reveals crucial insights. This testing would ideally be done by an experienced facilitator and with members of the target audience. Still, any testing is far better than nothing. Do this research using a prototype of wireframes or static graphic designs while changes are still relatively inexpensive to address. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-testing-101/">Learn more about user testing</a>.</li>



<li>Establish feedback loops (Critical) Once live, how will you know what the users are doing with the system, and how will you <a href="/blog/best-practices-for-a-successful-nonprofit-survey">gather their feedback</a>? Can they give you a thumbs up/ thumbs down for an article? Submit suggestions? Is there a quarterly survey of users or a quarterly cycle of user research? And then how will you use that information to decide on enhancements? User-centered design should be incorporated into the lifespan of your system.</li>
</ol>



User-centered design isn’t about ticking off any given set of boxes. I’ve never been involved in a project that used all twelve methods, even in multi-million dollar initiatives. Instead, it’s about <a href="/blog/10-things-to-consider-when-planning-a-website-design-or-re-design">giving specific consideration to your users&#8217; needs</a> within the context of your project and resources. Start with what’s feasible and build from there. As you start to take on a few of these steps, you’ll find that the processes not only enhance your current project but inform your approach to future initiatives as well.

Center users to learn what is feasible for a project with your resources.

What “user-centered” could mean to you

If only there were an RFPs 101 instructional course, I&#8217;m sure many nonprofit professionals and their consultants could have been saved from countless headaches.



Unfortunately, that is not the case, and we&#8217;ve all become familiar with the daunting process of creating a request for proposals. RFPs are instrumental, and sometimes even required, for soliciting services and products, especially in the nonprofit sector. However, there is one ingredient that is often left out, leading to missed opportunities for partnership and increased inefficiency: the budget.



For any nonprofit professional searching for the best-outsourced support or software purchase, the budget is essential to making an intelligent request that gets the proper responses. From my decade-long experience supporting the nonprofit sector, I&#8217;ve learned that a budget can make or break an RFP and redefine the course of a partnership.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-budget-transparency-signals-an-informed-request">Budget transparency signals an informed request</h2>



Although today&#8217;s market can make it feel impossible, let&#8217;s pretend we&#8217;re buying a house. If I were looking for a 3-bed, 2-bathroom home with a backyard in a great location, I would expect my realtor to ask, &#8220;What is your budget?&#8221; If my answer was, &#8220;Let&#8217;s see what you can come up with, and we&#8217;ll decide based on that,&#8221; you can probably guess the response.



RFPs are no different! Whenever we communicate our expectations, especially regarding financial constraints, we create clarity and lay the groundwork for mutual respect. Potential consultants and agencies invest substantial time in understanding a project&#8217;s depth, scope, and nuances. Without clear financial guidance, this can be akin to navigating in the dark.



Considering that a website (to name just one type of popular RFP) can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars, it is imperative to include a budget range. Several years ago, <a href="/blog/five-common-mistakes-in-website-request-for-proposals">Chris Steins made this point on the NTEN blog</a> in highlighting the five most common mistakes in website RFPs



<a href="https://prosal.io/blog/prosal-everyaction-webinar-recap?utm_source=NTEN&amp;utm_medium=Guest+Blog&amp;utm_campaign=Guest+Blog&amp;utm_content=Webinar+Recap%3A+Fix+Your+RFP+Process+And+Find+The+Right+Outside+Help">According to research from Prosal</a>, not being upfront about budgets can hinder fruitful partnerships from the outset. Nearly 50% of potential consultants and agencies will refuse to respond to an RFP that does not include a clear budget. And it&#8217;s not about pride or unwillingness to negotiate; it&#8217;s about efficient resource allocation and alignment of expertise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to become an informed estimator of budgets</h2>



Offering a specific or informed budget outline can sometimes feel more challenging than it is, especially when you&#8217;re requesting in an area outside your domain expertise.



The first time I created an RFP was when I was a 22-year-old assistant manager at a large environmental organization. I was tasked with finding someone to build a website for our campaign only weeks after learning what WordPress even was. I felt like I was learning to speak a new language when I had to figure out what to ask for and how much to spend, though our VPs&#8217; statement, &#8220;We have $20,000 for this,&#8221; helped me narrow down the set of services.



Others have likely experienced this, wondering what their budget can achieve or not even knowing when to start. The RFPs that follow those cases can read something like &#8220;We need a new website. How much should&nbsp;it cost?&#8221; or &#8220;We can afford $8,000. That&#8217;s the budget.&#8221; While the honesty is appreciated, this is not the best way to make this request.



Instead of publishing a partially informed request, do a bit of research on your needs and what solutions are available. As Maureen Wallbeoff and I discussed in this recording from last year, the RFP should be your second step.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Write Great Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for Nonprofit Leaders" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nNuSJzlBmMA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



Start with Google and graduate to ask colleagues at your workplace, consultant friends at agencies or on <a href="https://prosal.io/prosals-for-clients?utm_source=NTEN&amp;utm_medium=Guest+Blog&amp;utm_campaign=Guest+Blog&amp;utm_content=Webinar+Recap%3A+Fix+Your+RFP+Process+And+Find+The+Right+Outside+Help">Prosal</a>, new friends at conferences like NTEN, and professional listservs like <a href="https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/progressive-exchange">Progressive Exchange</a>. Whatever the need, someone else has likely had it before. Once you have done some research, you will at least understand what some of the different solutions tend to cost, and you can begin to narrow down what will be most helpful for your case.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Inclusion for a diverse partnership landscape</h2>



It&#8217;s not only about efficiency but also about equity. By offering a clear budget or a budget range, you can help level the playing field. Unlike their larger and generally white, male-owned or -led counterparts, small businesses can&#8217;t cover the costs of unbillable hours in responding to every RFP that comes across their inbox.



Smaller and more diverse agencies are generally more careful about where they dedicate their limited business development resources. By being transparent about your budget, you send a message that you respect their time and resource constraints. It&#8217;s a gesture that makes your RFP more accessible to a diverse range of agencies, thereby fostering inclusivity.



More importantly, including a budget can allow for easy self-qualification or disqualification, which can save time for an agency in responding to your RFP or moving to the next opportunity.&nbsp;This act of respect and inclusion leads to more satisfaction with the process and your organization.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Flexibility vs. precision: striking a balance with ranges</h2>



There&#8217;s a natural hesitancy around disclosing exact budget figures, often stemming from concerns about receiving responses that skew toward the high end of the budget. It&#8217;s a fair critique since it&#8217;s not uncommon to share a budget limit of $20,000 and receive the most responses with a proposed budget of $19,990. However, it&#8217;s essential to strike a balance between flexibility and precision.



If your concern is skewed responses, opt instead for a budget range. A budget range is flexible in that it incorporates potential variables and uncertainties that might arise during the project&#8217;s lifecycle. It also invites proposals from agencies across the price range that feel they can compete and deliver on the project within the available budget. This strategy ensures that the proposed project budgets remain fairly distributed across the spectrum rather than skewing towards a maximum.



From my work at Prosal and conversations with serial RFP issuers, I can vouch for the importance of this balanced approach. It fosters open discussions, allowing agencies to propose solutions that align with the nonprofit&#8217;s expectations and financial capacities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Beyond numbers: The ripple effects of transparency</h2>



What better way to start a partnership than a process grounded in truth and transparency? Including a budget in your RFP transcends the mere transactional nature of numbers. It&#8217;s a testament to your organization&#8217;s commitment to transparent communication and effective collaboration. It&#8217;s about creating relationships anchored in mutual respect, understanding, and a shared vision for impact.



By omitting a budget, we inadvertently erect barriers to great partnerships and miss out on opportunities to tap into a reservoir of diverse expertise. But by being forthright, we pave the way for richer collaborations, reduced inefficiencies, and elevated project outcomes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Closing thoughts</h2>



Budget transparency in RFPs is not a mere best practice but a critical cornerstone for fostering genuine, equitable partnerships. From my vantage point at Prosal, I&#8217;ve witnessed the transformative power of such transparency. Businesses grow, knowledge is shared, opportunity is created, and abundance trumps scarcity. It&#8217;s more than just numbers on a page; it&#8217;s a beacon of respect, inclusivity, and mutual growth.



So, the next time you draft an RFP, remember the implications of including a budget. It&#8217;s the bridge that can connect your nonprofit&#8217;s aspirations with the expertise and dedication of potential partners who are as committed to your mission as you are.

An RFP budget is a foundation for transparency and trust in a vendor relationship.

Why including a budget in your RFP matters

Payment technology advancements have fueled notable shifts in spending behavior in recent years — particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. Credit cards and digital wallets have overtaken cash and check spending. At the same time, the proliferation of mobile devices has ramped up purchases made from tablets and mobile phones.



These changes have also dramatically affected the nonprofit space — savvy nonprofits know that catering to these trends has a significant impact on donation volume. By supporting the latest payment methods and platforms, nonprofits can make it much easier for donors to give.



To that end, several top payment trends currently rippling through the nonprofit sector will help you grow your donation volumes. You’ll want to keep them on your radar as you seek out payment processing software that fuels your organization’s growth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-online-donation-forms"><a></a>1. Online donation forms</h2>



Although in-person donations continue to make up a significant portion of total donation volumes, online donations are rapidly growing in popularity. <a href="https://institute.blackbaud.com/charitable-giving-report/online-giving-trends/">According to Blackbaud</a>, online giving grew by an incredible 42% between 2019 and 2021.



While much of this growth has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, another huge contributing factor is mobile accessibility. In fact, Blackbaud’s survey found that the percentage of online donations made from mobile devices has more than tripled over the past decade!



Why the increase in mobile giving? For one, donating from a mobile device is fast and easy — donors can often make a donation using their mobile wallet in just a few clicks.. Plus, social media goes hand in hand with mobile giving. As activists increasingly spread charitable campaigns on social platforms, more donors are making donations from their mobile devices.



To ride this wave of mobile-friendly online giving, you’ll want to be sure to add mobile-friendly elements to your <a href="/blog/use-your-donation-software-to-retain-donors-top-5-tips">online forms</a> and web pages —&nbsp; such as mobile-responsive layouts and support for digital wallets.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-digital-wallets"><a></a>2. Digital wallets</h2>



As more people access campaigns and charitable causes from their mobile devices, digital — or mobile — wallets have made it easier for people to donate. Rather than having to dig through their wallet and tediously type in card details, users of digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay can pay with their stored cards in just a few clicks.



Providing this easy donation experience is a must for organizations looking to grow donation volumes. Central Michigan University<a href="https://www.ruffalonl.com/blog/fundraising/digital-wallet-for-fundraising-making-it-easy-to-give-and-to-subscribe/"> revealed that</a> after adding support for digital wallets, their 2022 annual Giving Day campaign experienced a 67% increase in mobile giving year over year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-recurring-payments"><a></a>3. Recurring payments</h2>



Every organization wants its supporters to become repeat donors. Fortunately, recurring payment processing technology has made it easier for organizations to set up automated recurring donation plans that improve revenue predictability.



Recurring donation plans are often preferred by donors, too. Ongoing, smaller contributions are a great option for donors who want to generously support a cause but don’t have the funds to make one large donation.



Looking to support recurring donations? Many payment gateways and payment technology solutions have recurring payment scheduling features. These tools will allow you to create custom recurring donation plans and let donors opt-in themselves for recurring donations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-kiosks-and-tablets"><a></a>4. Kiosks and tablets</h2>



Gone are the days of collecting spare dollars and crumpled checks in wicker baskets. Today’s donors want to pay with their credit or debit cards, which means that organizations must be able to accept in-person card payments. Kiosks and tablets are the best solution for in-person donations, as these lightweight devices enable nonprofit staff and donors to quickly enter payment details.



There are two main components of in-person credit card processing: hardware and software. You’ll need to select a device and create a customized donation form or web page that can be loaded onto the device.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-donor-advised-funds"><a></a>5. Donor-advised funds</h2>



Donor-advised funds are tax-advantaged accounts used by philanthropists to allocate funds for charitable purposes. Many of these funds are linked to payment cards that donors can use to make donations.



Supporting a wide range of payment methods is a proven way for nonprofits to generate more donations. And as donor-advised funds rapidly become more popular among donors, you’ll want to keep this payment method at the top of your list. Recent data revealed that the number of new donor-advised fund accounts <a href="https://www.nptrust.org/reports/daf-report/">increased</a> by 28.5% between 2017 and 2021!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fuel-your-success-with-the-right-payment-technology-provider"><a></a>Fuel your success with the right payment technology provider</h2>



<a></a>To support the latest trends and preferences in donation processing, it’s crucial to work with a payment processing company that’s closely attuned to the needs of the nonprofit sector. You can find guidance in our white paper, <a href="https://exactpay.com/a-guide-to-embedded-payments-for-nonprofit-saas-providers/">A Guide to Integrated Payments for Nonprofit SaaS Providers</a>, including details on how nonprofits increasingly leverage nonprofit software platforms with built-in payment features — rather than receiving donation processing capabilities from third-party payment processing companies.



<a></a>These end-to-end nonprofit management platforms cater to organizations’ precise needs and pain points — cutting down on high processing costs, simplifying account reconciliations, and catering to unique donor preferences. If you’re interested in adding support for any of the above features, make it your goal to explore payment-savvy nonprofit software providers!

Digital wallets are easy for donations and account reconciliations.

5 payment trends to grow your nonprofit’s donations

The NTEN team is growing. We&#8217;re thrilled to tell you that <a href="/people/nten/staff/0011U000011ZXiLQAW">Tahira Abbas</a> has joined NTEN as our Cohort Coordinator!



What was your favorite childhood meal?



Khubz Uruk — it’s quite a fragrant memory. It’s like Iraqi flatbread with minced beef, lots of chopped herbs, some diced onion, and a mix of cumin and turmeric, all kneaded into the dough. These days,&nbsp; I love having it with a side of mint, tomatoes, cheese, and a nice cup of Iraqi tea.



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<iframe loading="lazy" title=".خبز عروك بدون تنور | وصفة مأمون نطاح | Aroog Without Tannour" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_SoSbhtZR3c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



What are your favorite memories about Canada?



Oh, way back in 1998, Montreal got hit by this massive ice storm. Freezing rain basically transformed everything into a crystal wonderland. Of course, that ice caused damage and power outages, but as a kid with none of these concerns, it was just pure magic. Schools shut down for like a whole week, and we had back-to-back sleepover parties with other kids at the community center, which still had power and opened as a shelter. It was an absolute blast, although I can totally see how it must&#8217;ve been a bit of a parental nightmare!



What&#8217;s a place in the world that feels like home to you, even if you&#8217;ve never lived there?


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Tahira-redwoods.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Tahira-redwoods.jpg" alt="Ahira stands next to majestic Redwoods in far northwestern California in August 2019" class="wp-image-184104" style="object-fit:cover;width:550px;height:413px" width="550" height="413"/></a></figure></div>


The Redwoods Forest! But also Iraq. My family roots are from there, and my parents fled the country in the early 1980s. They repeatedly told us stories of the beautiful landscapes, the mosaic of cultural and religious minorities, and cool things like sleeping on the roofs of their homes on those warm summer nights. Their fond memories of the good old days made it feel like a piece of home.



Do you have any favorite quotes or mottos that inspire you personally or professionally?



Yes, two quotes from <a href="https://austinkleon.com/about/">Austin Kleon</a>: “Uncertainty is the very thing that art thrives on” and “Creativity is about connection — you must be connected to others in order to be inspired and share your own work — but it is also about disconnection. You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others.”



If you could acquire a new skill instantly, what would it be and why?



It would be surfing. I’ve always loved watching surfers, especially at La Jolla Shores in California. It’s a whole mood, and there’s something captivating about watching them prepare to catch that perfect wave, gracefully ride the high and the low of it, and then just dive back into the sea.

“If I could have an instant skill, it would be surfing. It’s a whole mood.”

Meet Tahira Abbas, NTEN’s Cohort Coordinator

The NTEN team continues to grow. We’re excited to introduce our new Project Coordinator, <a href="/people/nten/staff/0018Y000033WiBMQA0">Kate Hudson</a>! Kate brings a passion for collaboration and helping others feel included in projects. I asked her five questions to help you learn more about our newest team member.



What was your first job?



My first job was as a hostess and server at a restaurant. I was naturally pretty shy, and this role really pushed me out of my shell. I fell in love with it! It was like playing a game where I got to chat with folks, make sure they had a good time, and walk away with a nice stack of cash. My coworkers were the most interesting mix of characters, and I was quickly taken in like family. There’s something about working in a restaurant that encourages authenticity, and I came into my own as an individual and communicator.&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Kate-Hudson_Plaza-de-Espana.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Kate-Hudson_Plaza-de-Espana.png" alt="Kate smiles on balcony in Madrid with the Plaza de España behind her." class="wp-image-184135" style="object-fit:cover;width:375px;height:500px" width="375" height="500"/></a></figure></div>


You recently lived in Spain. Any tips for others thinking of visiting?



Yes,&nbsp;If you have the time, I’d highly recommend checking out as many regions of the country as you can! Spain is incredibly diverse in its landscapes, cultures, languages, and festivals from community to community. Although I have a special place in my heart for Madrid, where I lived and fell in love with the vibrance, a lesser-known gem is the community of <a href="https://www.spain.info/en/region/asturias/">Asturias</a> in the Northwest region. It&#8217;s a lush, mountainous coastal community, perfect to rent a car and explore.&nbsp;



Also, embrace their no pasa nada mentality, which translates loosely to no worries.&nbsp;Structure your days in a way that lets you take your time and relax. 



What are some of your favorite local adventures?



My partner and I just moved to a part of Wisconsin called <a href="https://www.wpr.org/where-does-driftless-area-get-its-name-history-boundaries-southwest-wisconsin-region">the Driftless Area</a>,&nbsp;a large peninsula of land that went unflattened throughout the last glacial period, leading to bluffs along the Mississippi River. We love to go hiking, paddleboarding, and kayaking. We also love finding cool antique shops.



What was your favorite childhood meal?



The first thing that comes to mind is grilling out in the summer with burgers, corn on the cob, and fresh fruit. It brings back many fond memories of spending time outside with friends and family, and it is a staple during Wisconsin summers.&nbsp;



What is one new place you’d love to travel to?&nbsp;



I have been dreaming about a trip to Alaska or Banff, Canada. I love the mountains and imagine I would be in awe the entire time.

“Visiting the mountains of Alaska is a dream.”

Meet Kate Hudson, NTEN’s Project Coordinator

We&#8217;re welcoming <a href="/people/nten/staff/0018Y000031Z83JQAS">Maria Lara</a> as our newest team member. Maria is our Digital Equity Manager and is already busy onboarding the 2024 Digital Inclusion Fellows!



What was your favorite childhood meal?



Oh, let me tell you about my all-time favorite childhood dish: my Grandma Pepa&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/posole-rojo">pozole rojo</a>! This amazing bowl of goodness was pure magic, and I cherished every bite. Imagine a rich, flavorful broth that&#8217;s been simmering for hours, infused with the warmest spices, and inside you&#8217;d find tender chunks of pork, perfectly cooked to melt in your mouth. Grandma Pepa&#8217;s pozole rojo will forever hold a special place in my soul, reminding me of the joy and love that surrounded those cherished moments. It&#8217;s not just a dish; it&#8217;s a symbol of family, togetherness, and delicious comfort.


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Maria-Lara_Day-of-the-Dead.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Maria-Lara_Day-of-the-Dead.jpg" alt="Maria wears skull Mexican makeup as she stands alongside the alter she created. " class="wp-image-184217" style="object-fit:cover;width:375px;height:500px" width="375" height="500"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Maria and her ofrenda (an offering) on an altar she made for her first Day of the Dead in the U.S. in 2020.</figcaption></figure></div>


What are your favorite memories of Mexico?



My favorite memories of Mexico are the unforgettable taste of tacos al pastor, the vibrant celebrations of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/top-ten-day-of-dead-mexico">Dia de los Muertos</a>, and the heartwarming moments with my family gathered around the table — and if I could pick one thing I miss the most, it&#8217;s definitely the mouth-watering Mexican food!



What&#8217;s something new you&#8217;re learning for fun?



Learning pottery is a great way for me to indulge my love for houseplants, as I enjoy repotting them every year without emptying my wallet! If you&#8217;re a fellow houseplant enthusiast, you totally get where I&#8217;m coming from!



What are some of your favorite local adventures?



Kayaking the rivers around Portland is one of my favorite adventures, especially if I bring my dog, Sabina, with me.



What is one new place you would love to travel to?



If I could choose one new destination to explore, it would be Spain. I&#8217;m drawn to the idea of wandering through museums, enjoying the architecture,&nbsp;basking in the Mediterranean sun, and indulging in incredible culinary delights like olives and wine.

“Learning pottery is a great way to indulge my love for houseplants.”

Meet Maria Lara, NTEN’s Digital Equity Manager

If you are working in marketing for a nonprofit, there are many challenges you may be facing in 2023: the healing but still volatile economy, political issues, struggles with fundraising, and just trying to cut through the clutter to build awareness. With all that taking up your brain space, it’s hard to focus on figuring out this other big new transformative force in marketing that’s entered the chat: AI.



To borrow a metaphor from a Ghostbuster, if the amount of think pieces, videos, webinars, and general content on the internet about AI were represented by a dragon fruit shaved ice, it would be a dragon fruit shaved ice twice the size of Australia, and we’d be well on our way to a tasty resolution to the climate crisis. It can be overwhelming to try and find the answers to the questions — how can this technology help me move my organization’s mission forward? How can we save money, reach more people, and do even better with it?



First, if you are a complete novice, here are some quick <a href="https://help.mediacause.org/our-approach-to-generative-ai-at-media-cause/">AI resources</a> to set the table — we’ll pick up a bit past a basic primer in all things artificially intelligent.



AI is not a single platform you must learn to use. AI is a feature increasingly being added to the platforms you already use. Figuring it out will be similar to how we all learned how to use the internet in the first place. The key is to understand the capabilities of the tools and how they can best help you with your goals.



In nonprofits,&nbsp;there are often small teams that have to wear a lot of hats. AI is a way to help take off some of those hats and get help you haven’t had before. (Your neck will thank you!)



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-is-ai-relevant-for-nonprofits"><a></a>Why is AI relevant for nonprofits?</h2>



You may not realize it, but you probably already use AI daily.



If you use Gmail’s autocomplete functionality to speed up your replies, you use AI.



If you use Grammarly to improve the quality of your writing, you use AI.



If you use LinkedIn to hire or get hired, you use AI.



Meta is baking generative AI features directly into its highly lucrative self-service ads platform. Advertisers can effortlessly create multiple versions based on a piece of ad copy for different audiences, conjure up visual assets for ads, and automatically crop images for various formats.



Right now, many exciting point solution style platforms have taken large language models (LLMs) and added a user interface designed around a specific goal. But Meta and others can easily swallow these companies whole by baking the same applications into the core platforms we already know and use daily as professionals. Convenience wins out nine times out of ten — especially when marketers already feel the strain of juggling too many platforms.



Like with any technology, the degree to which it is user-friendly is a significant factor in how widely it is adopted. It’s not about paying for fancy silver bullet technology that promises to solve all your problems. It’s about fully understanding the role technology can and should play in your day-to-day working life according to your specific needs.



As AI solutions start popping up and getting embedded in every tool you use, the question becomes how to take advantage of it. A significant way to do that for nonprofits is to unlock the benefits it can bring for automation and creativity.



People often have to be a generalist out of necessity at a nonprofit, but many AI tools will have particularly helpful applications to day-to-day generalist activities. Try to automate away as much as you can so you can focus on whatever you are uniquely great at. Yes, your job will change — allowing you to focus on your passion for your mission and why you are there in the first place!



Perhaps you need to:



<ul>
<li>Analyze a large amount of data about your programs, audience survey responses, or details about your donors or forecast trends.</li>



<li>Draft content regularly, like emails or social posts.</li>



<li>Get help with admin activities like data entry or creating reports.</li>
</ul>



Activities like these are already possible with AI-powered tools. They can help you reclaim time and be more efficient and productive.



AI can also help you to be more creative and strategic. This still requires imagination, direction, intuition, and a strong creative team to separate the wheat from the chaff. But, the optimistic view is that AI could unlock more creativity across your organization rather than snuff it out. For example, if you have a rough concept for a new recruitment campaign, you could ask ChatGPT to suggest ways to make it bigger, better, and more scalable and see if there is a way for you to build on its suggestions. Your AI support system can be a great collaboration partner.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-avoiding-the-pitfalls"><a></a>Avoiding the pitfalls</h2>



Whenever there are opportunities to leverage productivity tools enhanced by AI to gain more efficiency, higher quality work output, or better meet goals, nonprofits should look for every opportunity to do so responsibly.



Generative AI specifically is an area where we see great potential to fine-tune and elevate your work, but there can also be risks — are you treading uncertain legal ground in terms of plagiarism or IPs used to train the AI tools? The landscape around this question changes daily as new lawsuits emerge and the AI space evolves. Responsible ways to use the tools include:



<ul>
<li>Producing suggestions for content and assisting with the versioning of content by audience, with all work reviewed, edited, and finalized by a human.</li>



<li>To create a jumping-off point for code/script to use in technical applications, which will then be further reviewed/augmented by a human developer.</li>



<li>Versioning copy/content according to different target audiences or other versioning parameters with human involvement in finalizing the output.</li>



<li>To assist with CRM/sales activities or data review and synthesis.</li>



<li>To help summarize unstructured notes.</li>
</ul>



When working with AI tools, it’s key to:



<ul>
<li>Prioritize data security.</li>



<li>Avoid ethical conflicts.</li>



<li>Avoid legal conflict.</li>



<li>Stay curious — look for ways to use the tools to increase efficiency and impact.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nonprofit-benefits"><a></a>Nonprofit benefits</h2>



Here’s an excellent example of how generative AI can be applied to social impact.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/khan-academy/">Khan Academy</a> is piloting an advanced chatbot tutor using OpenAI’s GPT-4 that has the potential to dramatically accelerate its mission to provide equal access to high-quality, individualized education.



This part of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAAG7n0BqIWxwKBc4aC0Io6sFM1Rzg3vONI">Sal Khan</a>‘s announcement post was interesting and resonant:



“AI is nascent technology, but we already find ourselves at a critical juncture. Will we amplify its benefits equally across society? Or will we allow a new, deeper digital divide to take root that leaves out even more students?”



If you look at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEgHrxvLsz0">video demo</a>, you’ll see that the AI, named Khanmigo, can share knowledge, conduct tutoring sessions, and quiz students on a vast array of subjects with total patience and without giving them the answers.



Teachers can also use it to speed up time-consuming tasks like writing lesson plans so they can spend more time nurturing students.



Khan Academy took responsible steps. They implemented safeguards for data privacy, not passing personally identifiable information to the AI model and emphasizing in the interface that students should not share personal data in their messages.



Data privacy measures are sorely lacking from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openai/">OpenAI</a>‘s standard ChatGPT interface. The company has come under scrutiny due to a bug that temporarily exposed AI chat histories to other users and the general lack of transparency around data usage for training purposes.



Burying your head in the sand is not an effective strategy — but neither is impulsively embracing bleeding-edge technology without considering the ramifications. Getting it right and building deliberately, like <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/khan-academy/">Khan Academy</a> is attempting to do, is the right way to approach this moment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conclusion"><a></a>Conclusion</h2>



Should your organization adopt AI or continue to rely on humans? This is the wrong question and hinges on a false choice.



Instead, you should approach AI with a hybrid mentality. Continue to rely on talented people who are great at their work, but alongside them, build an AI model that acts as a knowledge base and amounts to your secret recipe as an organization.



The most important thing you can do is remain open and flexible to new solutions while being mindful of the technology stack you as an organization already have. Don’t get swept away in the rush for the newest, latest, and greatest. Learn how to prompt effectively, but don’t put too much trust in the results. Pilot novel uses of AI that ease pain points, but don’t overinvest based on the fear of missing out.



It’s impossible to predict where the digital marketing landscape will be in the next few years, but more likely than not, we’ll be using the same tools we already have, just with supercharged capabilities.

Explore AI in your tools with a focus on ethics and security.

Adding AI to your nonprofit marketing toolkit responsibly

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<div style="display: grid; gap: 2rem; grid-template-columns: 1fr;" class="wp-block-fellinidev-pagesubhead"><h3>Page Subhead</h3><div style="flex-grow: 1; flex-direction: column;">NTEN joins broadband experts, ISPs, and local leaders to urge Biden administration to fix signature broadband investment program.</div></div>



NTEN joined a coalition of 300 broadband experts, internet service providers, community leaders, nonprofits, consumer advocates, and business groups who have joined forces to highlight concerns about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.



<a href="https://connect-humanity.shorthandstories.com/bead-letter-of-credit-alternatives/">In a letter to NTIA</a> head Alan Davidson and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the group warns that the program’s letter of credit requirement will block the vast majority of smaller operators, community-centered ISPs, and city-owned networks from securing grants. The result is that these ISPs, which are overwhelmingly the most able and willing to serve currently unserved, primarily small and rural communities the BEAD program is designed to support, will be largely unable to secure funds.



By requiring awardees to post an irrevocable letter of credit equal to 25% of their grant award — which banks typically insist be collateralized with cash — recipients will “have to lock away vast sums of capital for the full duration of the build, likely several years,” reads the letter.&nbsp;



In addition to a separate minimum 25% match requirement, the letter of credit “establishes capital barriers too steep for all but the best-funded ISPs.” To illustrate, the group <a href="https://connecthumanity.fund/why-the-letter-of-credit-requirement-could-sink-bead/">points to an analysis</a> estimating that a provider seeking a $7.5 million grant to fund a $10 million network would have to front at least $4.6 million of its own capital — or over 60% of the grant.



Amy Sample Ward, NTEN’s CEO, said, “NTEN joins in this strong coalition of support because we see every day what the accelerating and compounding impacts of digital divides mean for communities all over the country and want to ensure that every effort to invest in a future where everyone has affordable, reliable internet can meet its full potential. The opportunity cost is too high to limit the BEAD program with this requirement for applicants. We need the BEAD program accessible to all potential providers to help all communities get online.” 



The American Association for Public Broadband, the American Library Association, Consumer Reports, Public Knowledge, the SHLB Coalition, and Connect Humanity have signed the letter, alongside a broad coalition of ISPs, local government officials, state broadband offices, rural associations, funders, and digital equity advocates.



Together, they argue that “rather than demonstrating a provider’s ability to construct a broadband network and provide high-speed broadband services,” the letter of credit is a “measure of whether they can lock up valuable working capital.”



Moreover, they explain that the banking sector does not have the appetite to issue the $10+ billion in letters of credit that the scale of the program demands. Even if it did, “the capital needed to collateralize them means billions of dollars are sitting idle and not being used to buy equipment, lay fiber, and train the next generation of broadband engineers.” The letter is signed by Live Oak Bank, which has previously <a href="https://www.broadband.io/c/broadband-grant-events/where-s-the-funding-episode-5-navigating-the-letter-of-credit">outlined its concerns</a> with the program’s insistence on letters of credit.



Calling for a “course correction,” the group urges the NTIA to drop the letter of credit entirely. Short of that, the letter suggests alternatives that provide additional protection for taxpayer dollars while ensuring BEAD funding can go to the providers best able to deliver for American families. Alternatives include performance bonds — a tool regularly used in infrastructure construction projects — and delayed reimbursements to “ensure proposals are viable and that applicants have the capacity to perform.”



Unlike letters of credit, issuers of performance bonds perform additional due diligence on applicants, providing another layer of qualification. And, because bond issuers have a financial incentive to ensure performance, bonds add further assurance of project completion.



“Past government broadband investments have called for a match or a letter of credit — never both,” said Jochai Ben-Avie, Connect Humanity CEO. “By taking this extreme risk-averse approach, the NTIA actually risks undermining the Biden Administration’s ambition to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed internet. This program has been called a once-in-a-generation shot at closing the digital divide. We must not throw it away.”



John Windhausen, Executive Director of the Schools, Health &amp; Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, added: “By effectively excluding thousands of small, nonprofit and minority-owned broadband providers, the policy contradicts the statutory language in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that specifically calls for municipalities and other nonprofit entities to be eligible. Insisting on the letter of credit will reduce competition and jeopardize the ability of anchor institutions to receive high-quality broadband.”



With <a href="https://broadbandnow.com/research/fcc-broadband-overreporting-by-state">42 million Americans</a> still without broadband access, BEAD’s success is critical to ensuring the entire nation can participate in an increasingly digital society. The group argues, however, that without change: “the program will not achieve its objective of delivering internet for all.”



<a href="https://connect-humanity.shorthandstories.com/bead-letter-of-credit-alternatives/index.html">Read the letter</a> and <a href="https://connect-humanity.shorthandstories.com/bead-letter-of-credit-alternatives/#group-section-Signatories-hG0RtO3ni5">view the signatories</a>.

Illustrated buildings with WiFi symbols sit on a blue background. The text reads, "Broadband is a human right. Tell the NTIA: The BEAD program needs to change."

How to fix the BEAD program

I am an expert at filling out forms.&nbsp;



I fill them out when I&#8217;m ordering something online. I fill them out when I’m applying for a class. Or for a new driver&#8217;s license. And for every appointment. And I fill them out when I donate or sign up for an email newsletter.&nbsp;



This means you’re likely an expert as well!



Because we are presented with so many forms to fill out online, a particular pet peeve of mine is a poorly designed form. A bad form peeves me on many levels:



<ul>
<li>I get frustrated when the form wastes my time asking for unnecessary information.</li>



<li>I get frustrated when forms are not mobile-friendly.</li>



<li>I get frustrated when the form refreshes and doesn’t save my previous entries.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



But I also know I’m one of the lucky ones; I have a name that’s considered common and has enough characters. I‘m also cisgender and identify as female. My name also isn’t hyphenated. So filling out forms — even if they are problematic — is easier for me than a whole lot of others.&nbsp;



Many forms create barriers to filling out information, including obstacles regarding race, gender, and even relationships. Web editors with the best intentions could unintentionally create a barrier for a user, which means the user will get frustrated with your brand and abandon your form. And you won’t get the conversions you want.&nbsp;



In the interest of abolishing terrible forms everywhere, here are some simple steps to make your forms more inclusive, delight your audiences, and get the conversions you need.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-do-you-need-to-know-if-i-m-a-captain">Why do you need to know if I’m a Captain?</h2>



Some forms ask for your title (also known as honorifics): Esquire, Professor, Doctor, even Captain! I’m trying to donate to your fundraiser, not pilot your ship!&nbsp;



But that’s not the only unnecessary field I’ve encountered. I recently went to go work out at a facility. I was willing to hand over cash, but they insisted I fill out an online form, which took way longer than handing over cash. But I understood. They wanted me to fill out an online waiver so I wouldn’t hold them liable if I got injured in their facility.&nbsp;



That&#8217;s why I found it very odd that they insisted on asking me for my cell phone carrier. It was a required field! But what wasn’t a required field? The “emergency contact.”


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FLSkatingRink.png#nten" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FLSkatingRink.png" alt="Example of a mobile form asking for several required fields, including cell phone carrier." class="wp-image-183034" width="293" height="578"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



The lesson here: don’t ask me for information you don’t need. It’s a waste of my time and feels like creepy data collection.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-let-s-talk-about-gender">Let’s talk about gender.</h2>



If a woman is filling out your form, do you need to know her marital status? This tweet sums it up well:&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MrMsMiss.png#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MrMsMiss.png" alt="Tweet from Ilyse Hogue. Text reads: “Every time I have to fill out a form, I’m newly annoyed that I have to choose a Miss, Ms, or Mrs when the guys are all Misters as though it required knowledge of our marital station and age to peg our status in society. Can’t someone make 21st century forms?&quot;" class="wp-image-183039" width="293" height="360"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



Men never have to reveal their marital status. Why should women?&nbsp;



What about those forms that ask you to choose a gender? Many forms ask if you are male or female, but that’s exclusive of those who identify outside of the binary of male and female.


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Inclusive_forms_-_genders.png#jjj" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Inclusive_forms_-_genders.png" alt="Examples of a bad form asking for three choices about gender on a form vs a better example that has many more options." class="wp-image-183036" width="350" height="200"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



Ask yourself: does your organization really need to know this? If it does, fine. But please recognize that not everybody fits into those two boxes. So ensure that your forms are inclusive by&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ruth-ng.co.uk/how-to-ask-about-gender-in-forms-respectfully" rel="noreferrer noopener">offering more options</a>&nbsp;so your users don’t feel excluded.&nbsp;



The takeaway:



<ol>
<li>Be inclusive of all genders.</li>



<li>At the least, consider adding, “I’d prefer not to say.”</li>



<li>If your organization needs this information, be mindful and respectful of the words chosen and what those words mean to the end user.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-account-for-all-kinds-of-names">Account for all kinds of names.</h2>



Have you ever seen a racist form? They exist. Ask any of the billions of people worldwide who have last names with just two characters:&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/RacistFormExample_1.jpg#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/RacistFormExample_1.jpg" alt="Tweet from S. Qiouyi Lu who is frustrated that she can’t purchase an item on a website because the form rejects that her last name is two characters." class="wp-image-183040" width="311" height="366"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/RacistFormExample_2.png#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/RacistFormExample_2.png" alt="A tweet from Mallory Yu who is pointing out the racism of a form for not accepting that her last name contains two letters" class="wp-image-183041" width="297" height="290"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



There are billions of people who can’t buy your products or sign up for your event if your forms block them from doing so.



Forms also can have trouble recognizing certain ethnicities or accents. These two Irish Twitter users were commiserating about having some trouble filling out forms:


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IrishName_1.png#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IrishName_1.png" alt="Tweet from an Irish user who is trying to fill out a form unsuccessfully since the form doesn’t recognize the accents in her name." class="wp-image-183037" width="300" height="309"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IrishName_2.png#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IrishName_2.png" alt="Tweet from another Irish user who is demonstrating a similar issue of being blocked from filling out a form." class="wp-image-183038" width="298" height="143"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



What if your name is hyphenated? Some forms reject that too.&nbsp;&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Hyphenation.png#nten"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Hyphenation.png" alt="Tweet from Faith Salie who is pointing out her 9 year old son’s strong reaction to not being able to fill out a form at the dentist’s office because his name is hyphenated." class="wp-image-183035" width="299" height="173"/></a></figure></div>


<div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



You know it’s bad when you’ve lost the support of 4th graders.&nbsp;



Not everyone has a name like John Smith. There are accents, hyphens, apostrophes, short names with a few characters, long names with a lot of characters, and names where the first name and last name are switched.



<a target="_blank" href="https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names" rel="noreferrer noopener">W3.org explains it well and in more detail:</a>&nbsp;“People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies are often unaware of how different people’s names can be in other countries. They build their forms or databases in a way that assumes too much on the part of foreign users. ”&nbsp;



The takeaway: know your audiences so you can accommodate their naming needs. Account for as many naming conventions as possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-account-for-all-races">Account for all races.&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>



Unfortunately, forms can impose racial identities on people without respect for how they identify themselves by not offering enough options. If you must ask for race on your form, allow for a wide variety of options and acknowledge differences between similar sounding options: for example, “Black” may not be the same as “African American,” and “Hispanic” may not be the same as “Latin(a/o), &amp; Latinx.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-account-for-all-relationships">Account for all relationships.&nbsp;</h2>



We all know relationships are complicated. When asking for an individual’s relationship with another, be respectful of those complexities:&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>“Spouse/partner” over “husband/wife.”</li>



<li>“Parent/guardian” over “mother/father.”</li>



<li>“Child” over “son/daughter.”&nbsp;</li>



<li>“Sibling” over “brother/sister.”</li>
</ul>



This sends an immediate message to the user that you respect those in their lives even if they don’t fit neatly into an expected norm.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-steps-you-can-take">More steps you can take.&nbsp;</h2>



<ul>
<li>Account for keyboard navigation: ensure all form fields can be navigated to (and away from) only using a keyboard. From assistive technologies to broken track pads — this is a must.</li>



<li>Include form labels:&nbsp;include meaningful and descriptive form labels to alert all users about what is expected of them.</li>



<li>Show progress:&nbsp;if the form is extensive, a progress bar is nice to manage the time expectations for the user and what information is needed at each step.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Provide enough contrast:&nbsp;many forms try to use stylish, grayed-out text. A grayed-out button or text is acceptable if it’s an inactive element that is not usable. But if a user is supposed to get information about the form or interact with a field, ensure proper color contrast is used.</li>



<li>One more time … don’t ask for more than you really need.&nbsp;Take a hard look at what information is critical for you to capture. Then leave out the rest.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-before-you-launch-test-and-test-again">Before you launch, test. And test again.</h2>



Get feedback on your form before you launch it. And get that feedback from diverse voices to ensure you’ve covered as many scenarios as possible.&nbsp;



You could even use the testing opportunity as a way to connect with your brand ambassadors who love and support your nonprofit the most, bring in your best supporters, and encourage them to bring in as many friends as possible across ages, genders, marital statuses, races, and more. Make a day of user testing. Offer them a gift — a gift card, free lunch, or tour of your organization — for their feedback on your form. You will get the information you need as well as introduce a whole lot of new supporters to your organization!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-follow-these-steps-to-make-your-forms-more-inclusive-and-accessible">Follow these steps to make your forms more inclusive and accessible.&nbsp;</h2>



Forms are a necessary part of online life, and we all must fill them out. While this is not an exhaustive list (though it’s close), these steps will go a long way to keep your forms human-centric and build trust with those who choose to share their data with you.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Learn more</h2>



<a href="/blog/making-presentations-accessible">Making presentations accessible</a>



<a href="/blog/10-things-to-consider-when-planning-a-website-design-or-re-design">10 things to consider when planning a website design (or re-design)</a>



<a href="/learn/courses/bringing-accessibility-to-your-nonprofits-technology">Improving accessibility in nonprofit workplaces</a>

Accessible forms are easier and collect better data.

Create accessible and inclusive forms

NTEN has had an increasingly distributed team and a flexible work schedule throughout our 23 years as an organization. So when everyone shifted to working from home during the pandemic, we already had half the staff working remotely, which allowed us to better adapt than many organizations. Today our team is spread out across six states and three time zones, with various childcare pick-up times and varying partner, medical, and volunteering schedules.



With a successful three years of experience of everyone working from home, we decided to say goodbye to our Portland headquarters last fall. With half the staff living here, though, we still consider ourselves a Portland-based organization. Practically, we are a Slack-based organization.



We are a team of humans with full lives. Working at NTEN is just one aspect. I think this is the root of the four-day work shift for us. We are humans first and employees of NTEN later. Certainly not second. Maybe fifth on the list?



The interest in a four-day week as a team started building in several ways over the last two years. First, this was discussed in reviewing our employee handbook, where our benefits and expectations are outlined. Next, staff suggested it in our annual accessibility survey feedback and associated conversations with the equity team. It even came up in yearly evaluations and manager check-ins.&nbsp;



A year ago, the operations and admin team committed to investigating what could be possible and whether we needed to modify our policies and benefits to make the change. For example, since we have employees in different states, and those states define full-time employment and paid time off differently, we wanted to be sure that any change we made to our full-time status or PTO accrual processes didn’t impact some staff positively and others negatively. This research also included talking with an employment lawyer to understand legal implications we may not have considered.&nbsp;



Some of the most interesting planning was the work we did as a full team driven by the places where staff had questions. Over the last few months, we have shared articles and resources in a “32-hour transition” Slack channel and, in staff meetings, started making lists of questions that we could bucket into areas of exploration for small teams to take on. This included a meetings team thinking about the frequency and types of current full team meetings and how they suggested we test out changing them for a four-day week. We also had a communications team that recommended where and how to communicate this change, from email signatures to out-of-office messages to the website. Are all of our plans of interest to you? Likely not! They were made within our team’s context, norms, and values. But having a process driven by the areas where staff feel unsure as the primary focus areas was helpful to us and likely would be to you as well.&nbsp;



So, while we’ve spent a good amount of time in thinking and planning mode, it’s time to start testing! June 30 is our final Friday work day at NTEN, and we will begin the four-day, 32-hour week starting in July. Like everything we do, we anticipate we will learn along the way, and we plan, of course, to do that learning out loud by continuing to share broadly.&nbsp;



Have you made this change in your organization and have tips to share, or are you thinking about this and have questions? Please head over to the online groups and<a href="https://my.nten.org/s/question/0D58Y0000AWxI0ySQF/have-you-implemented-a-4day-week-are-you-curious-about-it"> join our conversation about four-day weeks</a>!

80% time at 100% pay for 100% of outcomes.

NTEN embraces a 4-day week

Keeping a nonprofit organization&#8217;s website secure is critical. Cyberattacks can cause significant damage to an organization. Cybersecurity threats include disruption to its operations, data breaches, financial loss, and damage to its reputation.



Despite these, organizations in the nonprofit sector tend not to be at the forefront of devoting significant effort or resources to cybersecurity. &nbsp;According to <a href="/publications/cybersecurity-for-nonprofits">NTEN’s Cybersecurity for Nonprofits report</a>, 59% of respondents to an industry-wide survey of nonprofits did not provide training on cybersecurity for their staff. In addition, 70% of charities do not perform comprehensive vulnerability assessments to determine cybersecurity risks. &nbsp;&nbsp;



Nonprofit web managers, working with an organization’s IT department, can play a significant role in promoting cybersecurity in their organizations. As stewards of the website and online properties, web managers are uniquely positioned to advocate and take a leading role in protecting their organizations from cyberattacks and mitigating cybersecurity risks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-eight-cybersecurity-strategies">Eight cybersecurity strategies</h2>



Following are eight cybersecurity measures nonprofit web managers can adopt to help protect their websites and stay ahead of new threats. The first set of strategies involves process and training that, when adopted, can go a long way to mitigate risks and vulnerabilities that come with human error and lack of cybersecurity knowledge. The second set of technical strategies can be implemented with the help of your organization’s IT department and involves patching up and closing vulnerabilities in your systems and infrastructure.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-non-technical">Non-technical</h3>



<ol type="1">
<li><a href="/blog/the-basics-of-multi-factor-authentication-and-single-sign-on">Promote a strong password culture</a>. Passwords should be complex and difficult to figure out. Many guidelines say they should be at least 12 characters long and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. In addition, using a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/best-password-managers/">password management tool</a> can help to generate, store, and secure passwords.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.valamis.com/hub/cybersecurity-training">Train employees on cybersecurity</a>. Educate staff about risks and vulnerabilities. Give people the ability to identify potential security threats when working online and with computer systems.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/security/cyber-security-audit">Conduct regular security audits</a>. Security audits identify and evaluate an organization&#8217;s strengths and weaknesses to protect itself from cyberattacks. They identify gaps in an organization&#8217;s defenses and ensure appropriate steps are taken to mitigate those risks.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/principle-of-least-privilege-POLP">Limit user access</a>. Grant users permission to read, write or execute only the files or resources necessary to do their jobs. This principle is also known as the access control principle or the principle of minimal privilege.</li>
</ol>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-technical">Technical</h3>



<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.f5.com/glossary/ssl-tls-encryption">Use SSL/TLS encryption</a> to encrypt data transmitted between your website and your users&#8217; browsers. This prevents attackers from viewing or tampering with data exchanged between two nodes.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/glossary/web-application-firewall-waf/">Use a web application firewall (WAF)</a> to filter and monitor HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. A WAF protects against cross-site forgery, cross-site scripting (XSS), file inclusion, and SQL injection attacks.</li>



<li><a href="https://rewind.com/blog/backup-website-essential-guide/">Back up your website</a>. Website data needs to be protected by backup software. Web managers need to be able to quickly restore your website in case something goes wrong.</li>



<li><a href="https://adagetechnologies.com/how-keep-website-up-to-date/">Keep software up-to-date</a>. Software used on your website, including the content management system, modules, and plugins, should continually be updated with the latest security patches.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-investing-in-cybersecurity-goes-a-long-way">Investing in cybersecurity goes a long way</h2>



Investing in time, training, and resources and developing new <a href="/publications/2022-data-empowerment-report">cybersecurity processes and procedures</a> can go a long way to protect nonprofit websites from most cyber-attack threats. Web managers are in a prime position to take a leading role in organizations to advocate for these measures to ensure their organization is protected and taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity.



As a final note, cybersecurity is an ongoing process rather than something you do once, and it is done. Organizations should regularly review and update security measures to avoid new threats.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Learn more</h2>



<a href="/publications/2023-website-security-for-nonprofits">Download the 2023 Website Security for Nonprofits guide</a> for help protecting your website from attacks.

Champion policies and security to protect your systems and data.

Cybersecurity strategies for nonprofit websites

A tech-savvy team is essential for nonprofit organizations that want to thrive in the digital age. How do you go about developing the technology skills of your staff?



In this post, I will briefly explain how to pinpoint which technology skills folks need, assess current skill levels, provide training that doesn’t stink, and nurture a technology-positive culture where tech skills are a priority.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-determining-what-technology-skills-your-organization-needs">Determining what technology skills your organization needs</h2>



Skill requirements are not one-size-fits-all. There are some basic technology skills that most staff likely need, such as the ability to operate productivity software (e.g., Outlook) and video conferencing platforms, use a spreadsheet, create slides, and use tools that are specific to your organization, such as a timekeeping system or an expense reporting system. A bus driver or cleaning staff might need only a few of these skills, whereas a development director might need all these and many more skills.&nbsp;



When assessing the skills of technical staff, such as an IT director or a database administrator, you might be tempted to narrow your focus to only technical skills, which would be a mistake. Success in highly technical roles relies just as much on customer service and change management as on technical abilities.



One approach to documenting skill requirements could be to create a matrix of skills and roles for your organization. You could also review each job description and add essential and helpful skills.



Here are three tools I created or co-authored that can help you match skills to roles:



<ul>
<li><a href="https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.tagtech.org/resource/resmgr/techoverhead/tag_tech_impact_skills_build.pdf">Nonprofit Data &amp; Tech Skill-Building Checklist</a> — a worksheet that provides an inventory of technology and data-related skills and a way to rate your skills or those of a team member or job candidate.</li>



<li><a href="https://offers.techimpact.org/reports/mofskillsmap">Digital Marketing, Outreach, &amp; Fundraising Tech Skills Map</a> —&nbsp;an interactive diagram of digital competencies for nonprofit roles (free but requires you to provide contact info).</li>



<li><a href="https://offers.techimpact.org/reports/digital-skillsets/">Digital Skillsets: An Imperative for Today’s Nonprofit Leaders</a> — a white paper describing what skills executives need and how those connect to organizational effectiveness (free but requires you to provide contact info).</li>
</ul>



Additional resources:



<ul>
<li><a href="https://nethope.org/toolkits/digital-skills/">Digital Skills Framework</a> — a taxonomy of digital skills, plus further learning resources to help build skills in each area, aimed at global nonprofits.</li>



<li><a href="/blog/using-adult-learning-principles-in-technology-trainings">Using adult learning principles in technology trainings</a> — an NTEN Digital Inclusion Fellow shares a few key lessons about how to (and how not to) train adults.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-assessing-the-technology-skills-of-individual-staff">Assessing the technology skills of individual staff</h2>



Once you have an idea of the skills required for each role in your organization, you will want to evaluate the current skills of each individual and identify needs for learning or supplementing with outside experts.



Many skill assessments are available to purchase that test specific skills such as coding or proficiency on particular software. Ask your human resources department, HR advisor, or payroll company if any skill assessments are included with the HR software or services you subscribe to.



If you don’t wish to pay for an assessment tool, see if you can borrow one. For example, the University of Kentucky publishes this <a href="https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/accommodationsmanual_technologyskillschecklist">skills checklist</a> with a list of basic computer skills you could adapt to your context. Or take advantage of free tools.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/">Northstar Digital Literacy</a> has some online assessments free to individuals.&nbsp;



You will likely find more areas of improvement than you have the resources to accomplish, and you will have to prioritize some professional development investments over others. To determine what’s most important, consider the individual’s career goals, growth trajectory, and the organization&#8217;s needs. What skills are needed to achieve your organization’s strategic goals? Do gaps exist where no one has an essential skill? Would that skill be easy to outsource?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tech-training-that-actually-works">Tech training that actually works</h2>



Let’s face it, a lot of technology training is ineffective. It’s boring, and it doesn’t really improve people’s skills. Maybe it imparts knowledge, but people can’t transfer that to a real-life environment.



Whether you are training on how to operate technology, tactics for using technology to achieve a goal, or making strategic technology decisions, you can get better results by following these guidelines.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image.png" alt="Training that actually works.
Do: 1. Train in small increments. 2. Use a lab environment, simulation and reflection. 3. Consider different training styles. 4. Reinforce at intervals. 5. Recognize and provide accountability.
Don't: 1. Assume people understand. 2. Equate knowledge with behavior change. " class="wp-image-182536" width="720" height="405"/></a></figure>



<ol>
<li>Provide training in small doses, maybe five or ten minutes during a staff meeting or via a video people can watch during a coffee break.</li>



<li>Match the learning environment as closely as possible to the environment where people must apply the skill. If you teach people to operate software, have them follow along on their computer instead of just watching the trainer perform the task.</li>



<li>Provide opportunities for people to learn by watching, reading, practicing, and reflecting. Adapt to various learning styles, physical and neurological variety, and language proficiency.</li>



<li>Reinforce learning after one day, week, and month to make it stick.</li>



<li>Recognize people for trying, improving, and learning from mistakes. Provide accountability that works for your organization&#8217;s culture, perhaps by providing a treat when 90% of staff complete training or including technology skills on performance appraisals.</li>



<li>Devise ways of testing whether people understand and can demonstrate the technology skill they are trying to learn during and beyond training.</li>



<li>Examine incentives and barriers to adopting new technologies and new technology skills–because training alone will not overcome resistance to change or the comfort of familiar behavior patterns.</li>
</ol>



In addition to the training you provide in-house, encourage folks to take advantage of software vendor-provided training and learning platforms such as <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/">LinkedIn Learning</a> or <a href="https://www.pluralsight.com/">Pluralsight</a>.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-make-technology-skills-an-organizational-priority">Make technology skills an organizational priority</h2>



You might be thinking, this sounds like a lot of work! Everyone is already so busy. How will we hold space for developing technology skills?



It helps to have an executive sponsor who sees the value of investing in staff technology skills and is willing to speak up for it. Including technology skills in job descriptions and performance appraisals–including evaluating managers on the tech skills of their direct reports–signals that it’s something to take seriously. Budget time and money for professional development, including informal learning, and dips in productivity as people acquire new habits and skills. And when all else fails, bribe people with food. You can’t really go wrong serving pizza at a technology lunch-and-learn (as long as there’s a gluten-free, vegan option!).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-few-closing-thoughts">A few closing thoughts</h2>



This material was originally nested in a break-out session for the 2023 Nonprofit Technology Conference called “Digital Transformation Toolkit.” The session also covered the technology planning process and gaining support for technology initiatives. It’s important to consider staff technology skills in the context of digital transformation because building those skills amplifies all of your other efforts toward digital resilience and innovation.



It also fosters equity when we equip all staff to thrive in their current roles and prepare them with the technology skills they need to advance in their careers. It could provide the spark that ignites a technology career or launches a future leader in our sector.



To summarize a few key points about developing staff technology skills:



<ul>
<li>To improve staff technology skills, start by determining the skills your organization needs and assessing current staff skills.</li>



<li>Design training carefully, verify it’s working, and make it a norm in your organization.</li>
</ul>



If you are successful, you will be making a valuable investment in your organization&#8217;s and your colleagues&#8217; success.&nbsp;

Identify the skills your org needs and assess the skills your staff has.

Developing staff technology skills in your nonprofit

Our <a href="/learn/digital-inclusion-fellowship">Digital Inclusion Fellowship</a> has supported 95 community leaders in launching and expanding digital literacy and technology access programs in local communities, building power with regional coalitions, and supporting direct training for nearly 50,000 people. Fellows have been in major metropolitan areas, suburbs, and rural locations. Yet, regardless of the location, we’ve consistently seen first-hand the necessity of connecting and collaborating with <meta charset="utf-8">multifamily residential housing (MDUs) and Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) because of their unique needs and dynamics when it comes to fully understanding and addressing digital access equitably. 



NTEN and over 100 other diverse organizations call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take urgent action to ensure unserved households in MDUs and CAIs are correctly designated in the recently released FCC National Broadband Map.



“The FCC National Broadband Map is critical to allocating over $65 billion in broadband funding to states established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and closing the broadband affordability gap,” said Evan Marwell, Founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway. “Unfortunately, more work is needed to ensure we account for 20-25% of the digital divide that resides in multifamily housing. Currently, the maps consider a multifamily building to be a single location, which fails to accurately identify whether every individual unit is being served.”



The group outlines that the households impacted by these data inaccuracies are among the most digitally disconnected in America, located in high-poverty areas where connectivity has historically been neglected. They also raise concerns that the proposed map will not correctly identify the broadband available to CAIs that under-resourced households rely on for essential services and support. The Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL) Fabric (Fabric), which is intended to identify the individual locations that broadband providers serve, generally treats CAIs as not “broadband serviceable locations.” In their letter to the FCC, the group requests that thousands of libraries, health clinics, houses of worship, and other CAIs that purchase mass market services, be included in both the Fabric and the final version of the map.



Learn more:



<ul><li><a href="https://www.educationsuperhighway.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-ESH_SHLB-FCC-National-Broadband-Map-Concerns-MDUs_CAIs.pdf">Read the letter sent to the FCC</a></li><li><a href="https://www.educationsuperhighway.org/announcements/national-broadband-map/">Read the full announcement</a> from our partners at Education Superhighway</li></ul>

Illustrated buildings with WiFi symbols sit on a blue background. The text reads, "Tell the FCC: Fix the National Broadband Map."

NTEN calls on FCC to address inaccuracies in National Broadband Map

When the pandemic hit in 2020, many nonprofits had no choice but to engage with program participants digitally. While many organizations were already using digital channels for outreach, COVID-19 was the catalyst for a massive leap forward in engagement strategies. And leap they did; nonprofits met the moment with focus, building innovative solutions and tapping into external resources to develop new ways of reaching their audiences.



In May 2022,<a href="http://twilio.org"> Twilio.org</a> published the <a href="https://twilio.org/sonder-2022/">State of Nonprofit Digital Engagement Report</a> (SONDER) detailing how nonprofits use digital communications in program delivery.&nbsp;



The report showed that nonprofit organizations have stepped up as digital leaders, completely changing how they deliver programs to reach more people more quickly and in more dignified ways. In fact, roughly 65% of engagement nonprofits have with their program participants today is digital, compared to 55% from B2C companies.



Nonprofits are demonstrating that digital engagement is not just an extra tool but an essential way to scale program impact. These organizations are setting the bar for using digital tools to reach more people than ever and providing them with the information and services they need fast.



But while the pandemic pushed the social sector farther into the digital era, subsequent crises — from global conflicts to a shaky economy to climate change — require organizations to keep innovating to serve more people with greater efficiency and more personalized ways.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-75-year-old-organization-becomes-a-digital-leader">A 75-year-old organization becomes a digital leader</h2>



In the humanitarian subsector, digital programming is helping organizations like the <a href="https://www.nrc.no/">Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)</a> assist people in record numbers. Established in the wake of World War II, NRC has been protecting and supporting displaced people for more than 75 years. In 2021, they helped 10 million people in 35 different countries.



In the summer of 2022, Diana Smith, Senior Director of Marketing at Twilio.org, spoke with Christopher Hoffman, Global Project Manager-Digital Community Hubs at NRC, to find out how this independent organization is evolving to meet changing needs.



Hoffman revealed that since 2020, NRC has been able to evolve how they engage with and deliver aid to people in need, using digital systems and personalized communication to reach more people than ever before.



Hoffman says it’s not that the old ways of interacting with people in person are wrong. It’s just that digital tools allow organizations to scale faster, which allows them to have more impact. His insights that changes at NRC are valuable in demonstrating how technology — and an organizational culture shift — can enable nonprofits to accomplish even more.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A dramatic change in program delivery</h2>



89% of nonprofits that participated in the Twilio.org SONDER said digital communications are critical to achieving their mission — and this was certainly true for NRC. When COVID-19 made face-to-face interactions impossible, NRC pivoted to digital engagement in order to reach its audience, which numbered in the tens of millions.&nbsp;



For an organization with a 75-year legacy, it’s reasonable to think a program revamp would be a complex and difficult process.



According to Hoffman, not only was it surprisingly easy to incorporate digital engagement into their programs — the increase in impact was immediate. “Two years ago, we would be driving a land cruiser with five people in the car and go to a village and ask questions about what their needs are. Now, from the office, we can design opportunities to engage with people over their mobile phones and reach 10,000 people within seconds, versus being able to reach ten over a five-hour journey in a car.”&nbsp;



When it comes to humanitarian aid, the ability to scale so effectively is literally saving lives around the world. Other nonprofit sectors — from education to healthcare to human rights — are following suit by using digital engagement to achieve their goals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Personalization equals dignity</h2>



A dignified response requires that an organization understand the person on the other end and communicate with them as an individual — offering a level of personalization that goes beyond mass communication approaches. The more organizations can listen and learn from program participants, the more they can deliver relevant, effective support.&nbsp;



The importance of personalization was also echoed in the SONDER findings. Even though nonprofits are outpacing the private sector in digital engagement, there are plenty of opportunities to increase engagement and provide more relevant assistance. In fact, program participants rated personalization as the #1 area they want nonprofits to prioritize. Not only that, 75% of nonprofits say their program participants would like more digital communications options.



With roughly 90% of people on earth having access to mobile devices, there is huge potential for nonprofits to expand and personalize their communications to deliver specific and relevant support at scale. As more organizations switch to digital communications, the number of people who can receive the assistance they need will increase exponentially.&nbsp;



For NRC, this means designing population-specific programs that get people the items or services they actually need. A family fleeing their home does not need a 90lb bag of grain, nor does a small village need 25 jackets that are all the same size. Using digital tools to learn how to best aid people–not just at the initial point of crisis but throughout the entire period of strife–is proving to be a much smarter way to help and build trust with your participants.



According to Hoffman, “People in need deserve a dignified response. Allowing people to make their own decisions with the aid they require is key to addressing their needs and also key to assisting them on the path to recovery. As an example, we do this by integrating cash programming in our system. Would you rather be given a winter jacket, or would you rather have the ability to buy the jacket you need in the right size?”&nbsp;



NRC gives people the opportunity to access multi-purpose cash and services over their mobile phones so they can make their own decisions on what they need. In response to the Ukraine crisis, NRC launched a cash assistance program and registered more than 120,000 applications in 10 days.&nbsp;



As Hoffman shared, a “one-size-fits-all” approach to aid is inefficient and ineffective since the needs of one family fleeing a crisis can be very different from another. Giving people the ability to personalize their experience provides help in a more dignified way.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Partnership offers a faster path to impact</h2>



While significant program change can be daunting, Hoffman thinks nonprofit leaders should be fearless when transitioning to digital engagement. NRC didn’t have an in-house development team for the project, so they worked with Twilio to identify a partner who could support development and ultimately teamed up with UK-based <a href="https://zing.dev/">Zing</a>.&nbsp;



For nonprofits with limited tech staff, leveraging development partners and low-code/no-code solutions are a cost-effective way to scale operations and start using personalization and other tools. It can be a faster path to getting started than building an in-house team and can allow organizations to go from idea to impact in a matter of weeks or months.



NRC worked with Zing to design population-specific programs and iterate on them as each crisis evolved. This approach allows them to stay informed as the needs of program participants change.&nbsp;



Funders play an important role in the development of digital programming. Nonprofits often need support from donors and institutional funders to fund technical support. The findings from SONDER show that flexible donations and technical development grants rooted in trust-based philanthropy principles will be essential for nonprofits as they work on building digital programming.



Hoffman offered these final words of advice for nonprofit organizations on the journey to deepening digital engagement to scale their programs:



“More people are displaced today than at any time in history. It sounds daunting if we were trying to [address it] in the old way. Now we’ve got a new way to address the needs of many more people really succinctly. Just remember, you can do it. It’s not that hard, and you can change the way that you do programming to assist more people more effectively.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Toward a future of listening and helping at scale</h2>



It’s clear that there is still far more innovation possible in digital engagement and personalization — and nonprofits have the opportunity to continue leading and showing the way. By incorporating personalization, organizations can better support constituents and meet their specific needs faster and more effectively.



Want to learn more about nonprofit digital engagement? Find insights on personalization and other key trends in the <a href="https://twilio.org/sonder-2022/">State of Nonprofit Digital Engagement Report</a>.

Overhead view of an illustrated laptop. The text next to it reads, "Guest post: Stronger programs through digital engagement and personalization."

How digital engagement is changing nonprofit program delivery

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-click-that-cost-a-quarter-million">The Click That Cost A Quarter Million</h2>



Chris works in the accounting department at a nonprofit organization called ImpAcme. Chris has made it a monthly ritual to grab a pencil and print out a donations report to reconcile donation payments across all the bank accounts. This process takes about half a day, and Chris does the job because nobody else has the patience to sort through all those transaction pages. The sad truth is that at one point, the reconciliation report had a handy filter that allowed this process to take only one hour sans pencil.



However, 28 months ago, that filter was accidentally removed during training — with a single click — without anyone noticing. ImpAcme has a great data team that could add the filter back in less than 60 seconds if they knew about it. Ironically, they are busy researching a systems migration because their current system “can’t do reconciling.” Fourteen months into the systems migration process, Chris’ team member Andrea will stumble upon the filter function in their current system. It will only take her a few minutes to realize she was the one that deleted that filter all those years ago.&nbsp;



Now that’s how a single “click” — the accidental deletion of the filter — cost ImpAcme a quarter of a million dollars. The staff’s frustration with the system set the groundwork for migrating to a new software platform. Unfortunately, all the disruption will cause Chris to resign 12 months into the project, and Andrea will leave two months later to join a consulting firm. With multiple phases of work, including vendor selection, licensing, consulting, data migration, staff training, and replacement costs, the migration cost will exceed a quarter of a million dollars.&nbsp;



Welcome to technology in the nonprofit sector.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-click-that-saved-a-quarter-million">The Click That Saved A Quarter Million</h2>



Just like a single click cost a quarter million dollars, another small click could save a quarter million. Let’s take a closer look at Chris’ story. Every month Chris in accounting grabbed a pencil and printed out a donations report before reconciling all the accounts. While Chris continued with her pencil and paper habits, Andrea from the data team presented a new button in their system during a staff meeting that lets users get help from the data team. The great thing about this button is that it was designed by the data team to take less than 30 seconds to complete, and Andrea even joked that “complaining is a sign of hope.”



Once again, the monthly reconciliation ritual arrived, and after 28 months of repeating this monthly behavior, Chris made a bold move and filled out the new “help me” form. It took Chris less than 30 seconds to inform the data team that the reconciliation report process was hard. With feedback delivered, Chris grabbed her pencil, printed the report, and started reconciling; by the time she was done and ready to go home, she completely forgot about her 30-second detour.



Waiting in Chris’ inbox the following day was an email from Andrea asking if they could sit down for a few minutes and go over the “help me” form she filled out. Before lunchtime, Andrea was able to add the handy filter to the report and showed Chris the report that had all the right stuff; she nearly wept. A few minutes later, an email thanked Chris for submitting ticket 000861, and nobody ever said the system “couldn’t do reconciling” again. It took Chris 30 seconds to complain, and that action blossomed into trust for her data team and an internal champion spreading the word about how well the form worked.&nbsp;



Andrea and the rest of the data team received and resolved 84 other tickets over the next few months. Instead of moving away from the platform for not doing what’s expected, leadership acknowledged the form&#8217;s success and sent Andrea to a technology conference where she gave a talk called “The Biggest Mistake I Ever Clicked.”&nbsp;



Chris and Andrea are leaders in their departments and have no plans to leave an organization whose impact aligns with their values and has a positive workforce culture.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-tale-of-two-outcomes">A Tale of Two Outcomes</h2>



These two realities are separated only by a few choices. They both started with the same platform, the same products, the same tools, the same licenses, and the same staff. The difference was the model and mindset the data team used to engage digital maturity and the methodology that helped them achieve it. A methodology developed by The Human Stack℠ over the past few years focuses on the human dimension of technology, especially for nonprofits. How does it help? These two outcomes each focus on different angles; one focuses on the technology (the tech stack), and the other focuses on humans (the human stack).



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-outcome-1-prioritizes-the-tech-stack">Outcome 1 Prioritizes The Tech Stack</h3>



ImpAcme will spend the next several years migrating to a new CRM only to find that their digital behaviors and questionable data migrated too. Ultimately some of the details changed, but the same issues were largely in place—all at a cost exceeding a quarter million dollars.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-outcome-2-prioritizes-the-human-stack">Outcome 2 Prioritizes The Human Stack</h3>



The data team at ImpAcme focused on fixing more issues every month and making the data more accurate. The fundraising team felt their fundraising data could be enhanced by investing in a <a href="https://fundraisingkit.com/">fundraising AI system</a> and grew their fundraising by nearly a quarter million dollars.



Here is a detailed breakdown of the financial, technical, and staff outcomes:



<figure class="wp-block-table alignwide blog-table"><table><thead><tr><th scope="col">Financial Outcomes</th><th scope="col">Technology Outcomes</th><th scope="col">Staff Outcomes</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Data Team Prioritizes Tech Stack: Expense Increase $250,000</td><td>Focus: New CRM&nbsp;Outcome: Doesn’t solve core problems and creates new ones. The migration results in the same problems at a high expense. Data quality issues are migrated and unresolved resulting in low data confidence.&nbsp;</td><td>Migration to the new CRM significantly increases the workload to gather requirements and perform UAT to complete the project. Staff aren’t trained effectively and resort to spreadsheets resulting in data quality issues. Staff leaves and is replaced, morale drops, and quiet quitting becomes the norm.</td></tr><tr><td>Data Team Prioritizes Human Stack: Revenue Increase $250,000</td><td>Focus: Existing CRMOutcome: Solve ~20 tickets monthly in the existing system, increasing productivity. Monthly data quality goals are created and met, resulting in high data confidence.&nbsp;</td><td>Staff participates in system changes. As tech becomes predictable, teams become less resistant. Trust in data translates to information user&#8217;s trust.&nbsp; The staff slowly becomes engaged, resulting in less resistance and more resilience.</td></tr><tr><td>Net Difference: &nbsp; &nbsp; $500,000Outcome 1 Loses $250,000Outcome 2 Gains $250,000&nbsp; </td><td>Averaging 20 improvements/month in the existing system.&nbsp; 85% success rate, meeting 108 data quality goals.&nbsp; Results in efficient systems and high-quality data.</td><td>A sustainable rhythm of strategic and tactical meetings.&nbsp;Low digital resistance.&nbsp;Increased confidence in data.&nbsp;Organizational recognition of accomplishments of the data team.&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Oh, and BTW, This Isn’t Just Hypothetical&nbsp;</h2>



While ImpAcme is hypothetical, this model and methodology aren’t. For nearly three years, <a href="https://dbgdetroit.org/">Downtown Boxing Gym</a> (DBG), a nonprofit in Detroit that prepares kids for life, has been utilizing this model and methodology and is a notable example of an organization that has moved from digital resistance to digital resilience over that time.&nbsp;



Khali Sweeney (CEO) and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-hauser-72b57159/">Jessica Hauser</a> (Executive Director) had a vision for Digital Transformation to move DBG into the digital age. When they started this process in 2019, they knew that the long-term success of their impact would rest in their ability to use technology effectively. Securing their tech stack tools, they were on their way to having a successful system, but they ran into human-centered issues and knew they needed to invest. Over the past 36 months, under Jessica’s leadership, they have seen <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/connection-drives-success-salesforce-org-partners/?trk=pulse-article_more-articles_related-content-card">incredible transformation </a>in their organization&#8217;s digital maturity on the human stack.



Recently, the Database Administrators, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-potter-68a4a17/">Meredith Potter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/skylar-burkhardt-22868912a/">Skylar Burkhardt</a>, were invited to share their processes, learnings, and outcomes at The Human Stack℠ cohort. They presented how they solicit issues from staff, review them as a team, address the ones they can work on, and move the rest to a Guidance Team (tactical team) or Center of Excellence (strategic team). When the process started, Meredith needed their consulting partner to handle most of the internal system tickets, but today she and Skylar resolve all but a few. Working as a team, they onboard and train staff, track their technology roadmap, monitor user adoption KPIs, set and meet data quality improvement goals monthly, manage complex DevOps processes using sandbox environments, and distribute monthly release notes to the staff.



To encourage staff to submit tickets, they choose a staff person each month and recognize them for having the “best ticket of the month” and writing up what the issue was and how it was solved.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/donut-graph-screenshare.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/donut-graph-screenshare.png" alt="Screenshare of a donut graph of DBG cases grouped by staff name." class="wp-image-179517" width="702" height="341"/></a></figure>



They are technology experts with no previous formal training in technology, and they deliver these results as a fraction of their overall job description. They have right-sized workloads resolving what they can each week, knowing they will return to it the following week; their approach uses time as an ally that works with them, not against them. Their success in managing their system comes across their confidence to navigate tomorrow&#8217;s technology because of their digital resilience.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Part Computer, Part Human, Different Stacks&nbsp;</h2>



Information systems are part technology and part human. The technology part is architected, engineered, and diagramed from base code to UX on the tech stack. Because it has its own stack, the tech’s quality and efficiency can be measured. Burndown rates are effectively the progress of building the tech stack over time and budget. In sharp contrast, the human part of information systems is often unrecognized and underappreciated. “There’s no solving for humans,” PICNIC (Problem In Chair Not In Computer), and other sayings are indicators that humans aren’t keeping up.&nbsp;



Digital Transformation has tended to focus on the tech stack. Even change management and digital strategy projects have primarily focused on the change management and strategy of the tech stack.&nbsp;



Therefore, Digital Transformation can best be understood as initiatives or projects that organizations tackle (circled in blue). The ones that focus on upgrading the tech stack have a “T” in them, and the ones that move an organization toward digital maturity on the human stack have an “H” in them. This model allows humans and technology to grow along their axis. Separating these stacks creates unique characteristics of being agnostic and having their own base codes.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/digital-transformation-line-graph.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/digital-transformation-line-graph.jpg" alt="Digital Transformation line graph showing digital maturity on the x-axis and digital upgrading on the y-axis. Data shows an upward trend." class="wp-image-179516" width="702" height="396"/></a></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Independently Agnostic</h3>



The human stack is platform agnostic because the tech stack is human agnostic, meaning the technology doesn’t care which humans create data (as long as they are authenticated). The tech stack doesn’t care because tech stacks are incapable of emotion. On the other hand, the human stack is full of emotion about the tech stack.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Base Code</h3>



Every bit of information on the digital tech stack boils down to the base code of zeros or ones because the tech stack is a highly intricate calculator of True/False statements. On the other hand, humans are herd animals with a base code of belonging and calculate complex “in” or “out” calculations. Of course, humans care about accuracy and true/false, but belonging is a driving need unique to the human stack.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Organizational Digital Maturity Requires A Human-First Mindset</h2>



The human stack is where the humans of an organization move from resistance to resilience. What helps humans reach digital maturity is their sense of connectedness: Connection to others on their team, connection to the mission, connection to the impact the organization makes, and connection to their paycheck (don’t underestimate that one).&nbsp;



Humans move from resistance to resilience as a team on the human stack. We move from a place of instinctive fear and insecurity to being able to absorb the changes and grow. This development is at the team level, not just at the individual. And presentation-style end-user training may be an excellent way to distribute information. Still, it’s not a great form of transformation because human behavior changes with practice and repetition, not with information.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/digital-maturity-line-from-low-to-high.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/digital-maturity-line-from-low-to-high.jpg" alt="Digital Maturity line from Low to High on the Human Stack scale. The low end is Resistant and the high end is Resilient." class="wp-image-179515" width="702" height="395"/></a></figure>



The chain of events leading to small effective organizational changes requires a high level of intention, precision, and investment. One of the biggest secrets of digital maturity is knowing that a high volume of lowercase problems (problems that can be addressed quickly without a significant level of involvement) kill information systems, but solving a steady stream of them cures information systems. Solving lowercase problems is the key to digital maturity (and transformation).&nbsp;



<ul><li>Chris must believe that identifying and notifying someone about a problem will likely create change.</li><li>Issue notifications can’t drop into a void; it needs to go to a list that another team looks at regularly.</li><li>The staff who can fix the problem need to connect to the staff who have it.&nbsp;</li><li>Leadership must prioritize the budget and time to hire (or develop) internal skills to triage problems.&nbsp;</li><li>A triage process and workflow is required to handle the problems in-house or hand them off.&nbsp;</li><li>Access to experts to outsource more significant, uppercase problems (problems that take planning, strategy, and time to address).&nbsp;</li></ul>



This chain isn’t accidental and requires growing and maintaining a methodology.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">More About The Human Stack℠&nbsp;</h2>



If you’ve been frustrated by all the hype around &#8220;digital transformation&#8221; in the past, it might be because it only focused on the tech stack. Sure, maybe you got a change management training thrown in there too. But that was change management of the tech stack and strategy of the tech stack. But that’s not where most of the challenges reside.&nbsp;



Humans are the challenge and unrepresented on the tech stack; that’s where we come in.



To learn more about The Human Stack℠ and how our community is reshaping the way we think about tech, visit our <a href="https://thehumanstack.com/ethos">Ethos page</a>, where we break down our big 5 M’s in great detail to help you reach true digital transformation.

Guest post: Why take a human-first approach to digital transformation?

Nonprofits don’t need to spend a quarter million in tech to succeed

Do you use Slack, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other tools like this in your organization?&nbsp; If the answer is yes, you’re using Software-as-a-Service or SaaS. SaaS tools can be an incredible way to boost the productivity of your workforce while removing many administrative and maintenance headaches associated with self-hosting software.&nbsp;But just because they’re easy to use doesn’t mean they are free of security and privacy risks.



One of the most common questions we receive from our partners is, “We’re looking to invest in a new SaaS tool to support our work. Can you help us evaluate the security of the new tools we’re looking into?” In this scenario, the partners usually have a short list of SaaS tools they are evaluating from a business operations perspective — ensuring that the tools are a good fit in terms of capabilities, integrations, and price. But what most of our partners lack is the methodology and background to fully consider security and privacy as evaluation factors.&nbsp;



You ultimately want to be sure you can trust that the company providing the SaaS tool will keep up their end of the bargain to protect your organization’s staff, data, vendors, and customers. Therefore, we wanted to share our security and privacy evaluation criteria with the community to help you support decision-making around using SaaS tools at your organization.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-step-1-what-certifications-does-the-service-have">Step 1: What Certifications Does The Service Have?</h2>



Cyber security certifications are a good first set of criteria to help you compare SaaS applications. These certifications assure that an organization is meeting foundational requirements that are a part of that certification. SaaS vendors typically have a page on their website dedicated to their certifications (<a href="https://slack.com/trust/compliance">here’s an example of Slack’s certification page</a>), so do a little searching for the vendor’s certification pages on your evaluation list. If you can’t find proof of a vendor&#8217;s certification, consider asking the vendor if they can provide you with a copy of the certification attestation. Some companies opt to limit access to these certification attestations, so always ask if you don’t see anything online.



Please also remember that certifications often paint the security practices of a SaaS vendor in broad strokes, so a certification alone does not mean that your data is necessarily secure. Therefore, using other criteria we’ve described in this how-to is vital to evaluate your options further.



Here’s a short list of certifications that you should be looking for (many vendors will have these two certifications and more):



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-soc-2">SOC 2&nbsp;</h3>



This certification ensures that the company undergoing the certification audit process securely handles its customer’s data. It has five main categories for evaluation: privacy, security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality. A SOC 2 report comes in two main flavors:



<ul><li>SOC 2, Type I: Focuses on the design of the company’s systems compared to the requirements of the certification</li><li>SOC 2, Type II: Focuses on how effective the company’s systems are in meeting the requirements of the certification</li></ul>



Ideally, the SaaS vendors you are evaluating have a SOC 2, Type II report, requiring the vendor to prove they are walking the walk (instead of just talking the talk).



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-iso-iec-27001">ISO/IEC 27001</h3>



The next certification we’ll cover is ISO/IEC 27001, designed to provide requirements for an information security management system. Becoming certified requires a SaaS vendor to provide key documentation on their security policies, procedures, and controls and prove that these elements are configured to protect the organization from threats properly.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-step-2-what-publicly-facing-security-privacy-documentation-does-the-service-have">Step 2: What Publicly-Facing Security &amp; Privacy Documentation Does The Service Have?</h2>



Continuing with our Slack example, use your Google skills to locate the <a href="https://slack.com/trust/security">security</a> and <a href="https://slack.com/trust/privacy-at-slack">privacy</a> pages for each SaaS vendor. Then, carefully read these pages for each vendor and see how their security and privacy practices compare. Here are some evaluation criteria to help sort through the information:



<ul><li>How transparent is the vendor when describing their security and privacy practices?&nbsp;</li><li>Is the language easy to understand, or is there a bunch of legal jargon that could be obfuscating?</li><li>How do they describe how they store and process their customer’s data?</li><li>What security measures do they have in place?</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-step-3-what-is-the-service-s-security-privacy-reputation">Step 3: What Is The Service’s Security &amp; Privacy Reputation?</h2>



You probably wouldn&#8217;t want to do business with a vendor known for defrauding its customers. But do we also assume that most people wouldn’t want to do business with a vendor with a reputation for being lax about security and privacy?



It’s not always so simple, however. Data breaches, unfortunately, happen to even the most secure of companies. Many major SaaS vendors have found themselves in the news over being hacked or a simple mistake leading to devastating security consequences. The critical thing is deciphering the impact and evaluating the company’s follow-on actions and attitude about the breach.&nbsp;



Take Uber, for instance &#8211; they got themselves in hot water after being hacked in 2016 due to not disclosing the attack to regulators. In September 2022, the former security chief of Uber during that hack <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/technology/uber-security-chief-trial.html">is on trial</a> for not disclosing it, while Uber currently experiences <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/technology/uber-hacking-breach.html">another significant data breach</a> conducted by an alleged teenage hacker.&nbsp;



For example, a quick search for “Slack security breach” or “Slack hack” should give you a good idea of what public security incidents a vendor has experienced in recent years. For vendors that have experienced breaches, search for vendor resources about the breach to evaluate how they handled the attack. Being forthcoming, transparent, and candid about the hack and the remedial actions they take is a good sign.&nbsp; Being evasive, downplaying, or hiding information is not.&nbsp; Additionally, reference sources like <a href="https://arstechnica.com/">Ars Technica</a>, <a href="https://thehackernews.com/">The Hacker News</a>, and <a href="https://www.theregister.com/">The Register</a> for more details on the vendor’s data breaches and what the vendor did to respond to the attack.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-step-4-what-customer-focused-security-features-are-available">Step 4: What Customer-Focused Security Features Are Available?</h2>



So far, we’ve covered three vendor-initiated topics, but let’s turn our attention to what security features SaaS vendors offer their users. First, check the vendor’s documentation to see if there are user-focused security features and settings you can take advantage of to secure your organization’s information more thoroughly. Here’s a list of documentation from four top SaaS vendors that describe what security features they offer and how to implement them:



<ul><li>Slack: “<a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/115004155306-Security-tips-to-protect-your-workspace">Security Tips To Protect Your Workspace</a>”&nbsp;</li><li>Google Workspace: “<a href="https://support.google.com/a/answer/9211704?fl=1">Security Checklist for Small Business (1-100 Users)</a>”&nbsp;</li><li>Microsoft M365: “<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/security-and-compliance/secure-your-business-data?view=o365-worldwide">Top 10 Ways To Secure Your Data &#8211; Best Practices for Small and Medium-Sized businesses</a>”</li><li>Salesforce: “<a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.security_health_check.htm&amp;type=5">Security Health Check</a>”</li></ul>



Compare and contrast these types of pages for the SaaS tools you are evaluating to see which offers more (or more standard) security features. Of particular note, confirm that the vendors provide the option of multi-factor authentication (MFA). Ideally, each vendor would offer single sign-on (SSO) to make the login experience easier and more secure for users.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wrapping-up">Wrapping Up</h2>



Thanks for reading our how-to on selecting a new SaaS service based on security and privacy criteria. We hope this enables your organization to make a more security-driven decision when evaluating new SaaS applications. If you have questions, please reach out to us on <a href="https://www.riprapsecurity.com/">our website</a>.

Guest post: SaaS tools are easy to use, but how well do they protect your data?

Cybersecurity how-to: selecting software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools based on security & privacy

&#8220;The internet is a powerful and necessary tool. It is vital that the internet is affordable and accessible to all people.&#8221;



<a href="/about-nten#Beliefs">These words are the foundation of NTEN&#8217;s core beliefs</a>. 



We see the impact that internet access has on people every day through our programs and have been <a href="/learn/digital-inclusion-fellowship">supporting digital equity leaders around the U.S. for many years through our Digital Inclusion Fellowship</a> to increase both the number of people online and those working for systemic change. In addition, because of our commitment to digital equity and the work to build an equitable world, we have worked in coalition for years with other organizations that want to ensure all people have equal rights to the utilities necessary to support our lives. 



With more than 230 other coalition partners, we have called on Congress to recognize that access to utilities is a human right. And today is an important milestone:



Today, <a href="https://bush.house.gov/media/press-releases/representatives-bush-bowman-tlaib-introduce-resolution-recognizing-access-to-utilities-as-a-human-right">Representatives Cori Bush</a> (MO-01), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), and Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (NY-16) introduced the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/1364">Resolution Recognizing the Human Rights to Utilities</a>, which would recognize access to water, sanitation, electricity, heating, cooling, public transit, and broadband communications as basic human rights and public services that must be accessible, safe, acceptable, sufficient, affordable, justly sourced and sustainable, climate resilient, and reliable for every person.



Now we ask you to join us! 



<ul>
<li><a href="/change/help-us-make-broadband-a-human-right">Add your organization to the growing list of endorsers for this critical resolution</a>.</li>



<li><a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/support-the-human-right-to-utility-services-resolution/">Send a message to your representatives urging them to cosponsor the resolution today</a>.</li>
</ul>

Illustrated buildings with WiFi symbols sit on a blue background. The text reads, "Broadband is a human right. Support the Resolution Recognizing the Human Rights to Utilities."

Broadband is a human right

The last couple of years have been transformational for the digital inclusion space. As jobs, schools, government services, social gatherings, and everyday tasks moved online, a recognition emerged that digital access and skills are critical in our society. In addition, there is increasing momentum to acknowledge affordable, reliable broadband as a human right.



We saw more organizations and individuals becoming digital equity champions, affirming that we need government support in the sector. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099400660/on-federal-and-state-levels-plans-are-underway-to-enhance-internet-access">Some major victories were also won on both the local and federal levels</a> in getting government recognition and support around digital access. Many organizations learned or reaffirmed that digital inclusion needs to be a part of our missions, no matter our day-to-day work.&nbsp;



Our seventh cohort of fellows led and contributed to digital inclusion efforts in myriad ways. They spoke on panels, organized events, and made immense progress in taking many of their organization&#8217;s programs and adapting them to an online context. For some, this also meant convincing their organizations and partners that digital inclusion hadn’t traditionally been part of their work, but it was time to hop on that wagon. They accomplished some incredible feats, including supporting food bank clients in gaining digital skills and ensuring that formerly incarcerated individuals have the skills they need to survive in a digital world. I look forward to sharing more of <a href="/publications?filter=Digital%20Inclusion">their successes in the spotlights</a>, which we’ll publish this fall.



As we welcome our eighth cohort, I’m eager for them to follow in the footsteps of the incredible leaders we’ve supported over the last year.&nbsp;<a href="/learn/digital-inclusion-fellowship#Meet%20the%20fellows">Our eighth cohort includes 17 fellows from around the country</a>: California, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Utah. They hail from various institutions, including a housing agency, city government, multiple libraries, workforce development, and several digital inclusion organizations. Their backgrounds and experiences are equally diverse, from a Nigerian immigrant to several first-generation Americans, a student currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration, and a fellow returning for a second year in the program. What unites this diverse group of individuals is a commitment to providing access and skills training so communities can be empowered to navigate the digital world.



Over the next year, these fellows will be learning and challenging themselves to become digital inclusion experts who will transform their communities. I&#8217;ll support these emerging leaders in building robust digital literacy programming such as:



<ul>
<li>Teaching seniors how to use hot spots.</li>



<li>Helping parents communicate with their children’s teachers.</li>



<li>Guide immigrants and refugees in navigating local services.</li>
</ul>



As we continue to learn to live with COVID and folks talk about &#8220;returning to normal,&#8221; I want to ensure that we retain all of the lessons we’ve learned about the importance of digital inclusion and continue to pursue digital equity for all. I&#8217;m confident that our 2022 cohort of Digital Inclusion Fellows and their passion for creating a more equitable and digitally empowered world will lead us in this direction.



The fellowship is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors: <a href="https://fiber.google.com/">Google Fiber</a>, the <a href="https://www.clevelandfoundation.org/">Cleveland Foundation</a>, <a href="https://digitunity.org/">Digitunity</a>, <a href="https://www.centii.org/">CENTII</a>, and the <a href="http://www.alliantcreditunionfoundation.org/">Alliant Credit Union Foundation</a>. A special thank you goes out to our founding sponsor, Google Fiber. The Digital Inclusion Fellowship was conceived and launched in partnership with Google Fiber in 2015.

Four illustrated colorful jigsaw pieces are interlocked on a dark blue background. The text reads, "NTEN Digital Inclusion Fellowship. Bring digital equity to your community."

Welcome to the 2022 Digital Inclusion Fellows

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-a-web-content-manager">What is a web content manager?</h2>



Are you a good writer and editor? Do you enjoy working with graphics and video? Are you interested in or have proficiency in using digital and web technology? For people interested in career paths that combine these skills, a position as a web content manager is a good one to explore.&nbsp;



Web content managers oversee <a href="/article/the-key-elements-of-a-content-governance-model/">the planning, organization, creation, and publishing of content</a> for an organization or company website and, sometimes, social media and email. They work with leadership (usually a marketing or communications director) to develop and publish content for their target audiences.&nbsp;Web content managers are typically located in an organization&#8217;s web team or communications department.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-does-a-web-content-manager-do">What does a web content manager do?</h3>



Web content manager responsibilities can include:



<ul><li>Developing a content strategy</li><li>Writing blog posts</li><li>Updating web content</li><li>Building an editorial calendar</li><li>Content promotion</li><li>Identifying new content opportunities</li><li><a href="/article/how-to-systemize-improvement-for-your-nonprofit-website/">Monitoring and reporting on website traffic</a></li><li>Holding staff accountable for meeting content deadlines</li></ul>



They may also oversee:



<ul><li>Website maintenance</li><li>Technical troubleshooting and fixing issues</li><li>Digital marketing</li><li>Search engine optimization (SEO)</li><li>Social media management</li><li>Email marketing and production</li></ul>



It is important to note that — despite the role being identified with the web — web content managers are not web designers or developers. Designers create a website&#8217;s look and feel. Developers build and configure its structure and functionality. Web content managers create, upload, and organize the content (text, images, multimedia, documents) that populate a website.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-skills-and-experience">Skills and experience</h4>



Web content management for most organizations is not an entry-level role. Instead, this position is typically filled by a college graduate with one or two years of experience in marketing, communications, project management, and website management.



In addition to writing and editing, skills required include:



<ul><li>HTML and CSS</li><li>Graphic software</li><li>Content management systems</li><li>Accessibility and compliance</li><li>Project management</li></ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-html-and-css">HTML and CSS</h4>



Skills in HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are a basic requirement. Despite software now being common that can make writing and editing code easier, proficiency in hand-coded HTML and CSS will enhance your ability to perform on the job. Mastery of these fundamentals will help you recognize badly written code or fix incorrect code that software often generates. <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/html5-and-css-fundamentals">Gaining proficiency in HTML and CSS</a> as the first step towards a career in web content management is highly recommended.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-graphic-software">Graphic software</h4>



Web content requires working day-to-day with images, logos, charts and graphs, infographics, and other visual media. This work requires skills to resize files, convert from one file type to another, edit and crop images, and sometimes, create your own visuals and graphics. To do this, proficiency in graphics software such as <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html">Adobe Photoshop</a> and <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html">Adobe Illustrator</a> is a must.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-content-management-systems">Content management systems</h4>



Unlike the early days of the web, most organizations with websites now use a CMS or a content management system. Common CMS platforms include <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> and <a href="https://www.drupal.org/">Drupal</a>. A CMS allows site administrators to create and edit web pages from a central, online location. It also locks down and separates a website&#8217;s design from content. This means a web content manager can edit and create content without affecting the site&#8217;s functionality, design, and navigation. Being the in-house expert on an organization&#8217;s CMS is a requirement for web content manager jobs.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-accessibility-and-compliance">Accessibility and compliance</h4>



Accessibility means making your website and web content accessible to people with disabilities. Because of laws like the <a href="https://beta.ada.gov/">Americans with Disabilities Act</a>, employers — particularly government and organizations who do business with government — increasingly require <a href="https://beta.ada.gov/web-guidance/">accessibility</a> skills for web content managers. This means learning to recognize when web pages, images, web forms, or uploaded documents are not accessible and being able to fix the problem (by yourself or hiring an accessibility specialist).



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-project-management">Project management</h4>



Web content managers start their careers coordinating the work of colleagues to produce and submit online content. Later, web content managers may also contribute to technical and design scoping for website builds and redesigns, write RFPs (requests for proposals), and manage the work of web development and design vendors hired to execute web projects. These tasks can give web content managers experience in higher-level skills to advance one&#8217;s career: technical scoping and writing, formulating and managing budgets, working with stakeholders, coordinating communications up and down an organization, and vendor management.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-salary-and-career-outlook">Salary and career outlook</h3>



Web content manager salaries vary depending on years of experience, education, location, and size of the company and industry.&nbsp; In the U.S., <a href="https://climbtheladder.com/web-content-manager-salary/">web content managers can make around $60,000 to $87,000 on average</a>. The median annual salary for this position is <a href="https://climbtheladder.com/web-content-manager/">$70,500 ($33.89 per hour), with the top 10% earning $122,000 ($56.85 per hour)</a>. The job outlook for web professionals is bright, with employment expected to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm">grow faster than average in the next ten years</a>, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A bearded man works on a laptop while sitting at a wooden conference room table.

Web content manager career profile

We knew that the internet was a critical tool for everyone long before the global COVID–19 pandemic. But the last two years have proven over and over again how necessary internet access, accessible devices, and digital skills are for our organizations so we can work remotely, deliver programs in changing environments, and communicate with staff and constituents, as well as for individuals and families to access school, communicate with doctors, access services, and stay connected to friends and relatives. One of NTEN&#8217;s core beliefs is that the internet is a powerful and necessary tool and it is vital that it is affordable and accessible to all people.



In 2020, NTEN joined with a coalition of other organizations to&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.eff.org/document/organizations-ask-incoming-biden-fcc-ban-digital-redlining" rel="noreferrer noopener">sign a joint letter</a>&nbsp;calling for a ban on digital redlining. Internet Service Providers &#8220;have decided to invest fiber optic infrastructure in wealthy neighborhoods in large densely populated cities while skipping low-income neighborhoods in those same cities. The result of this digital redlining is the formation of a 1st class and 2nd class broadband infrastructure where wealthy communities easily access 21st century opportunities with low-cost, fast Internet while everyone else is left behind.&#8221;



Since then, Congress enacted a digital discrimination rulemaking proceeding for the FCC to implement and in February 2022, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the formation of the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/task-force-prevent-digital-discrimination">Task Force to Prevent Digital Discrimination</a>, a &#8220;cross-agency task force that will focus on creating rules and policies to combat digital discrimination and to promote equal access to broadband across the country, regardless of zip code, income level, ethnicity, race, religion, or national origin.&#8221; The FCC approved&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-initiates-inquiry-preventing-digital-discrimination">Notice of Inquiry</a>, the first step in the full process which&nbsp;must be completed by November 2023 as directed by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.



<a href="/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FCC-Digital-Discrimination-Comments_May-2022.pdf">NTEN joined EFF, the Center for Accessible Technology, and 36 other organizations committed to an equitable and accessible internet to file joint comments</a>.&nbsp;Here is a summary of the filed statement:



<ul>
<li>The filing asserts that the Commission should begin defining “digital discrimination” as the&nbsp;discriminatory infrastructure deployment choices made based on socio-economic status. Highlights how the deployment of fiber optic infrastructure plays a key role in the ongoing discrimination where high-income users are receiving 21st century ready multi-gigabit access and low-income users are left with legacy infrastructure built in decades past.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>A history of redlining and its implications on this proceeding is provided in order to educate the Commission as to the nature of how many low-income neighborhoods stem from past discrimination that government action has historically been relied on to remedy. Adding broadband to our non-discrimination policies should build on those efforts.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Allowing for the continuation of discriminatory deployment of broadband infrastructure will perpetuate the past harms of historical discrimination.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Addressing discrimination in infrastructure deployment will be beneficial to the US economy and yield significant economic benefits towards low-income users.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Low-income communities, particularly in urban markets, are in fact profitable to serve with the appropriate expectations of return on investment.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Continuous growth in broadband demand must be included in the FCC’s analysis to avoid a ‘Separate But Equal’ outcome in infrastructure access.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Cable companies (i.e. Comcast) and telephone companies (i.e. AT&amp;T) engage in discrimination in different ways that the FCC must take into account in its analysis. Furthermore, the FCC should continue the presumption it utilizes in its competition analysis that wireless and wireline are not interchangeable as substitutes.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>The FCC should produce its own study to add to the existing literature already created by the NDIA/CWA, USC, and Greenlining Institute studies.</li>
</ul>



We will continue advocating for and standing together with others to fight for an internet that is affordable, accessible, and safe for all.

White text on a dark blue background. The text reads, "NTEN. Connect. Learn. Change."

The FCC must end digital redlining

Nonprofit organizations and the communities they work in and with are often not included in policymaking, budgeting, or decision-making by the government. Yet, organizations providing critical services, delivering valued programs, and connecting people to resources are incredibly important to so many communities. And, the people who work in these organizations should be resourced and supported for success. 



NTEN believes that when we work together we have everything we need to change the world. Working together requires that we create mechanisms for accountability and visibility so that everyone has a chance to contribute — that we make the table big enough for everyone, not only that some folks have a seat. This is why NTEN has endorsed the Nonprofit Sector Strength and Partnership Act of 2022. &#8220;Over the past two years, nonprofits have served on the front lines as America faces generational health, economic, and social crises. Nonprofits have adapted to disrupted operations and lost revenue while facing increased need in the community. While these challenges may be a poignant reminder of our sector’s importance, nonprofits have been delivering concrete outcomes for Americans for centuries. Whether they offer housing, nutrition, health, education, disaster relief, artistic inspiration, spiritual well-being, conservation or any number of other essential services, nonprofits are woven into and reflect the communities they serve. They work every day to improve lives and build a brighter future. Although they exist to advance a charitable mission, nonprofits have tremendous economic impact as the nation’s third-largest employer and generate nearly 6% of GDP.



The Nonprofit Sector Strength and Partnership Act creates mechanisms that leverage the mission, knowledge, and impact of nonprofits to help government and the sector work together more effectively in pursuit of shared goals.&#8221;



Learn more about the <a href="https://independentsector.org/resource/the-nonprofit-sector-strength-and-partnership-act-of-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nonprofit Sector Strength and Partnership Act </a>and how you can support it with Independent Sector.

It’s time to prioritize the needs of the sector

The Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience aims to build a digitally-enabled nonprofit sector, where Canada’s nonprofits use data and tech to advance their mission and multiply their impact.



Leading Canadian and global organizations have joined forces to launch the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience today.&nbsp;



For the first time, leading nonprofits are taking deliberate, collective action to build the digital capacity of the sector. The founders include some of the best-known names in the nonprofit sector, including Imagine Canada, Tamarack Institute and SETSI. It is receiving crucial assistance from global nonprofit technology leader, NTEN. And the CIO Strategy Council is bringing its support to bear to solve this critical challenge.&nbsp;



“Nonprofit organizations touch the lives of all Canadians – providing vital services to individuals, families, and communities,” says Katie Gibson, Vice President at CIO Strategy Council.&nbsp; “But most nonprofits aren’t equipped to thrive in the digital age. They’re forced to rely on outdated technology, and they lack resources and expertise. We’re asking them to save lives with one arm tied behind their back. We need to fix this.”



The Centre will focus on nonprofits most in need of resources to increase their digital resilience.&nbsp;



“Access to technology and digital skills is an equity issue. Well-funded nonprofits can invest in technology and reap the benefits. But Black-led and Black-serving organizations have been historically and systemically under-resourced,” says Victor Beausoleil, Executive Director of SETSI.&nbsp;



“There are also equity divides within organizations &#8211; executive and leadership staff are more likely to be white and program staff are more likely to be those in historically and systemically oppressed communities. How we train staff in technology needs to address this by including staff in all roles, of all backgrounds, and in all departments,” adds Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN.



Digitally-enabled organizations use technology skillfully to operate more efficiently and provide higher-quality, beneficiary-focused services.



“We have a window of opportunity coming out of the pandemic to create a truly digitally-enabled nonprofit sector,” says Cathy Barr, Vice President at Imagine Canada. “Overnight, charities across Canada had to pivot to provide services online and enable work-from-home. This was a bumpy transition for many. But now many of our members see the potential for technology to improve reach and accessibility, enable higher-quality, client-centred services, and drive deeper engagement with all their stakeholders. The Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience will help them make the most of this opportunity.”



The Centre will convene nonprofits, grantmakers, and tech experts to drive progress on: research and knowledge mobilization; public policy; grantmaker practices; digital skills and literacy; shared platforms tools, and standards; vendor relationships; data standards and infrastructure; and access and connectivity.&nbsp;



“For the past 20 years, the Tamarack Institute has honed our approach including collective action to catalyse transformational change,” says Liz Weaver, Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute. “Digital resilience is a huge challenge requiring all hands on deck. We see the challenges that community-based collaboratives face when trying to develop shared data and measurement approaches which are vital to achieving impact.&nbsp; Improving digital literacy, access to technology, and resilience will make the work of community change more impactful. &nbsp; Together, we’re going to make this happen.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



“For more than 15 years, NTEN&#8217;s research about technology adoption and use in the nonprofit sector in the U.S., Canada, and beyond has consistently found that the most important need for nonprofit staff is training to put whatever technology they have to work for their mission,” says Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN. “We know that technology tools will change &#8211; every day and over time &#8211; but without the knowledge, skills, and practice in technology-related decision making, budgeting, planning, and evaluation, nonprofit staff in any department and in any organization aren&#8217;t supported in digital success. NTEN’s training programs combine our mission’s focus on equitable and strategic technology use with values of community and self-determination. We don’t want everyone to do everything the same; we want everyone to be able to do what is right for their community and organization. While Canadian nonprofit staff have been part of the NTEN community for 22 years, we are excited to extend our program models intentionally to reach more people with the kinds of training and support that can fuel their success.”



At launch, the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience has over 85 advisors representing the diversity of Canada’s nonprofit sector, from Whitehorse to St. John’s. &nbsp;



“The non-profit sector is critical to supporting communities. Ensuring affordable access to digital solutions are critical to advancing data and technology equity to enable positive impacts for our society,” says Lawrence Eta, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Toronto and advisor to the Centre. “As a government leader, the launch of the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience aligns to public service principles of advancing equity and inclusion, creating a strong technology ecosystem, and digital autonomy.”



Seed funders supporting the launch of the Centre include Okta for Good and Sonor Foundation.



“Through investing in unseen technology infrastructure, we can unleash talent and multiply impact across the social sector,” says Narinder Dhami, President of The Sonor Foundation. “The Sonor Foundation is honoured to support this work. We strongly align with the vision and ambition of this initiative and are excited to support&nbsp;the bold leadership driving this work forward. The philanthropic and public sector plays a critical role in enabling the digital transformation of the social sector. This isn’t feel-good, photo-op grantmaking. This is about investing in more effective solutions and structures to drive deeper impact across Canada.”&nbsp;



“At Okta, we believe that nonprofits — who are doing society’s most important work — should be as powerful as their missions,” says Erin Baudo Felter, VP, Social Impact &amp; Sustainability at Okta, Inc. “As technology companies, it&#8217;s critical that we play a role in helping nonprofits make the digital transition.&nbsp; We’re proud to support the work of the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience. This initiative has the vision, ambition, and cross-sector support needed to accelerate the digital transformation of Canada’s social sector.”



For full details, visit <a href="https://ccndr.ca">Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience</a>.

Leading organizations invest in building the digital capacity of Canada’s nonprofit sector

2021 was an eventful year at NTEN as we continued to promote, work towards, and model equitable practices internally and externally. To ensure that NTEN continues to grow in our equitable operations, part of our process is to annually review efforts made to the <a href="https://sandbox.nten.org/about-nten#Equity">practices outlined in our equity commitment</a> and identify where we can push forward or expand on those efforts in the coming year. This evaluation process involves all three equity committees, including board, community, and staff. 



Our evaluation and review of 2021 have helped us identify some key successes while providing us with some priorities for 2022. This post is part of our continued efforts to share updates about internal and external efforts and outcomes to more directly invite accountability and collaboration in this work.&nbsp;



While our complete evaluation is quite long, we&#8217;ve summarized reflections and commitments for 2022 from every area of our commitments in practice.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-staff-board-and-volunteers">Staff, board, and volunteers</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2021-review-highlights">2021 review highlights</h3>



<ul><li>We hired two new staff in 2021 and engaged the new staff and their managers in reflection about the onboarding and hiring process.</li><li>More closely collaborated with and supported other board committees to improve the annual board self assessment survey; and support the board recruitment process.</li><li>This year, implementing the new concurrent and holistic committee application process resulted in a more accessible and streamlined experience with more community members on NTEN committees than ever before.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-focus">2022 focus</h3>



<ul><li>Strengthening continuity plans; updating and expanding hiring and onboarding documentation.</li><li>Board moving to a co-chair structure; adding the equity committee chair to the executive committee.</li><li>Creating more internal documentation and materials to ensure effective and efficient replication for the next call for committee applications and consistency across staff committee leads.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-members">Members</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2021-review-highlights-1">2021 review highlights</h3>



<ul><li>We reviewed the sliding scale for membership. The median price remains $99, which is an excellent sign of the strength and value of the membership. However, we also see a substantial number of people diverging from the median price – some paying less as they need and others contributing at 2x+ the rate to support members who cannot pay the suggested price.</li><li>The membership committee was restarted in 2021 to discuss topics ranging from our website redesign to NTC member options to ways to activate the community around our beliefs and advocacy campaigns.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-focus-1">2022 focus</h3>



<ul><li>As part of organization-wide efforts to create new evaluation criteria against our theory of change, we are expanding how membership and community metrics are measured and what goals are placed for them, prioritizing engagement and access over revenue or total numbers.</li><li>We are working on expanding the way NTEN&#8217;s advocacy efforts are connected directly to the value and identity of being part of NTEN, in addition to serving as an engagement mechanism for folks regardless of membership status or tenure in the community or sector.</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-speakers">Speakers</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2021-review-highlights-2">2021 review highlights</h3>



<ul><li>To continue elevating community member voices as faculty, the program team updated expectations for faculty this year by introducing a maximum number of years for faculty leading a specific course.</li><li>Tristan (NTEN&#8217;s senior manager of equity and accountability) partnered with the program team to add to the perspectives across the team that support the NTC session selection process with community and session advisory participation.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-focus-2">2022 focus</h3>



<ul><li>We will work with course faculty to support and ensure that all courses help participants make the direct connections between equitable outcomes or priorities and the course topic as we see more opportunities for supporting folks in using technology as an internal leverage point for advancing equitable policies or processes in their organizations.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sponsors-and-exhibitors">Sponsors and exhibitors&nbsp;</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2021-review-highlights-3">2021 review highlights</h3>



<ul><li>The Sponsorship Team has ensured that sponsors (for NTC and year-round) are not only aware of our commitment to equity and liberation but are reminded of how sponsoring NTEN and NTC is an endorsement of how important our work is regarding equity in nonprofits.</li><li>Changed sponsorship approach for the NTC so that there are no tiers or &#8220;levels&#8221; of sponsorship related to how much a sponsor gives us; instead, all sponsorships are a la carte based on what options and budget a sponsor has, without any public-facing labels to denote any ranking.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-focus-3">2022 focus</h3>



<ul><li>We will more directly monitor how a sponsor is actually &#8220;showing up&#8221; and working with NTEN, the community, and NTC attendees so that we can both support them in being contributors to the community and ensure the community continues to benefit from folks sharing knowledge and experience (without sales or spam).</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vendors-and-contractors">Vendors and contractors</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2021-review-highlights-4">2021 review highlights</h3>



<ul><li>We have successfully put out opportunities for RFPs or other options to work with us that have garnered a diverse pool of applicants.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Many of our most significant contracts are related to the NTC. We are limited by rules or requirements with a convention center.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-focus-4">2022 focus</h3>



<ul><li>We will ensure that vendor and contractor relationships are being closely monitored and reviewed not only before but during and after the relationship. This will be crucial specifically as 22NTC nears.&nbsp;</li></ul>



In addition to these above highlights, we have lined out a great deal more 2021 reviews and 2022 focus areas (eight pages worth!). We look forward to continuing to be self-reflective, critical, and forward-thinking in regards to our work and our journey towards liberation.

January 2022 equity update to the community

Please join NTEN in welcoming our new Lead Organizers, Dave Tinker (Pittsburgh, PA) and James Porter (Denver, CO) for Tech Clubs and Dar Veverka (Baltimore, MD), and Jonea Agwa (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) for online groups. This team of dynamic and enthusiastic community leaders kicked off their roles in November to support the network of about 50 volunteer organizers of the 20 Tech Clubs and 11 online groups.&nbsp;



We work together to connect with the Tech Club and online group organizers to hear what resources, tools, and support they need to be more successful in their roles. The Lead Organizers are planning an orientation next year for the many group organizers to connect virtually and also during the 22NTC Community Conversations.



Let’s get to know the new Lead Organizers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lead-organizers-for-tech-clubs">Lead organizers for Tech Clubs</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dave-tinker">Dave Tinker</h3>



<a href="https://word.nten.org/about-nten/pronouns/">Pronouns</a>: he / him



Tell us a little bit about yourself.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dave-Tinker.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dave-Tinker.png" alt="Dave Tinker headshot" class="wp-image-160801" width="225" height="225" srcset="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dave-Tinker.png 300w, https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dave-Tinker-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></figure></div>



I have been in fundraising for over thirty years now &#8211; more than half of that time at disability-related nonprofits and have been an adjunct in a graduate informatics program for over a decade. I am from and currently live in Pittsburgh, PA, and am an elected public school board director. During the pandemic, I picked up jogging 5 and 10k races as a hobby. I am starting to train to run a half-marathon next.



I was named to the inaugural class of Distinguished Fellows of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) in 2017, became a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) in 2001, and have traveled all over North America teaching fundraising and nonprofit management.



What do you look forward to the most in this role?&nbsp;



I am really looking forward to helping like-minded individuals.



What is something you do really well?&nbsp;



I’ve always been able to do research really well. It doesn’t matter the subject. This has helped me through my work as a fundraising professional.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-james-porter">James Porter</h3>



<a href="https://word.nten.org/about-nten/pronouns/">Pronouns</a>: he / him



Tell us a little bit about yourself.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/James-Porter.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/James-Porter.png" alt="James Porter headshot" class="wp-image-160804" width="225" height="225" srcset="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/James-Porter.png 300w, https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/James-Porter-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></figure></div>



After having grown up outside of New York City and living in the city for the last 10 years, my husband and I (and our dog Charlie) decided to move out to the Denver area earlier this year and have been loving it since. Hiking, leaf peeping, and just generally more space!&nbsp;



Career-wise, I’ve spent close to 14 years working in marketing and communications for nonprofits. From immigration to refugees, neglected tropical diseases, and now working to end child marriage with VOW for Girls, I’ve been involved in a variety of issue areas. I have a sweet spot for helping nonprofit startups grow their brands, tell their stories, and differentiate their voice.&nbsp;



What do you appreciate/like the most about NTEN and the NTEN Community?



I got involved with NTEN in 2013 through the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Minneapolis. After that experience (and now seven NTCs!), I knew that I had found my people. Fun-loving, willing to share knowledge and learnings, compassionate, open, and welcoming &#8211; the NTEN world had it all! It doesn’t matter if you are first starting out in your career or are a seasoned professional. NTEN has something for everyone. I was still early in my coming out journey in 2013 as a gay man. The NTEN community welcomed me with open arms and helped me grow in my confidence as a nonprofit leader and, in general, as a human. I later joined the New York City Nonprofit Tech Club, became an organizer for five years, and look forward to my next NTEN chapter.



What are your top three apps/ books/ movies? Why?



I’m a travel fanatic and can’t live without a few travel-related apps:



<ul><li>App in the air — collects data on all of your air travel (when it becomes more of a thing again) and gives you stats like countries visited, miles traveled, most frequently flown aircraft, and allows you to buy carbon offsets for your flights!</li><li>FlightRadar — Ever looked up at the sky and wondered where the planes you see are going? Enter FlightRadar! Open it up, allow GPS, and see all of the planes near you and where they are headed from/to.&nbsp;</li><li>PlugShare &#8211; My husband and I have electric vehicles and love them. PlugShare enables us to travel more easily by showing nearby charging stations along with reviews of them in case there are any issues.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lead-organizers-for-online-groups">Lead organizers for online groups</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dar-veverka">Dar Veverka</h3>



<a href="https://word.nten.org/about-nten/pronouns/">Pronouns</a>: she / her



Tell us a little bit about yourself.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dar-Veverka.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dar-Veverka.png" alt="Dar Veverka headshot" class="wp-image-160805" width="225" height="225" srcset="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dar-Veverka.png 300w, https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Dar-Veverka-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></figure></div>



I’ve been working in tech for 20 some odd years. I’ve done for-profit and nonprofit tech and spent a few years as a nonprofit IT Director. Currently, I’m a Solution Architect working with nonprofits on CRM implementations for Idealist Consulting. I’ve volunteered for NTEN for a few years and love the community around NTEN and the work the organization does. I’m a data governance nerd and generally enjoy solving nonprofit tech issues. Besides software implementations, I focus on broadening representation in tech and tech leadership, accessibility issues in tech, and just generally trying to give back to the nonprofit tech community. I love hiking and reading in my spare time — the count this year is 49 hikes, and a couple dozen books read.



What do you look forward to the most in this role?&nbsp;



I’m looking forward to helping energize and support NTEN’s online community group organizers and help increase involvement for folks in the various groups.



What do you appreciate/like the most about NTEN and the NTEN Community?&nbsp;



It’s hard to say what I appreciate the most about the NTEN community &#8211; probably the community itself. It’s always a welcoming, thoughtful and inclusive space. I’ve met such a wide variety of folks and lifelong friends in the NTEN forums and at the NTCs.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-jonea-agwa">Jonea Agwa</h3>



<a href="https://word.nten.org/about-nten/pronouns/">Pronouns</a>: she / her



Tell us a little bit about yourself.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Jonea-Agwa.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Jonea-Agwa.png" alt="Jonea Agwa headshot" class="wp-image-160806" width="225" height="225" srcset="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Jonea-Agwa.png 300w, https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Jonea-Agwa-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></figure></div>



I am interested in technology, particularly as it relates to digital equity, digital inclusion, and the ethical uses of technology. I believe technology has the ability to open doors of opportunity closed to people from marginalized communities. I also believe that technology isn’t the answer to everything and that indigenous traditional ways of knowing and doing need to be protected and preserved. When I am not working, I enjoy reading, learning, spending time with my dog Lulu, and hiking.



What is your most memorable experience with NTEN?



I have had so many memorable experiences with NTEN. I learned about the NTEN community through a LinkedIn post. What amazed and surprised me was that even though they didn’t know me, they treated me with kindness, respect, and love. Even though they didn’t know me, they created space for me to learn, grow, be seen, be heard, and be myself.&nbsp;



What do you hope to bring to this role?



Honesty and compassion.

"Meet the Community's Lead Organizers" set against a repeating background of the organizer's names: Dave Tinker, James Porter, Dar Veverka, and Jonea Agwa.

Meet the community’s new lead organizers

Although they grew more popular because of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual volunteer opportunities are likely here to stay. Why is that? Besides keeping people safe during the pandemic, virtual volunteering also allows nonprofits to:&nbsp;



<ul><li>Reach a more geographically far-flung audience.&nbsp;</li><li><a href="/article/5-ideas-for-developing-more-inclusive-volunteer-management/">Make volunteering more inclusive</a>, especially for those with physical disabilities or time restrictions.</li><li>Offer skills-based volunteer opportunities for participants to enhance certain skills, especially tech-related ones.</li></ul>



However, just because virtual volunteer opportunities offer inherent benefits doesn’t mean your nonprofit’s volunteers will automatically sign up for each opportunity you present. Your virtual volunteer experiences must be engaging to inspire your audience members to get involved.&nbsp;



Here are five tips for planning engaging virtual volunteer opportunities:&nbsp;



<ol><li>Make your virtual volunteer experience unique and hands-on.</li><li>Ask volunteers what they’d like to see.&nbsp;</li><li>Ensure your technology is up-to-date.&nbsp;</li><li>Offer a valuable training process.</li><li>Conduct volunteer appreciation efforts.&nbsp;</li></ol>



As <a href="https://www.initlive.com/blog/volunteer-engagement">InitLive’s volunteer engagement guide</a> states, every interaction your volunteers have with your organization matters. If your volunteers have a positive experience with your virtual opportunities, from the time they sign up to when the opportunity ends, they’ll be much more likely to stick around for the long term. Let’s dive in!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-make-your-virtual-volunteer-experience-unique-and-hands-on">1. Make your virtual volunteer experience unique and hands-on.</h2>



There are plenty of virtual volunteer opportunities that offer participants a unique experience that they can’t get anywhere else. Plus, you can still make your virtual opportunities hands-on by giving participants an active role in driving your mission forward.&nbsp;



You want to offer opportunities that will excite your volunteers and make them look forward to participating. Ensure you thoroughly explain what each role involves and create fun role descriptions to get volunteers interested and prepared! Remember to offer roles where your volunteers can learn new skills and engage with others, just like they can with in-person opportunities.&nbsp;



Let’s demonstrate with a few examples of virtual volunteer opportunities you can host:



<ul><li>A <a href="/article/the-virtual-food-drive-turning-a-website-visitor-into-a-donor/">virtual food drive</a> — Spread the word about your opportunity on several social media platforms and offer potential volunteers instructions on how to participate. Volunteers can help by acting as ambassadors and reaching out to their social media followers to encourage them to participate.</li></ul>



<ul><li><a href="/article/advocacy-and-politics-how-your-nonprofit-can-get-more-involved/">Virtual advocacy opportunities</a> — Teach volunteers to be strong advocates for your cause. For instance, you can host a virtual session on how to write effective letters to representatives. This will allow your volunteers to develop leadership skills and reputations as action-takers.</li></ul>



<ul><li>A <a href="https://www.qgiv.com/blog/virtual-peer-to-peer-ideas/">peer-to-peer fundraiser</a> — Encourage volunteers to create personalized fundraising pages and share them with family members and friends on their social media accounts. You can also create a social media group to share information about your fundraising campaign. LinkedIn and Facebook are great places to create group pages to share important information with fundraising participants. Use these pages to reach everyone all at once and keep participants engaged in the virtual fundraising effort.</li></ul>



<ul><li>A virtual advice line for community members — Train volunteers to answer questions and offer guidance on topics relevant to your nonprofit’s mission. For example, if your nonprofit specializes in teaching financial literacy, you can set up an advice line for community members to call in with their financial questions. This will allow your volunteers to take on a hands-on role and provide a valuable resource for community members seeking help.</li></ul>



These ideas will engage volunteers more effectively than generic ideas or ones that don’t require a lot of hands-on involvement.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-ask-volunteers-what-they-d-like-to-see">2. Ask volunteers what they’d like to see.&nbsp;</h2>



Volunteers play an important role in any nonprofit organization. They lend their skills and expertise to help you deliver vital programs and services. Keeping this in mind, it’s important to consider how you can offer an experience that appeals to volunteers’ interests and preferences.



To offer the best experience possible for your volunteers, it’s important to understand what they would like to get out of your virtual opportunity. Send out a survey to your volunteers ahead of time asking about what they’d like to see in your virtual volunteer opportunities. This is a great way to show your volunteers that their opinions matter.



Here are some questions you may consider asking:



<ul><li>How likely are you to participate in a virtual volunteer opportunity?</li><li>What would make you more likely to participate in virtual opportunities?</li><li>How much time do you have to devote to participating in virtual volunteer activities?</li><li>Do you prefer to work collaboratively or independently?</li></ul>



Asking these questions before creating your virtual opportunities allows you to plan accordingly, ensuring your volunteers’ experience is exactly what they imagined it to be. You can also take their feedback after their volunteer experience to see whether it was successful or not. This way, you know what to continue doing and what to change for next time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-ensure-your-technology-is-up-to-date">3. Ensure your technology is up-to-date.&nbsp;</h2>



Like your <a href="/article/how-to-plan-virtual-fundraising-events/">virtual fundraising events</a>, your online volunteer opportunities require powerful technology tools to succeed. Having up-to-date technology simplifies your workload and saves time, allowing you to focus on other important areas of your organization.



According to a Salesforce Nonprofit Trends Report, <a href="https://vomo.org/blog/is-technology-changing-the-way-we-volunteer/">85% of nonprofits</a> said technology is crucial for their organizations’ success. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofits are taking advantage of all kinds of virtual opportunities, opening new frontiers in digital volunteerism. Having access to volunteer management software will allow you to communicate with your volunteers, organize their information, and plan better virtual opportunities.



Ensure your organization has access to the following tools:



<ul><li>Event planning software — User-friendly event planning software will help you manage your event staff data and plan virtual experiences. You can also set up schedules and make changes easily through the web or a mobile app to communicate with all your staff and volunteers.</li></ul>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.onecause.com/blog/live-streaming-for-nonprofits/">Livestreaming software</a> — You can gain a real-time view across all events, improve visibility, and manage multiple events through a single end-to-end solution. This will help you provide a better virtual volunteer experience and ensure everything runs smoothly.</li></ul>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.initlive.com/blog/volunteer-management-software">Volunteer management software</a> — To manage a large group of passionate volunteers, up-to-date volunteer management software will help you efficiently recruit, interview, schedule, and engage volunteers and report on your volunteer activities. You can use this system to offer the best volunteer experience from sign-up to check-out and provide volunteers with all the tools they need to succeed.</li></ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-offer-a-valuable-training-process">4. Offer a valuable training process.</h2>



After your volunteers sign up, your training process helps them get into the swing of things and stay engaged in your virtual opportunities. Plus, when volunteers receive proper training, they’ll get much more fulfillment from participating in your opportunities because they’ll actually be able to make a difference.&nbsp;



Your volunteers will deliver the most impactful work when they are confident and passionate about what they have been assigned. Your training process sets the foundation for your volunteers’ success and empowers them to put their best foot forward. Organizations with organized volunteer training processes are more likely to experience greater volunteer engagement and satisfaction.



Your training process can be a live video chat with a group of new volunteers or a self-guided training module that volunteers can work through in their own time. Either way, ensure the training covers everything volunteers need to know to participate in your virtual experiences, including:



<ul><li>A detailed explanation of your organization’s history and mission.&nbsp;</li><li>How to log into your online systems or live stream.</li><li>Any specific skills they’ll need, such as how to make an advocacy phone call or log data in an online database.&nbsp;</li><li>How to check into and out of your virtual opportunities and how to track their volunteer hours.</li></ul>



Remember to monitor the training process. Reach out to your volunteers from time to time and encourage them to come to you if they have questions or concerns along the way.&nbsp;



Also, it’s important to keep in mind that every volunteer will have their preferred way of learning. Some may prefer group learning, while others may prefer individual, self-guided training. Ensure you tailor the learning experience to appeal to different learning styles.



Consider offering your volunteers a variety of learning opportunities with different platforms to create a fun and engaging way to prepare volunteers for the next steps!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-conduct-volunteer-appreciation-efforts">5. Conduct volunteer appreciation efforts.&nbsp;</h2>



Volunteer appreciation is one of the most important components of boosting volunteer satisfaction. Your volunteer appreciation efforts help engage volunteers for the long term, not just for a single volunteer opportunity. Recognizing your volunteers for their hard work helps them build self-esteem and confidence.&nbsp;



When your volunteers feel appreciated and important, they are more likely to feel connected to your cause, resulting in a greater sense of personal fulfillment. Remember to maintain recognition throughout the virtual volunteer journey because ongoing volunteer recognition is crucial to keep volunteers motivated.



Here are a few effective ways to <a href="https://www.initlive.com/blog/volunteer-appreciation-ideas/">express gratitude to virtual volunteers</a>:&nbsp;



<ul><li>Send them a free volunteer t-shirt — Offering free merchandise is always an enticing thank-you gift, especially if your t-shirts are well-made and comfortable. Remember to add your organization&#8217;s logo to the shirts to promote your brand and make your volunteers feel proud to be a part of your organization.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<ul><li>Offer them a gift card to a local restaurant — Who doesn’t love free food? You can ask your volunteers their favorite food or restaurant and offer a gift card. This is a great way to make your volunteers feel recognized for their hard work.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Letters from the community — Nothing feels better than words of gratitude coming from the people they served in their community! Invite community members to write letters to the volunteers who made a difference in their lives. Your volunteers will feel special and see that their hard work truly makes a positive impact.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Post shoutouts on your social media pages — Social media is the best place to highlight and spotlight your volunteers’ accomplishments in a public forum. Consider posting a picture of your team or specific individuals who went above and beyond to highlight their accomplishments. You can also write about your volunteers on your website and share it on social media for everyone to read.</li></ul>



These appreciation efforts will make your volunteers more inclined to participate in future opportunities. Your volunteers donate many hours to support your cause. In return, it’s essential to show them that you notice all their achievements.



. . .



Now that you’ve learned about several tips on how to plan engaging virtual volunteering opportunities, it’s time to start planning accordingly! Offering an engaging, exciting experience for virtual volunteers makes all the difference in running effective virtual volunteer opportunities.



Remember to let your volunteers know that you’re open to feedback and their opinions on your program to help you understand what works best for them. Maintain consistent communication and continue to show your appreciation. Good luck!

An open laptop showing a video call with four people.

5 Tips to Plan Engaging Virtual Volunteer Opportunities

You were born in New York, grew up in Phoenix, and have lived in Hawaii, Ecuador, Boston. What brought you to Miami?



The common thread here, aside from a 14-year stint in Boston, is warm weather. That would be the easy and probably obvious response. However, what brought me to Miami (the weather, being closer to friends and family, the ocean) is different from what has kept me here. I&#8217;ve been most surprised and completely delighted by Miami&#8217;s creative scene.



You spin, swim, scuba, and do yoga. These are all pretty much individual activities. Would you consider yourself a team player or a solo artist?



Ha, now that you mention it. Perhaps I&#8217;ve found my own way because I was never great at sports and usually the last one picked for any team. That said, you can&#8217;t dive without a buddy (mine are my dad and my brother), so there&#8217;s that. And as far as yoga, swimming, and spin, yeah, all pretty solo. My design work, on the other hand, is pretty much always a team.&nbsp;



You have a master&#8217;s in public health, not design. That&#8217;s curious. What inspired you to become a designer?



If you had asked 13-year old Michelle what she wanted to be, she would have said an artist, hands down. That was before one of my art teachers in middle school told me how &#8220;hard&#8221; it was to be an artist. That news hit me really hard and at an age where I wasn&#8217;t particularly confident in myself. Actually, I didn&#8217;t take another art class until after grad school. But I could never escape it. I found a way to design everything from agendas to flyers at different jobs early in my career. When I realized I could combine design with public health (designing campaigns, materials, etc.), it was as if I had won the lottery! The intersection of social justice and my strong belief that health is a fundamental human right, combined with good design, is the only place I really want to be.



Before joining NTEN, you designed 21NTC, our first virtual conference. Speaking of virtual, what was has been your favorite/most memorable virtual activity/event?



That&#8217;s hard to narrow down. Since the pandemic, I&#8217;ve had so many great virtual experiences. Some highlights are a kombucha class, a private virtual tour of Amsterdam, falafel making with an Israeli couple living in Spain, sangria class with drag queens in Lisbon, a day-long mindful retreat, James Baldwin book club, drawing classes, weekly happy hours, and a virtual Seder. However, I think the most memorable was the week I attended a wedding for my neighbor and his husband in New York on a Tuesday, a virtual celebration of life for my friend&#8217;s father on Wednesday, and a live-streamed funeral for another friend&#8217;s brother on Thursday. I never felt so close or so far.



What are you reading?



I&#8217;m currently reading&nbsp;<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/extra-bold-a-feminist-inclusive-anti-racist-nonbinary-field-guide-for-graphic-designers/9781616899189">Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers&nbsp;by Ellen Lupton</a> (Thinking with Type), Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh A. Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, and Valentina Vergara. Described as &#8220;part textbook and part comic book, zine, manifesto, survival guide, and self-help manual,&nbsp;Extra Bold&nbsp;is filled with stories and ideas that don&#8217;t show up in other career books or design overviews.&#8221; We are all creative and would recommend it even if you don&#8217;t consider yourself a designer.

Three people in the ocean wearing scuba gear, smiling at the camera.

Meet Michelle Samplin-Salgado, NTEN’s Graphic Designer

The NTEN team continues to grow! We&#8217;re excited to welcome Samara Islam as our new Program Coordinator.&nbsp;<a href="/about-nten/staff/samara-islam/">Samara brings a passion for community and problem-solving</a>. I asked her five questions to help us get to know our latest teammate.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full"><a href="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/samara_profile-e1628170246512.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="300" height="299" src="https://word.nten.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/samara_profile-e1628170246512.jpg" alt="Samara Islam" class="wp-image-158407"/></a></figure></div>



What was your first job?



My first official job was in high school. I ran the audio board with an A/V team that recorded football games for local public access TV. If we want to get technical, my first job was actually in elementary school. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty sizable VHS collection growing up and rented them out to my friends and family.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;



You&#8217;re a musician. What are some of your favorite bands?



We could be here a while — I love a lot of bands, and my favorites are constantly changing! These days I&#8217;ve been listening to a lot of Weezer, Against Me!, and Meg Myers. I&#8217;ve seen Everclear live more than any other band and have always had a soft spot for 90s-era Aerosmith. I also really love Green Day, The Darkness, Muse, and Bad Religion. Oh, also Motion City Soundtrack, Bruce Springsteen, and David Bowie. I could spend an eternity talking about music I like, so let&#8217;s go ahead and cut it off here for now.



What are some of your favorite local adventures?



I&#8217;m not much of an outdoor person, but I do love taking my daughter to the Oregon Zoo! I also enjoy walking around Downtown Vancouver and Portland with my wife.&nbsp;



What was a favorite childhood meal?



Pizza! I have loved pizza for as long as I&#8217;ve had a conscious memory. I grew up in the 1990s, so Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles probably influenced this a lot.&nbsp;



What is one new place you&#8217;d love to travel to?&nbsp;



I am fascinated by early human civilizations and would love to check out the Pyramids of Giza. I also really want to go to India to see the Taj Mahal. We&#8217;re going to have to call this one a tie.

Samara Islam wears a black baseball cap and a purple long sleeve shirt, holds a white guitar and sings into a microphone.

Meet Samara Islam, NTEN’s Program Manager

You may have heard the words tossed around, and you&#8217;ve nodded along — but in reality, maybe you aren&#8217;t quite sure what a headless Content Management System is. We assure you — it&#8217;s nothing to lose your head over! Let&#8217;s pull back the curtain to clarify some things about headless, decoupled, and hybrid Content Management Systems (CMS).&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-a-headless-cms">What is a Headless CMS?&nbsp;</h3>



First, let&#8217;s get back to the basics — the traditional CMS. You&#8217;re probably familiar with systems like Drupal, WordPress, Sitecore, and Kentico. These systems (and others) are traditional in that they allow developers to author and edit content to create a web page. They also include a built-in templating and storage system. In short, a traditional CMS allows for storing content, creating templates, and building a web page.



Headless Content Management Systems start the same. <a href="/the-key-elements-of-a-content-governance-model/">You can author, edit, and store content and data within the system</a>, but the departure from a traditional CMS is in the templating. Instead of using the CMS templating system to create the page, all of that is offloaded onto a separate framework outside the CMS. This is accomplished through an Application Programming Interface (API), which allows content within the system to be accessible as data. That&#8217;s a simplified version of the API concept, but all you really need to know is that rendering your web page is external to the CMS.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-go-headless-at-all">Why Go Headless At All?</h2>



Why bother offloading rendering to a different system if traditional Content Management Systems already have the functionality to render the content? Well, there are a few reasons.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-latest-front-end-technologies">The Latest Front-End Technologies</h3>



The line between websites and web applications is blurring due to an increase in frameworks built with application-level interactivity in mind. These frameworks are becoming the norm because they ease the development and handling of complex&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.mightycitizen.com/our-work/texas-global?utm_source=NTEN&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=headless_article" rel="noreferrer noopener">real-time interactions, animations, and visualizations</a>.&nbsp;



These frameworks rely on APIs for grabbing data. Because of this separation between content (CMS) and presentation (frameworks), each system can focus on what they are exceptionally good at. The CMS is excellent at content authoring and storing data, and the front-end frameworks have the power of displaying this data in whatever way your designers&#8217; hearts desire. The open-ended nature of the presentation layer is what gives this concept so much strength and flexibility.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-multiple-platforms-one-website">Multiple platforms, one website</h3>



Nowadays, companies have a Constituent Relationship Management software (CRM), an Association Management System (AMS), and all sorts of other platforms that house all of their different types of data. These data can be&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.mightycitizen.com/insights/articles/integrating-your-associations-website-and-association-management-system?utm_source=NTEN&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=headless_article" rel="noreferrer noopener">brought together</a>&nbsp;through APIs that integrate with a headless CMS and framework that grabs the data from the CMS. This allows all of your data to interact seamlessly, creating a better user experience for your visitors.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-one-cms-multiple-platforms">One CMS, Multiple Platforms</h3>



With a headless CMS, you&#8217;re now outputting data as an API. That comes with the ability to use the same data for other platforms that rely on it. For example, a website, a separate mobile application, and a smartwatch could all use the same data that you&#8217;ve already outputted. The options are endless!



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-term-scalability">Long-term scalability</h3>



What&#8217;s excellent about separating data and presentation is that if the CMS needed to be swapped out or upgraded for any particular reason, the look and feel of your web page could remain untouched as long as the new system&#8217;s API can output the same data as the previous CMS. That functionality can save a lot of time, money, and effort when the design of your existing site is working, but the CMS is outdated.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-performance-and-security-benefits">Performance and security benefits</h3>



It takes a lot more for a traditional Content Management System to render and display a page because it has to pull and parse from the database (your stored content) every time. By default, a headless CMS ecosystem has performance optimizations built-in because the data exists in an API.



Similarly, headless CMS ecosystems have security advantages. With rendering existing outside of the CMS, there is less data that could be vulnerable to exploitation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sound-too-good-to-be-true">Sound Too Good To Be True?</h2>



Of course, it can&#8217;t be all rainbows and butterflies — there are some caveats when transitioning from traditional to headless. Traditional Content Management Systems have many out-of-the-box features (e.g., preview or authentication for front-end users, e-commerce functionality, etc.). When you are no longer using the CMS templating, you can no longer use any of those features out of the box. Either that functionality would need to be recreated using an API version of the implementation, or you may consider using a hybrid approach.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hybrid-implementation">Hybrid Implementation</h3>



With a hybrid approach, you can output your data using an API and use that functionality (for all the benefits mentioned above) while using the traditional CMS templating for the parts of your website that would require significant overhead and resources to output as data. That flexibility allows you to pick and choose which approach works better for each piece of functionality. For example, you may opt to use the headless approach for visualizations and interactions, as opposed to a traditional CMS template for complex authentication or member functionality.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-decoupled-cms-vs-headless-cms-what-s-the-difference">Decoupled CMS vs. Headless CMS: What&#8217;s the Difference?&nbsp;</h3>



Perhaps you haven&#8217;t heard of headless CMS but have heard of decoupled CMS. Casually, you can use the terms decoupled and headless interchangeably. The distinction is that &#8220;decoupled&#8221; is the broad term for any CMS that separates its content authoring and data from its rendering. At the same time, some folks define a purely headless CMS as not having any templating system at all. In those terms, Drupal is not a headless CMS because it has a templating system but could technically be a decoupled CMS if you were to offload the rendering to another framework.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-a-headless-cms-right-for-me">Is a Headless CMS Right for Me?</h3>



When deciding whether you should be building headless, there isn&#8217;t a hard and fast rule. Each implementation may benefit more readily from a headless or traditional CMS, depending on the needs of the site. Generally, the complexity in how you manipulate or interact with your data, in addition to how many data sources you have, are good indicators for which system is most beneficial.&nbsp;

A toy-sized statue of headless person sitting on a brick wall. It sits in front of a fake green hedge.

The Benefits of a Headless Content Management System

Digital transformation that actually works requires putting the right people on it and understanding what their job is — and isn&#8217;t.



A complete technology transformation, when done right, will transform every piece of your organization almost unimaginably for the better. We see the effects of this daily, working with ambitious organizations of different types and sizes to reach a new level of competence (and eventually excellence) with their technology.



But what surprises most people about the road to great technology is how much more it&#8217;s about getting the right people on board than about anything very technical.



Because at the end of the day, <a href="/technology-will-not-save-us/">an organization&#8217;s technology problem is almost always actually a people problem</a>.&nbsp;Persistent frustrations with technology result from a severely outdated approach to technology that no longer works in today&#8217;s world. You can no longer close your eyes and hope either that technology will somehow take care of itself or that someone else can take care of it for you. It won&#8217;t, and they can&#8217;t.



Fortunately, the way out of the woods is straightforward, at least conceptually. It&#8217;s the same thing you would do for any part of your organization that you care deeply about, from Fundraising to Programs to Communication to Operations.&nbsp;



You put great people on it.&nbsp;



Why? Because great technology is hard! It&#8217;s complex, it&#8217;s ever-changing, and by nature, it&#8217;s never fully solved. Great technology doesn&#8217;t happen by itself. It doesn&#8217;t happen without attention and resources, and <a href="/course/leading-with-technology-roadmaps/">it doesn&#8217;t happen without great leadership, clear strategy, and skilled communication</a>.&nbsp;



You might think this means that you need a traditional IT team, but we&#8217;re talking about an entirely different side of technology. Instead, what you need is a digital product team or a &#8220;Technology Accelerator Team.&#8221; A digital product team uses methods of product management that have solidly emerged as best practices in the tech world, recognizing that technology platforms require skilled, dedicated internal leaders with the clear mission of strategically driving and stewarding your technology investments.&nbsp;



Until your organization comes to grips with that reality, you will continue to be stuck in the dark ages, or the frustratingly dim ages, wasting countless hours and untold opportunities. Whereas once you make that transition, you find yourself taking on capabilities and opening doors you never quite knew were even possible.



We&#8217;ve seen this transition happen repeatedly, and it&#8217;s thrilling to witness. So we&#8217;ve pulled together what we&#8217;re calling the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://thebuildtank.com/roadmap" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roadmap to a Better Technology Tomorrow</a>&nbsp;to explain how it all works. In it, we walk through how to make a case for change, which key gaps need the most focus, how to build the team you need, and how to bring all the right players to the table.



On the one hand, each piece of the roadmap is relatively straightforward. But taken together, this path is also not to be underestimated. It won&#8217;t work as an afterthought or a low-priority side project. No doubt your organization is currently prioritizing some things with focus and resources. The same will be needed here to be successful. That&#8217;s why the roadmap starts with the clear mandate, &#8220;You Must Be Willing to Invest.&#8221;



That means investing real resources into the effort, yes. However, the costs of continuing to ignore the destruction that bad technology is wreaking are astronomical. And the benefits — in terms of cost savings, <a href="/staff-feelings-nonprofit-technology/">staff satisfaction</a>, better-engaged constituents, and ultimately in terms of significantly increased impact — are extraordinarily far-reaching. The future winners of every sector are already headed this way, so there isn&#8217;t much time to lose.



You can get there. But the first step is deciding where you&#8217;re headed towards a genuine transformation into an organization that includes strategic, ever-improving technology as part of its very DNA.



When you&#8217;re ready to take that on, we hope the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://thebuildtank.com/roadmap" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roadmap to a Better Technology Tomorrow</a>&nbsp;will help you get there.

Fifteen people dressed in business casual stand in an office lobby and look up, smiling towards the camera.

Your Technology Problem Is Actually a People Problem

One of the principles guiding NTEN is centering our roles around equity. This guidance allows us to remain open to change and improving as we grow alongside our local, regional, and global communities.
As we have done previously, periodic updates like this help us stay accountable to the larger community, who may only interact with a specific program or aspect of our work. While there is much more to the work to deeply advance equity, liberation, and their practices across the organization than what can neatly be included in a recap blog post, this is one way for us to keep as many folks as possible in the conversation with us as we grow:
<ul>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">We’ve implemented our evaluation process for the projects and work that we have been wrapping up as our fiscal year comes to an end this month. Specifically, we’ve done deep dives into each department’s work and identified ways to improve upon or further focus our equity and liberation efforts as focus areas for FY22 planning and budgeting at a team and organization levels.</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">To ensure that we continue to look to the future and plan how to better create practices and projects with equity at the center, I have met with all departments to discuss the upcoming fiscal year. Together we identified goals and ideas that each department can work towards in the next fiscal year.</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">We’ve evaluated <a href="/about-nten/working-at-nten/">our employee benefits</a> to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our staff and consistently explore ideas to enhance our benefits. True to equity, potential employees and applicants should know the benefits of working at an organization. We encourage you to post your organization’s benefits online, as well. One benefit not yet finalized is a Paid Time Off (PTO) bonus. Staff are meeting to refine the details but will soon add it as a new employee benefit.</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">21NTC was all virtual! While we were bummed that we couldn&#8217;t meet in person, it was an exciting and innovative event that invited new ways of thinking and planning. A few of the ways we were intentional about our virtual NTC being an equitable event include:
<ul>
<li>Elevating conversations about equity and race on the main stage with three keynotes, so there are multiple voices contributing to the conversation and an opportunity to hear big ideas each day of the conference.</li>
<li>Help and guidance from the Accessibility and Community Committees on building and creating accessible virtual spaces and sessions that provided attendees with options to customize their virtual experience to their needs.</li>
<li>Hosting online Racial Affinity Spaces during NTC and creating a private online <a href="https://my.nten.org/s/group/0F91U000000AfVwSAK/bipoc-nonprofit-professionals">Racial Affinity group that exists year-round</a>.</li>
<li>Closed captioning for all sessions.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">We updated our <a href="/about-nten/equity-commitment/">equity statement</a> and <a href="/about-nten/values-and-beliefs/">values</a> to reflect our belief that an organizational goal is to strive towards liberation for our communities. We have named liberation in our commitment and note that equity is a critical part of our journey towards liberation.</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">We’d like to highlight the equity work and practices we prioritize when posting online, including the social media standards we implemented to make our posts more accessible. If you haven’t yet implemented these standards when posting online, we encourage you to do so so that all of your community members have access to your online content.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.boia.org/blog/alternative-text-what-and-why">Alt Text for images/photos</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.boia.org/blog/checklist-for-creating-accessible-videos">Captioning</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.boia.org/blog/make-your-hashtags-accessible">Camel Case for hashtags</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">Each year we search for and help support staff find professional development opportunities that will focus on their own equity growth within the organization. As we close out the fiscal year, we continue to focus on and meet with our staff to curate and search for equity-focused training opportunities for them.</li>
<li style="padding-bottom: 16px;">NTEN was named as one of the <a href="https://www.oregonbusiness.com/100best/green/item/19321-2021-100-best-green-workplaces-in-oregon">100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon for 2021</a>. As an organization, we consider <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/environmental-justice-means-racial-justice-say-activists">environmental justice to be racial justice</a>.</li>
</ul>
NTEN employs multiple levels of equity review, feedback, and contribution through staff, board, and community equity committees. These committees are crucial to the success of our work towards equity and liberation. Providing space for review, collaboration, feedback, and ideation is key to our community engagement practice. Community-centered work creates opportunities for us to deeply and meaningfully advance equity and liberation within the community and the sector. If you would like to be a part of the community-centered committees at NTEN, <a href="/community/committees/">applications for all committees are open for new participants through June 30</a>.

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