Why Digitalization has become a Question of Survival for Nonprofits?
The global pandemic abruptly changed the business landscape for all types of organizations, whether big or small. In many ways, it accelerated technology adoption across the board as businesses were forced to look into creative digital solutions to function remotely and continue to serve their client base.
Likewise, many nonprofits had to quickly rethink their core approach by figuring out how they would incorporate technology in their day-to-day operations, including fundraising, operations, and marketing activities. Despite many hurdles, nonprofits had no choice but to move swiftly to promote their causes digitally, raise funds online, manage remote teams, recruit volunteers, and attract talent.
Despite this sudden disruption and a rapid shift, there remain many serious challenges to technology adoption in the nonprofit world. The need for digital transformation has long been advocated by experts and practitioners but the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the issue even further. Now, for many charitable and nonprofit organizations, it’s no longer a question of choice but of survival.
As we move into the second half of 2022 and things are slowly going back to normal, digitalization imperative for nonprofits has become even more important. For example, recent data suggests that the majority of the donors prefer donating online as fundraising has largely moved to digital avenues and channels. As significant as this sounds, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
In fact, the rapid shift in the global digital economy is fundamentally reshaping all facets of nonprofit operations beyond fundraising and marketing. To put it simply, organizations that don’t prioritize digitalization and don’t invest in developing digital infrastructure will be left behind. But the ones that do will see their revenues reach new heights and their impact increase manifold.
A properly planned and well-targeted digital campaign can reach the right audiences and can help a nonprofit increase its outreach, traction, and impact.
One important point to remember is that digital transformation isn’t just about modernizing your current technology infrastructure. It’s a framework to envision an entirely new way of achieving efficiency and effectiveness by seamlessly connecting all aspects of an organization. This includes people, processes, and programs to boost creative potential and productivity to solve complex problems, enhance transparency, better serve people and achieve trust with stakeholders.
In other words, it's about much more than the use of hardware or software, or acquiring digital talent; it’s fundamentally about bringing a radical change in organizational culture, mindset, and change management.
5 ways digital transformation can help nonprofits succeed include:
- Automation of manual tasks, reducing costly human errors
- Greater data security that prevents costly breaches
- Actionable data insights that empower strategically-sound decisions about deploying people and assets to the field, such as during a natural or human-made disaster
- Reduced IT staffing overhead by using cost-effective cloud-based services.
- Increased collaboration and productivity due to digitally-connected technologies that make every nonprofit program more efficient and effective.
In the end, it's important to understand that digital transformation not only enables nonprofits to increase their reach to their target audiences but also their impact on society. It also enhances their ability to understand and react to situations where they are needed much faster.
Nonprofits that embrace digital transformation and get the help they need to build a digital strategy will help bring their mission to fruition today and tomorrow.
