5 Steps for a Successful Nonprofit Technology Audit

Your nonprofit needs a robust technology infrastructure to successfully raise funds online, connect with supporters and achieve your mission. Did you know optimizing your technology can even increase employee satisfaction and retention?

According to the 2023 Nonprofit Technology Trends Report, 74% of finance leaders in the nonprofit sector said they are more likely to accept a position at an organization with modern, cloud-based technology.

With this in mind, your organization should review its technology use to ensure your solutions are updated, innovative, scalable and appropriately leveraged by your staff. Read on for five essential tips to conduct a successful nonprofit technology audit that helps you better understand your current technology and how to optimize it to meet your goals.

1. Understand what assets you currently have

Inventory your technology to identify the resources and tools you’re currently using. Assessing where you currently stand with technology allows you to better determine whether your tools are becoming outdated or even obsolete.

For example, your nonprofit organization may use solutions such as: 

• A constituent relationship management platform (CRM) 
• Marketing software
• Communications platform 
• Accounting tool
• Event management solution

As you identify each of these solutions, you may determine there are platforms you’re paying for that your organization no longer uses. Eliminating or consolidating these tools will help streamline your technology and free up budget. 

2. Conduct a technology SWOT analysis

In a SWOT analysis, you’ll identify your nonprofit’s technology strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This process gives you a better sense of what’s going well with your tech approach, what needs improvement and how you can adjust your strategy for better success in the future. 

Speak directly to your nonprofit’s staff members who use your technology daily. Ask them to identify: 

• Strengths: What software solutions work well for your organization? What technology strategies or procedures help you fundraise or promote your mission more effectively?
• Weaknesses: Are any of your tech platforms outdated? Are you dealing with data silos? Do you have any manual tasks that would benefit from automation technology?
• Opportunities: Can you use integrations, plugins or add-ons more effectively? Can you meet with your software providers to gain greater insight into how to use your tools to their fullest potential?
• Threats: Are any of your technology solutions so outdated that they represent a security concern? Are any of your software providers drastically raising prices? Does any of your technology use supporter data in a potentially unethical or not secure way?

As part of the SWOT analysis, also look at areas like staff technology training, data entry procedures and security. This will provide the well-rounded overview you need to determine the best course of action for adjusting your technology strategies. 

3. Keep your goals and needs in mind

Conduct your technology audit with an eye toward the future. What does your nonprofit hope to achieve in the next five or ten years? How can your technology continue to support those goals effectively?

Consider the following aspects of a sustainable technology strategy:

• Focused on long-term mission-related goals. Do you anticipate your mission changing over time, and will you need different technologies to meet these evolving needs? 
• Scalable. Your technology solutions may meet your current needs but struggle to keep up as your organization grows. Consider whether your technology is scalable enough to easily support more constituent information and fundraising data to your databases. 
• Budget-conscious. Will you need to expand your budget to accommodate new technology investments? Meet with your nonprofit’s accountant to review financial projections and see where there are opportunities to expand or alter your technology budget. 

With a forward-thinking approach, you can ensure that your technology works for your organization, now and in the future. 

4. Evaluate your AI readiness

You can’t ignore the question of AI in your technology auditing process given how prevalent it’s become in the nonprofit space. 

According to Twilio, 90% of organizations surveyed in the nonprofit, education and healthcare sectors are leveraging AI for one or more engagement and marketing use cases. Twilio also found that nonprofits are integrating AI faster than the private sector, with 58% of nonprofits using AI compared to 47% of B2C businesses.

BWF’s guide to responsible AI use recommends conducting an AI readiness assessment with a fundraising consultant. These professionals can:

• Evaluate your current AI literacy
• Pinpoint opportunities and challenges for implementing AI
• Build a custom AI roadmap for your team with recommendations for tools and best practices

With your AI readiness assessment results, you can determine the steps your organization needs to take to adopt AI tools safely and effectively. This could include staff training, implementation support or ongoing AI support from a professional consultant. 

5. Make recommendations

A successful audit isn’t just a fact-finding exercise—conclude the process by creating a list of recommendations and next steps based on the information you discovered. For example, you might recommend that your nonprofit: 

• Add new technologies. Say you uncover that employees are spending a lot of time manually logging mileage for reimbursement. You might recommend that your organization implement a vehicle reimbursement platform to increase efficiency, as Catholic Charities of West Michigan did. 
• Work with a consultant, such as a CRM consultant, to help you identify the right tool for your needs. They can review your current system and recommend a new platform if needed, such as Slate, Salesforce or Blackbaud.
• Eliminate tools from your technology stack. Consider removing any outdated solutions or tools that present security vulnerabilities. 
• Conduct more thorough staff technology training. You may identify a need for more detailed or regularly-occurring training. Recommend topics staff members should be trained on and how often the training should occur. 
• Expand its technology budget. If your technology needs a major overhaul, you may need to make more room in your budget for handling upgrades or new software implementations. 
• Increase tech security measures. For example, you may need to use access controls, secure passwords or data encryption more effectively. 

Present these findings to decision-makers on your team, such as your Executive Director or board. Describe what you discovered through your audit and how you came to each conclusion. Clear communication will allow you to move forward quickly and cohesively with your technology plans.

As you conduct your technology audit, keep your nonprofit’s stakeholders in mind through every stage. What changes or updates will help you better serve the beneficiaries, donors, volunteers and staff members that help drive your mission to success? Prioritize security, transparency and explainability through every phase of the technology auditing and update process. 

This approach allows you to create a tech strategy that meets your current and future needs, and maintains positive relationships with your audience, promoting engagement and retention.