Information & Technology

Guest article by Medicus IT (formerly MDcentric Technologies)

It’s hard to imagine the worst-case scenario happening to you. But that doesn’t stop residents and millions of other people from purchasing homeowner’s, renters, or auto insurance, does it? Just like any other type of insurance you invest in for a rainy day, your organization's data protection and cybersecurity should be no different. By staying proactive with data security, you can prevent a business-ending disaster from happening to you.

Equity Guide for Nonprofit Technology (NTEN, 2025) - The guide is divided into three sections reflecting different nonprofit technology categories. Your organization may participate in one or more of these categories:

If your nonprofit sends out the same email to multiple contacts at one time, it is subject to federal laws governing "commercial" email. Namely, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is applicable to mass emails such as nonprofit's newsletters, and infringements reported to federal agencies (primarily the FTC) can incur penalties of up to $16,000 per email violation, with no maximum penalty.

Legal Guidelines

Nonprofit program managers ask themselves “How do I reach my volunteers or participants to participate in the activities to achieve the program’s intended outcome or goal?” The next question is often “And, how do we track their participation?” Despite the emergence of affordable mobile technology, staff are often not sure how to decide if an app is the right solution to answer these questions.

Research is tantamount to effective advocacy and impactful programming. In order to maintain program effectiveness, organizations must evolve with the needs of those they serve, and that is impossible if they do not know what those current needs are. Data collection, dissemination, and research are imperative to ensuring that organizational efforts are being targeted where needed. Non-profit leaders need to identify trends in order to surface any gaps and inconsistencies in their programming to prevent diminishing returns on their investment into the communities they serve.

Nonprofit IT Staff Training is a free 2021 webinar by the consulting group, Community IT Innovators, which gives tips on how to develop an IT training program specific to your nonprofit’s staff needs, whether that's better on-boarding, improving on-going training efforts, or re-training staff for a major system change. 

The presenters note ways to make this task approachable, such as:

In the digital age, even small nonprofits are not strangers to being the targets of cyberattacks like having passwords hacked, email phishing scams, or ransomware.

Microsoft's Nonprofit Guidelines for Cybersecurity and Privacy (2017) provides tips to assess cybersecurity risks and considerations for data privacy. It gives an overview of the legal landscape for compliance with laws governing the digital aspects of operating a nonprofit, as well as suggests ways cloud technologies could help with becoming compliant. 

The Nonprofit Show is a webcast created by the American Nonprofit Academy.

Flexibility of hours and location is one of the most important determinants of employee satisfaction and retention. Below are resources for shifting your staff to a fully remote or hybrid model.