Mikey Pruitt

Through first hand experience I see the technology gap between corporate America and the non profit world widen on a consistent basis. Corporations commission specialized software, expansive computer networks, endless professional services and spend thousands of dollars managing this infrastructure. NPOs typically start with a mission and hobble together business infrastructure later. This is a mistake but who's thinking about business infrastructure when the oil well is leaking into your community's drinking water!

There are quality efforts operating to elevate NPOs to the same technology playing field through mentoring programs, donations of hardware and software, and grant money. Much of this effort is credited to the very corporations NPOs try to measure up to. The reality is there simply isn't enough grant money, software licenses, or servers to go around and many NPOs are left to squabble over the scraps.

Another victory as of late is the plethora of OSS available. The number of free (as in speech) applications is daunting and knowing which are safe to use and rely on to preserve your precious donor database is even more intimidating.

NPOs notoriously resist change especially when it involves technology. Focus on what your board member packet should say about your organization rather than how many megabytes you can fit into a single email and I'll do the rest!