Within the nonprofit sector, each money and time are at all times restricted so it’s a must to strike the correct steadiness between mission-oriented actions and backend operations. Your final purpose is to channel as many assets as doable towards your mission. Nonetheless, having the correct backend infrastructure helps you make knowledgeable choices and streamline processes that profit the group in the long term.
As a CFO, you already know your group must spend money on your expertise infrastructure. However how do you justify spending cash on a budgeting software as a substitute of provides for an after-school program?
Listed here are just a few concerns when advocating for expertise investments in your accounting and finance departments.
Understanding the Significance of Expertise Investments
A typical impediment in expertise investments is the notion of a binary selection: cash can both be spent on “X” or “Y.” Nonetheless, the correct expertise investments require a long-term perspective. For instance, in the course of the pandemic, nonprofits that invested in paperless processes and expertise had been higher positioned in February of 2020 in contrast to people who scrambled to adapt to distant work. Some nonprofits needed to drive printed checks round city accumulating signatures, whereas others had already transitioned most of their distributors to digital and automated funds.
Organizations that embraced expertise investments earlier had been in a position to pivot extra seamlessly. Whereas backend investments could not seize headlines or seem flashy, they’re important for guaranteeing the group can shortly adapt to altering circumstances.
Hyperlink Expertise Investments to the Group’s Strategic Plan and Goals
To make a robust enterprise case for any expertise funding, it’s essential to make sure that the proposal advantages not solely the finance workforce however the group as a complete. Think about how the funding will influence processes or reporting, and the way it will profit key stakeholders, to make your case even stronger. Listed here are just a few factors to contemplate when linking your proposal to your group’s strategic plan:
Map out Strategic Objectives
Start by clearly figuring out and outlining your nonprofit’s strategic targets and aims. These would possibly embrace mission-related final results, operational effectivity targets, or capacity-building initiatives. Would this funding velocity up budgeting, present extra correct information, or mitigate danger? Remember to clearly lay that out. Aligning finance with the remainder of the group can go a great distance. Too many finance groups don’t consider the group as a complete, which may harm your case for expertise investments.
Expertise as an Enabler
Clarify how the proposed expertise acts as an enabler to realize these strategic targets. For instance, if one of many strategic targets is to reinforce service supply, reveal how a brand new case administration system can streamline processes and enhance consumer outcomes.
The place doable, put numbers to those outcomes. In case your workforce saves three hours per week with the brand new software program, what does that imply for worker satisfaction, improved decision-making, or elevated capability?
Integration with Present Plans
Present how the expertise funding integrates seamlessly with the prevailing strategic plan and spotlight any particular initiatives or initiatives that the expertise will assist. This will even embrace the way it will supercharge one other division’s ahead momentum with new instruments.
In case your new fund accounting software program integrates together with your fundraising system, your improvement workforce may have extra transparency into how funds had been spent. That may enhance their donor stewardship, constructing belief and growing recurring presents.
Construct a Compelling Enterprise Case
Whereas most nonprofit finance leaders perceive the significance of expertise, presenting a compelling case to government management or the board may be tougher. Restricted funds and time typically imply that investing in expertise can take away from program actions. Nonetheless, a robust enterprise case can reveal the worth of the funding.
Listed here are some key factors to bear in mind:
- Clearly Outline Objectives: Define the first targets of the funding, each for the finance division and the group as a complete.
- Spotlight Present Challenges: Clarify why the present programs are insufficient and the way the brand new funding will profit your entire group, not simply the finance division.
- Interact Stakeholders: Solicit suggestions from different stakeholders throughout the group. Profitable investments typically contain processes that span your entire group. This may also be an space to get artistic! Can different departments use these new programs and profit from what finance is proposing? If improvement and finance can each profit from a software, then the case is stronger coming from a number of departments.
- Present a Timeline: Current a transparent timeline for implementation and rollout. Demonstrating that the method is properly thought out can considerably strengthen your case.
Put together for the Approval Course of
Set up considerate stewardship of funds when making any funding, particularly in expertise. Making the unsuitable funding can set a corporation again years. To mitigate this danger, make sure that your group examines all choices and completely thinks via the method.
Collaborate with third-party consultants, peer organizations, and trade associations to avoid wasting time and supply priceless insights at each stage of this important determination. Have a well-defined plan and preserve organizational targets in thoughts. You’ll wish to current all of your work and decision-making to your board as a cohesive story.
Be Ready for Change with the Proper Expertise
Investing in expertise may be daunting, however it’s typically essential for a corporation’s progress and growth. Making a robust case immediately may also help your group keep forward of the curve, quite than ready till change turns into unavoidable. A transparent and concise case for expertise is as vital as discovering the correct expertise for organizational buy-in.
Wish to be taught extra about how one can get management buy-in in your group’s expertise investments? Try our webinar, Making the Case for Tech Investments: A Nonprofit CFO’s Information to Successful Board Approval, part of our Final Nonprofit CFO Collection.
