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Potomac Conservancy

Effective Nonprofits

Follow a Technology Plan

 

The Challenge

For over 10 years the Potomac Conservancy has protected lands vital to the health, beauty and enjoyment of the Potomac River which runs through Washington DC. Starting with just two employees and a budget of less than $200,000, it has grown to a staff of 10 with an annual budget of more than $1 million and is a recognized leader in the local environmental community.  Like many growing nonprofits, The Conservancy invested most of its resources in program development and hiring staff.  The organization was unable to invest new resources in infrastructure, particularly technology infrastructure.  The website continued to be maintained by a volunteer so updates were infrequent.  Hardware was old and outdated and maintenance was provided on an ad-hoc basis by a technically minded staffer in his spare time.  The Conservancy's computers frequently crashed not only frustrating the staff, but preventing the organization from presenting a professional image to its growing donor base. 

 
The Solution

Executive Director, Matthew Logan, recognized that the time had come to make some changes, namely an investment in technology infrastructure. He turned to NPower for guidance because of its proven track record with area nonprofits. 

 

NPower Techs conducted an Audit of the Conservancy's technology, interviewing key staff members about how they used technology in their work. The Audit identified immediate issues as well as long-term strategic needs.   With the knowledge gained form the Audit, NPower created a short-term action plan and a technology budget, as well as a long-term plan for the future.  The Conservancy hired NPower to provide some much needed tech upgrades including a system for regularly backing up the mission critical Donor Database.  After evaluating various options including internal staffing, they hired NPower on a monthly basis to perform scheduled maintenance.  This preventative measure insures that their technology systems run smoothly and provides them with experts to contact should problems arise.   

 
The Impact

Recently, Matt Logan was invited to speak at a funder's forum to discuss his organization's use of technology.  As he prepared his speech, he reflected on how technology has gone from being a problem to a much valued tool thanks to NPower's intervention. Potomac Conservancy now evaluates its technology plan each year and has created a technology line item in their budget.  As Logan pointed out during his recent presentation, "There is an ongoing cost for maintaining an office and that includes technology; it exists now and always will -- that's what a lot of people fail to recognize.  If you want to be an effective organization, you just have to plan for and budget for technology."

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