Empower Your Non-Profit with a Connected Technology Platform

As non-profits are concerned… budgets, resources, and time are a top issue, and the stakes are high when it comes to figuring out solutions to those problems. If a solution is not found, you risk hurting (or not being able to help) those you have committed to supporting. The answer often lies in having the right connected technology platform. Unfortunately, most non-profits don’t have the time and/or money to seriously consider all the options.

This is why Microsoft formed its Technology for Social Impact (TSI) group,  put in place to help non-profits leverage technology. Since its inception, HSO has teamed up with TSI, and together have created an approach to remove the barriers in technology encountered by non-profits. We call this approach “Advancing Your Mission”.

Advancing Your Mission is aligned with the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. With its “a la carte” structure, non-profits of all sizes and types find this approach extremely easy to take advantage of. Advancing Your Mission incorporates HSO’s specialty areas to the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, and the result is an option to pick and choose the technology for non-profits they need, when they need it, and expand when they’re ready. This streamlines the process to address the most critical areas first, with cost-effective solutions that are quick to implement.

HSO breaks down non-profit technology solutions into five areas where most non-profits experience challenges:

Constituent Management – Keep everyone connected by keeping thorough pro­files of funders, volunteers, donors, and anyone connected with your organization, improving communications, and identifying and tracking issues.

Case Management – Create a client-first focus with a 360-degree view of your organization, streamlining processes, connecting them with the right services, and enhancing reporting on spending and outcomes.

Fundraising and Engagement – Obtain and grow financial support by attracting, maintaining, and strengthening donor relationships…furthering engagement, and boosting credibility.

Supply Chain Management – Getting supplies where they need to go and getting them there efficiently by mak­ing cost-effective procurement decisions, managing unpredictable costs, and optimizing resources to get the most out of tight budgets.

Finance & Accounting – Handle finances reliably with enhanced ability to manage funds, grants, and donations, set and track goals, and link spending to outcomes.

HSO recently teamed up with the Microsoft TSI team to present a webinar showing organizations of all sizes and types how they can take advantage of a connected technology platform for non-profits, regardless of time, budget, or circumstances. Solution experts from both Microsoft TSI and HSO showed how to imagine, design, and build solutions to address critical areas of need as part of this webinar. We gave a high-level overview of the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, then focused in on key challenges, technology solutions, and non-profit cases for each of the five solution areas summarized above.

We also had the honor of sharing an interview with Felicia Lemons, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Urban Youth Alliance (the parent organization of BronxConnect), where she shared her non-profit’s digital transformation story.

BronxConnect is a community and faith-based program whose mission is to prevent violence by creating programs like asset-based mentoring that connects court-involved and high-risk youth and young adults with positive local community resources as an alternative to detention and incarceration. BronxConnect is working with Microsoft’s Nonprofit Tech Acceleration (NTA) for Black and African American Communities program, which expands technology support for non-profits that serve people of color. For BronxConnect, the NTA program supports a range of services focused on their most crucial need: in-house participant and program tracking, which was being obstructed by siloed data and systems that did not have capacity for growth.

Would you like to learn more about how your organization can benefit from technology for non-profits? Watch the webcast on-demand:

Learn more about connected non-profit technology from HSO: