Introduction
Nonprofit-making organizations operate under limited budgets and are in many ways disadvantaged when compared with for-profit businesses. However, they have greatly improved their day-to-day operations in the past few decades, thanks to the technological boom. Nonprofits that have been more open to technological change have outperformed the resistant ones due to the efficiency associated with technology. The hard work advocated for by most managers before the technology bubble has been replaced by what many managers refer to as smart work characterized by order, efficiency and speed. Technology has played an integral role in making the goals of many administrations achievable, with many now serving a larger number of people in comparison to that supported before. This paper elaborates on the tangible benefits nonprofit organizations that have leveraged technology have enjoyed.
How Nonprofits Operated Before the Big Technology Boom
In the old times, organizations functioned at a slow chaotic pace, characterized by disorder and chaos. The slow pace of work was attributed to the lack of tools to aid different activities, and thus everything was done using hands or unsophisticated equipment. When the technological boom began to gain pace at the end of the nineteenth century, it came with many changes and influenced the way several organizations operated. When the World Wide Web was made available for public use in 1991, many nonprofit organizations utilized this avenue greatly. Before the 90s there was limited use of the internet thus recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers for nonprofits was done manually, posing a huge limitation. Volunteering and charity events before the boom were always conducted offline. The traditional offline volunteering was done within an organizational setting, with most volunteers being able to serve one or two organizations (Ihm 4). With the rise of offline volunteering, thanks to technology, a volunteer can support as many organizations as they can and wish.
Impact on Outreach, Fundraising, and Day-to-Day Activities
Adopting technology improves nonprofit organizational performance in all seven criteria. The seven are effectiveness, efficiency, quality, productivity, work-life quality, innovation, and profitability for for-profit organizations or budgetary capacity for nonprofit firms (Possamai et al. 55). Since not-for-profit-making businesses have a goal of having sustainable budgetary capacity, they should tap technological resources as it helps to cut costs among other benefits. The adoption of technology, specifically smart tech, enables organizations to reconcile expense reports and answer repetitive questions using chatbots. Nonprofit organizations that adopt and use technology efficiently offer human-centered, prepared, knowledgeable, and preparation services. Digital measurements and evaluations and more focus on Artificial Intelligence help managers in risk mitigation.
Since the onset of the technological boom, key aspects of not-for-profit organizations’ operations have been reconfigured. The most acknowledged way to promote the company online has been the corporate website (Zivic et al. 114). Good websites attract employees, clients, volunteers, and other stakeholders. The organizations that have been resistant to tapping into the benefits of the technology have been left behind or started late. An area in which technology has significantly improved is the volunteer pool. For instance, studies in Hong Kong such as one by Chui and Chan show that those enterprises that have adopted mobile-based applications have had a larger volunteer pool (93). Technology enhances diversification, and as such many not-for-profit organizations have benefited by having volunteers from all over the globe convinced to join the team. Recruitment has also been enhanced with selection systems being used to select the best possible candidates in different positions from a wider pool than before. The management and administration through automated systems have been unburdened from many tiresome, repetitive tasks hence focusing on the most crucial aspects of their establishments.
The degree to which technology has impacted the outreach of nonprofit making organizations is high. The question of how technology is changing work is highly salient for scholars of organizational psychology and organizational behavior (Cascio and Montealegre 350). The use of social media in most of the activities for most organizations has made organizations in this scope reach a huge number of people cost-effectively. Innovations such as cloud computing, social media, and mobile technologies have generated positive benefits for nonprofits (Chui and Chan 91). These innovations include but are not limited to the overall outreach of the establishments, enhanced services, trust, good public image, and streamlined work. Through their unique websites, for-profit and not-for-profit businesses generated huge donations because of their ability to reach many people through their websites.
Many studies show that the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit making organizations have improved greatly since the technological boom occurred. For instance, Chui and Chan demonstrate that technology is used for inputting client data, analyzing data, and finding the clients’ needs. Thus, the management and administrators use these databases for decision-making, among other functions (92). Technology has also enabled nonprofit organizations to reach areas that they were not able to do before. Through various systems adopted by the establishments for remote work, a more cost-effective manner of managing human resources is possible. Pieces of training, interactions, guidance, and all forms of communication between the employees and the management are done online using various platforms like Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft teams, Trello, and SnapComms. Technology has increased outreach through communication and has enabled the easy way to have volunteers perform their work.
Nonprofit-making organizations operate under a limited budget, and thus they rely heavily on volunteers. Before the rise of the technological boom, all the volunteering was done offline. However, the last two decades have seen an increase in volunteers who participate without being physically present or affiliated with a traditional organization (Ihm 10). The effectiveness and impact of online volunteering activities on organizations’ goals are the subjects of much debate. Since the scope is young and technological advancements occur quickly, there are no comprehensive studies to evidence the role of online assistance in the day-to-day activities of nonprofit-making firms.
Conclusion
In almost all activities, from fundraising to outreach, nonprofit organizations that have leveraged the technological boom have witnessed massive benefits. By comparing organizations’ day-to-day activities before the 1990s and after when technology and the World Wide Web were introduced, it is obvious that there are massive benefits that accrue to adopting technology. The efficiency, outreach, and revenue of many nonprofits have increased. Further comparing nonprofits that adopt full technology and those that are reluctant show a significantly higher amount of donation for nonprofits that have gone digital. Operations are smoother and cost-effective when managers and administrators allow the online system and tools for work and decision-making. Since technological advancements are always constant, studies of how technology impacts nonprofits and other organizations need to be reviewed regularly for better decision-making.
Works Cited
Cascio, Wayne F., and Ramiro Montealegre. “How Technology Is Changing Work and Organizations.” Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, vol. 3, no. 1, 2016, pp. 349–75, Web.
Chui, Cheryl Hiu‐Kwan, and Chee Hon Chan. “The Role of Technology in Reconfiguring Volunteer Management in Nonprofits in Hong Kong: Benefits and Discontents.” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, vol. 30, no. 1, 2019, pp. 89–111, Web.
Ihm, Jennifer. “Classifying and Relating Different Types of Online and Offline Volunteering.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, vol. 28, no. 1, 2017, pp. 400–19, Web.
Zivic, Fatima, et al. “Differences between Adopters and Non-Adopters of Innovation: Case Study of New Technologies|Adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises in Serbia.” Supporting University Ventures in Nanotechnology, Biomaterials and Magnetic Sensing Applications, 2017, pp. 113–39, Web.
Possamai, Airan Arinê, et al. “What Impacts the Performance of Technology Organization? An Entreprenerial Perspective.” Revista Ibero-Americana de Estratégia, vol. 16, no. 02, 2017, pp. 51–65, Web.