Nonprofit Technology Processes: The Key To Maintaining Clean and Healthy Systems

Historical records are important. When the people who experienced what’s been tried, adapted, and improved are no longer around for us to talk to, these records provide valuable information to learn from. We create delicious food by following the steps on a notecard with an old family recipe. Most great family recipes handed down have crossed out ingredients, new ones added, and notes about choices you can make to improve it.

Documenting processes is the key for keeping technology tools clean and healthy. Think of a “process” as a “how-to” guide for the next person who may need to use the system. What are the routine tasks that everyone needs to do the same way?

Often we talk to nonprofits that need us to clean up their data and we find their tag names or field names are inconsistently labeled because no one wrote down the policy. This makes for a large mess to clean up down the line. Usually it’s something repeated throughout the system that’s done differently every time. Different staff members taking on different roles or staff turnover can create these inconsistencies.

Create a handbook (similar to an employee handbook) to keep everyone on the same page. Include space to track the current processes and the reason why they exist. As processes are updated, allow a list of what’s been tried in the past, so everyone knows what’s been ruled out. You may revisit processes over time, so be sure to include dates.

Here are just a few examples of what to include in your nonprofit technology processes, to get you started:

• Password Management. It’s important to have a policy around password protection. Some organizations use a vault (See our articles on Nonprofit Password Management). Others require changing passwords at regular intervals. What’s your policy? Why did you choose that policy? What steps do employees need to take, to be in compliance?
• Naming Conventions. Each technology has different features where users routinely create “names” for new records. For blog posts, you name the urls. Many CRM’s have tags (or something like them) that allow you to categorize and search easily. What are your conventions and what is their purpose? (See our Salesforce naming conventions post for some ideas.)
• Updating / Cybersecurity Processes. Regular updates are required for almost every technology to protect it from cyber attacks. What does your organization do? How often? Which systems? Why were those steps chosen? (See our posts on security for websites & CiviCRM or WordPress for more ideas.) Or do you outsource updates to someone else? What’s the company name and contact information?

It’s great to document these types of processes, but how does an organization keep them alive, updated, current?

• Put someone in charge. Make it their responsibility to keep processes up to date. Even if others are more involved with updating day-to-day, this person will make sure organization-wide processes are followed and new processes are created as systems are added.
• Create a regular review schedule. Schedule a process review at least once a year. We all get behind on updates, so having a regular reminder to review will keep everyone on track.
• Keep processes in an obvious and easily accessible place. Wherever your manuals are stored, technology processes can be stored with them. Whether that’s a folder in your documents cloud or a physical binder in the office. Put it where your users know to find it. If you have the option, consider shortcutting docs and folders to multiple locations.

A great time to do this is when you are implementing a new system. That’s why we help start this document for all of our clients who do an implementation with us. We like to think of it as giving the organization the keys to their new System. What keys do you need to give your users so they can keep their recipe cards updated for future?