Nonprofit Center of Excellence for Technology

Nonprofit organizations, like any business, are increasingly relying on technologies like CRMs to carry out their missions and achieve their goals. From fundraising to program management, technology plays a crucial role in helping nonprofits more effectively engage with their constituents and execute on their missions. Managing that technology however can be a daunting task for nonprofit organizations, especially those with limited resources. To address this challenge, many nonprofits are implementing a Center of Excellence (CoE) to govern their technology.

What is a Center of Excellence?

A Center of Excellence, at its simplest, is a team that creates and manages best practices around a specific area of the organization. That area could be fundraising, marketing, programs, but for the purposes of this post we’ll be looking at a Center of Excellence for technology. This team could be members representing each department of your nonprofit, or it could simply be a team of one!

Why would you want to implement a center of excellence?

A center of excellence allows you to formally define a vision for how your organization will use technology. That vision will be your north star guiding all downstream decisions and changes. The goal is to ensure a unified and consistent usage of technology that meets your nonprofits requirements. It will also help prevent common pitfalls such as exceeding a project budget, working inefficiently with partners, and teams not adopting the technology.

Ok, so what would a Center of Excellence look like?

That’s entirely up to you! If you’re implementing a CRM, for example, the vision may be as simple as using the tool as a Rolodex for constituent information. It may be more complex, acting as a single source of truth between all of your organization’s teams and processes.
Regardless of where your vision sits on the spectrum of complexity, having that vision is a prerequisite for success with technology. That vision will help ensure that your organization’s IT infrastructure is designed and implemented in service of your mission and goals. This includes developing technology strategies, policies, and standards that are consistent, unified, and aligned with industry best practices.

But what does all this look like in practice?

Meet Natalie, Director of Marketing at Musique.

Natalie wears a lot of hats at Musique, a fictional nonprofit dedicated to supporting contemporary music. In addition to her responsibilities as Director of Marketing, Natalie has been tasked with managing her organization’s CRM and all related technology. She’s a classic accidental admin!

Natalie was concerned that, without proper oversight, Musique would be accumulating technologies over time that wouldn’t serve their mission in the long-term.

To that end, Natalie instituted a Center of Excellence at Musique for their technology. That process began by documenting a clear vision of what this technology should be and do. Then she selected representatives from each team of the organization to act as a new governance committee which helped define the “rules of the road,” or design standards, ensuring the technology is managed in accordance with their vision. That team included Natalie herself (as the administrator tasked with implementing changes) as well as their Executive Director. Executive level buy-in was critical for the success of this project to communicate changes and vision to every level of the organization!

The governance committee met regularly to discuss and prioritize upcoming technology changes and revisit existing technology to make sure it’s still working in service of the vision. They also communicated these changes to end users at the organization ensuring consistent use and adoption.

Ultimately Natalie was successful in setting up a Center of Excellence but it doesn’t end there! A CoE is an ongoing project and requires continual investment but it is well worth the effort.

Learn More about Centers of Excellence!

While these resources are provided by Salesforce, they can be applied to any technology used in a nonprofit.

• On Demand Video | Approaches to a Center of Excellence
• On Demand Video | Building a Center of Excellence
• Read More | Strategic Governance for Nonprofits