Finding a safe place where children and teens could forge one-to-one relationships with their adult mentors wasn’t nearly as pressing a challenge for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America as finding a way to track the thousands of matches and outcomes.

“Like many nonprofits, we were behind the times on technology and had been making changes prior to the pandemic. But the pandemic really sped up the need to come up with a better system,” recalled Nichole Turgeon, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Midlands, the national organization’s affiliate in Omaha, Nebraska.

Fortunately, the national organization’s leaders realized a fresh start was needed even before the pandemic hit. It was a challenge that managers originally tried to solve by way of a homegrown database, only for new issues to arise when bugs in the software were compounded by the lack of a user manual, lack of training, and lack of institutional knowledge of how to use it.

In the wake of that unsuccessful experiment came Matchforce, which the national organization began rolling out to its affiliates across the country about five years ago. Extensive training and technical support also were provided.

“It’s a Salesforce-based database we use for managing our mentoring programs from the time we receive a volunteer application, to the interviews and assessments our staff do, to the monthly phone calls our team makes to parents and guardians and volunteers,” Turgeon explained. “It’s basically a record of all of our mentoring matches, from their very first contact with us through the whole life of their mentoring relationship with our organization.”

The software proved a lifesaver when the pandemic hit in March 2020, allowing the organization to quickly pivot to an online application process that has continued to be streamlined and refined. “It’s not only improved our efficiency internally but also allows for a better customer experience, whether it’s a parent wanting to enroll their child or a person thinking about volunteering,” Turgeon said.

The pandemic and its aftermath have only accelerated the need for digital literacy and education for nonprofit managers like Turgeon, many of whom had to adapt overnight to new technologies to accommodate their employees who suddenly found themselves working from home for the first time. However, far from being limited to the tools of remote access, the need for digital literacy also encompasses being able to collaborate in the use of financial, database and project management tools and the know-how to manage people, teams and events effectively, both remotely and in person.

“While many organizations are returning to work in their offices, the technology adopted and the need to maximize remote collaboration productivity are here to stay, so there is a greater need for digital skills training for nonprofit staff and volunteers now,” said Mona Raina, a senior director at TechSoup, a nonprofit technical support network.

Security is also an ongoing concern. This was true even before the pandemic but is taking on greater urgency as more organizations permanently institute hybrid and remote work arrangements and as the number of data breaches and ransomware attacks grows, said Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN, a nonprofit devoted to helping other nonprofits successfully deploy technology.

“Somewhere around 90% of nonprofits are probably at less than $1 million in revenue and just don’t have the financial resources to fortify themselves against cyberattacks, and cybercriminals are well aware of this vulnerability,” agreed Patrick Callihan, CEO of Tech Impact, a nonprofit provider of technology solutions.

“This is where education becomes critically important because the majority of cyberattacks are really phishing attacks where it’s just someone clicking on a bad link that allows a criminal to gain direct access to a network or to someone’s credentials,” Callihan said. “Insurance companies have also started to become very savvy about this and now basically send out a checklist to make sure some very basic things are in place before they will insure a nonprofit against cyberattacks.”

Despite this, 78% of respondents in a 2020 TechSoup survey of 11,578 nonprofit managers said they rarely or never perform staff training in the use of data management or digital tools, according to Raina.

Some of this can be explained by the simple fact that many nonprofits are forced to operate with a fraction of the budget and resources available to governmental and for-profit entities. Still, this doesn’t mean the skills demanded of those who work in the nonprofit sector are any less, said Heather Mansfield, editor and founder of the Nonprofit Tech for Good newsletter.

Many digital marketers and fundraisers, for example, not only must know how to publish and maintain a website, implement and maintain an email marketing strategy, and be adept at using customer relationship management software, but must also be excellent writers and editors. And with the rise of social media, many also are expected to be graphic designers, video creators, photographers, social media advertising experts, and digital strategists.

“This is an exceptionally rare individual with a skill set on the high side of the pay scale, yet this broad set of skills is now expected in most digital marketing and fundraising positions in the nonprofit sector,” Mansfield said.

With nonprofit employees under pressure to wear so many hats and perform so many roles, Raina suggested nonprofit leaders consider which skills and technologies their organizations truly need to be successful and provide training that is concise, contextualized and connected to an organization’s mission.

TechSoup offers a number of online courses to assist nonprofits with their training needs, with particular interest being shown in courses related to Microsoft Excel, Power BI and other data-driven programs. Additionally, courses that help digital activists identify and combat disinformation have also seen increased demand.

“What is imperative for nonprofits is that their investment in skills is based on their mission delivery and not on the products they adopt,” Raina said.

Still, many nonprofit leaders don’t always know what technology tools and skills their employees most need. To address this need, TechSoup offers a free Digital Assessment Tool (DAT) to help managers assess their digital capabilities and provide customized recommendations on how to improve them, Raina said.

NTEN also offers a program called “Tech Accelerate” to help managers assess their technology needs. “This isn’t about products or specific systems but instead evaluates policies, practices, and investments both in people and systems,” Sample Ward said.

Such an assessment should include the input of frontline employees, advised Callihan. “We recommend all nonprofits have a strategic technology plan, and that plan starts with interviewing the people on the front line and asking them: Do they have the tools they need to do their job, and do they understand how to use those tools?” he said.

This isn’t only an operational issue but also a retention issue: If employees are frustrated because they lack the right tools, or if they have the right tools but don’t know how to use them, they probably won’t last very long in their jobs.

“Investing in technology is one thing, but if people don’t know how to use it, it’s not a good investment,” Callihan said. “Training also needs to be reinforced, which costs money and time. It can’t be a one-and-done.”

At the Morris Animal Foundation in Denver, a charity that funds veterinary research around the world, training has been provided in the use of booking software that its 55 employees – most of whom now work in a hybrid or remote setup – can use to schedule meetings and other functions from any location.

The organization also has adopted ASANA, a task management software that everyone is expected to use. Also implemented is a program called SEEDS (Skill Enhancement and Employee Development Series). “It’s a monthly training where employees can gather to learn information about the various technologies we use, ask questions, learn from others, and provide feedback to make sure we’re using the technology to best fit the team,” said Sarah Svitak, the organization’s CEO.

Tech Impact has a comprehensive array of resources on its website to help managers looking to embark on a similar journey, said Callihan. “We are the technology department for over 350 nonprofits nationally and develop a lot of research, white papers and training courses for nonprofits as it relates to technology,” he said.

“We also publish workbooks and have a consulting group to assess employee skill sets and help nonprofits make sense of technology and what the best technology for them is. We don’t expect nonprofits to all be technologically savvy, which is why we’re here – to help them navigate these challenges.”

Technology also should be taken for a test drive periodically and evaluated to ensure people will know how to deploy it when the rubber meets the road, say experts.

“If you have a plan for what to do in a cyberattack but you’ve never simulated the situation with the whole team, do you know it’ll work for you and if folks are confident in what to do?” said Sample Ward. “Don’t let these plans and policies sit on the digital shelf. Test, practice, and review things regularly. Just because a policy is in place doesn’t mean it’s working the way you may want it to.”

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Midlands, taking the time to do all that after the earlier challenges of the homegrown database program has shown how much nonprofits stand to gain from the right approach – and how much they stand to lose if technology and the training in its use are given short shrift.

Not only have the training and implementation of Matchforce been a success, but “we now have folks on staff who know how to build and create other online forms as well,” said Turgeon. “And for everyone, there’s been a mindset shift of always being open to change and learning new skills.”