How a Connected Technology Platform Can Empower Your Non-Profit to Do More Good

If you don’t, you risk hurting (or not being able to help) those you have committed to supporting. While the answer often lies in having the right technology, most non-profits don’t have the money or time to consider all the options seriously.

This is why Microsoft formed its Technology for Social Impact (TSI) group, which was put in place to help non-profits leverage technology. HSO has been involved with TSI since its inception, and we’ve developed an approach to eliminating the barriers to technology faced by non-profits which we call Advancing Your Mission.

Advancing Your Mission is aligned with the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, which has an “a la carte” structure that makes it easier for non-profits of all sizes and types to take advantage of it. Advancing Your Mission adds HSO’s specialty areas to the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, and the result is a way to pick and choose the technology for non-profits they need, when they need it–nothing more, nothing less–and expand when they’re ready. This makes it much easier to address the most critical areas first with cost-effective solutions that don’t take forever to implement.

HSO breaks down non-profit technology solutions into five areas in which most non-profits face challenges:

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

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

Finance & Accounting – Handle finances responsibly with improved ability to manage funds, grants, and donations, set and monitor goals, and connect spending to outcomes.

Fundraising and Engagement – Secure and grow financial support by attracting, maintaining, and deepening donor relationships, improving engagement, and increasing credibility.

Supply Chain Management – Get supplies where they need to go efficiently by mak­ing cost-effective procurement decisions, managing fluctuating costs, and optimizing resources to stretch tight budgets.

We partnered with the Microsoft TSI team to present a webinar showing organizations of all sizes and types how they can take advantage of technology for non-profits, regardless of time, budget, or circumstances.

During this webinar, solution experts from both Microsoft TSI and HSO demonstrated how to imagine, design, and build solutions to address critical areas of need. We shared a high-level overview of the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, then highlighted key challenges, technology solutions, and non-profit use cases for each of the five solution areas outlined above.

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

BronxConnect is a community and faith-based program working to prevent violence through alternatives to detention and incarceration like asset-based mentoring that connects court-involved and high-risk youth and young adults with positive local community resources.

BronxConnect is working with Microsoft’s Nonprofit Tech Acceleration (NTA) for Black and African American Communities program, which increases technology support for non-profits that serve people of color. For BronxConnect, the NTA program supports a range of services focused on their most critical need: in-house participant and program tracking, which was being hindered by siloed data and systems that could not accommodate growth.