Tag: Charity

 

How To Get Out Of Overwhelm And Manage Projects Brilliantly (While Saving Money On IT)

It’s a special kind of relentless attack faced by Boards and ED’s; the persistent, crazy, chaotic assault on your time and attention. No one is immune, and every organization deals with it.

Some leaders handle the constant pressure on their attention brilliantly, keeping the team organized and highly productive. But most people struggle with this and feel crushed and overwhelmed by all the things they have to keep track of and do. This goes double if your group is in growth mode and not “standing still” or casually strolling through its existence. 

Add to this a remote workforce, and it can be intensely difficult to wrap your head around all the projects, to-dos, deadlines and funder-related deliverables you and your leadership team must manage.

While we as an IT company cannot tell you what projects are most important, we can absolutely help you and your team stay far more organized and give you tools to keep the  people on your team properly aligned, prioritizing the right work and focused on the things you want them to focus on. We can also help you organize communication to lessen the chances of a dropped ball or a communication failure, which is by far the #1 reason why problems happen in business and charities alike.

One of the tools we recommend to clients wanting to get more operational control and clearer communication is Microsoft Teams. There are a lot of reasons why this is a “super tool” for productivity and organizational alignment, but as a bonus, it typically ends up saving our clients quite a bit of money on technology, because it replaces other applications, like Slack, Zoom and dozens of popular project management software, putting all of it into one lower-cost, more secure and more tightly integrated system.

Let me share just a few of the cool features you’ll love in Teams. Keep in mind that this list is far from complete. Microsoft Teams has over 1,900 applications you can pick from to integrate into a Teams Channel to organize information, workflow, tasks, deadlines and documents.

Canadian Data Residency for Office 365

Canadian Residency: As part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, charities located in Canada can request that their data also be stored in Canada. This allows you to stay compliant with any requirements from funding agency or governmental contracts. 

Posts: The “post” feature works a lot like Slack in that it will allow you to post questions, reminders and status updates to everyone on that Team regarding that project. This not only keeps ALL communication for a project in one place, but it creates a history and alerts everyone on the team to what’s going on. This feature can save a lot of money for anyone using a paid tier in Slack since it’s native and included in Microsoft Teams.

Integrating Apps With Teams

Tasks By Planner And To-Do: This section of Teams is one of our favorites because it allows you to create “complex” to-do lists where you can assign each item to one or more people; have a progress status, priority and due date; add documents and files; and create a checklist of all the things that need to be done. Better yet, team members who are responsible for the project can provide status updates and check off items that are completed so you know where you are with any particular project.

true remote file sharing and hybrid workspaces

File Sharing: Being able to access everything securely, and easily, has been the dream for years now. Teams has a file management function which can eliminate the need for servers, allowing your team to work remotely while maintaining access to all their files and data. It uses a very familiar interface, has an incredibly shallow learning curve, and is included in Teams.

Video Conferencing: While Teams is not as slick as Zoom, it does have some features that make it better for team collaboration and projects. The biggest advantage over Zoom is that you can hold a video conference, and the recording of the meeting – along with all of the notes, files and links – will remain in that Team for easy reference later on. This can be extremely helpful for people who might not have been able to attend a meeting, making it easy for them to find and watch the recording, and it also retains a record of critical conversations. Plus, it eliminates expensive Zoom licenses for all employees because it’s included in Microsoft 365.

No Cost Software For Charities

Free For Charities: Of course the most compelling argument is that Teams, as part of Microsoft 365, is free for charities. Depending on the size of your group, this can translate to literally thousand of dollars per year. 

If you want to see a demo of Teams or do a cost analysis to see how implementing this can save your organization money on Slack, Zoom and other project management software by combining it into one application, click here to schedule a brief call.

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Rosetta Stone! As always, we’re here to decode the language of IT and give you the tools to make informed decisions.

Today’s topic is a little bit drier than many, but it’s an important topic that gets to the heart of Canadian nonprofit organizations. today we’re looking at email etiquette for board members of charities, non-profits, and associations. While it may seem harmless to use your personal or work email for board-related business, there can be some serious risks to consider. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let’s get started.

There’s a lot of reasons why a board member should not be using email from their work or personal lives, but there are three that are important above all others… so we’re going to focus on those.

Email For A Departed Board Member

The first is around continuity and persistence. If a board member leaves the organization, what happens to all the email they have stored on their personal account? Does the organization have access to it? If the transition is not friendly, then it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the organization will never again see the email that was sent by the departed board member.

Privacy For Board Emails

The second main area is around privacy and conflict of interest. For example, if you’re working on a grant application which is sent from a board members private work email system, that work email system may be seen by the funding agency as directly associated with the charity. By using personal or work emails, The organization may not know who has access to the mailbox. There are so many ways this can go bad, so quickly, and so easily.

Board Email Security And Protection

The third issue that we’ll talk about today is around information security and protection. Emails that are stored in the organization email system will also be subject to cyber security controls and protection measures that are in place for the organization. this can include among other things, measures like a litigation hold or data retention policies. Not to mention things like organizational policies around data backups multi factor authentication, or other measures put in place to make sure that the organization’s email remains secure.

When you consider that there are many options for charities to gain access to corporate-class email systems that carry zero cost for the organization, there are a lot of reasons why Board policies that prohibit personal email are a great idea. And as I said these are only three reasons… realistically There are a lot more reasons out there, but these are the ones that we see as the most important.

Protecting Your Mission with Robust Email Infrastructure

Nonprofits have a unique approach to conducting board business… As a former Board member myself, I understand this We believe in encouraging board members to use official emails as a way of protecting the important work that’s done by organizations all over BC. So, let’s keep the conversation going and make our nonprofit organizations even stronger. Drop us a message at www.HumanITCompany.ca and let’s chat about the best way to secure your emails as a charity.

That’s it for this episode of ‘The Rosetta Stone.’ If you have a tech term you want us to decipher. drop it in the comments below. Like, subscribe, and stay curious with The Human IT Company. Until next time!”

Free Wheelin’

Hi everybody, Jeremy here, managing director of The Human IT Company, your trusted source for IT service and support in greater Vancouver and southwestern British Columbia.

This is our first video of the new year, and I know from experience that this is the time of year when executive directors of charities start looking at their budget plans to take effect in April. As a Board member myself, I know from experience that the consistent challenge is to stretch your funds as far as possible. Since IT support is often seen as a cost center from the admin budget, anything you can do to stretch, or save, on your IT services costs is worth another look.

How Charities Can Save On IT Costs

A couple tricks you may or may not know about how charities can save money on IT costs

– Contact software companies directly. Many companies have unpublished discounts, that offer eligible organizations access to their products for free or at a discounted price. I’ve seen situations where software is offered for free in exchange for a partnership agreement, and we regularly see a 30% discount offered for registered charities, that’s offered simply because someone picked up the phone and called to ask the company.
– Use open source software. Open source software is freely available for anyone to use. This means that charities can use open source at no cost. Some popular examples of open source software include the Linux operating system and the LibreOffice productivity suite. Sometimes there is a bit of a learning curve, but when the cost is 0, it may be worth investigating depending on the requirement and the budget of the organization.
– Register with organizations that provide software donations. There are a number of foundations and organizations that specifically provide software donations to charities. TechSoup Canada is one example – they offer a wide range of software donations to eligible Canadian charities, including those located in Vancouver. The amount of software that you can get is amazing, and you even have access to enterprise class systems like Office 365 at no cost.
– Lastly, try working with an IT company that is familiar with charities. The needs and requirements of charities are vastly different than those of commercial businesses; the right IT solution provider knows this, and will work with you to meet the budget and reporting requirements of the organization, the Board, or the membership.

By taking advantage of these opportunities, charities can obtain the IT solutions they need without spending a lot of money. If you’d like to know more about how to get started with any of these, or for some links to some of the products and services mentioned here, leave us a comment below, or send us a message through our website at www.humanitcompany.ca and we’ll show you how to start saving money on your admin IT budget. Thanks for watching and have a great day!