Taking a Pragmatic Approach to Creating Sustainable Technology
Samaritan House of Atlanta and TechBridge

Nonprofits understand that technology can streamline operations and reduce administrative overhead, buying back precious resources and staff time. Smaller organizations, however, struggle with making the right technology choices to serve the organization’s present day needs while preserving flexibility to support future directions. Forward thinking nonprofits like Samaritan House have found that working with a technology consultant that understands the unique dynamics of nonprofit organizations, can result in a technology roadmap that is affordable and sustainable, with minimal disruption on the organization’s daily operations.

Samaritan House of Atlanta supports homeless men and women in their effort to achieve self-sufficiency in an atmosphere of dignity, accountability and choice. Samaritan House programs target adult men and women who are ready to take steps toward reclaiming their independence. Samaritan House Board members knew the organization needed to upgrade its technology and wanted to embrace technology more strategically, but wrestled with how best to approach the challenge.

"Our system was getting old, our offices were not connected and there was only one person who understood the technology, which made it difficult to solve problems and plan for the future," said Sherrie Snipes-Williams, Executive Director Samaritan House of Atlanta. "In addition, our Board wanted to have a sustainable technology strategy that would allow more people to understand and support the platform. We recognized that to accomplish this, we need some expert advice."

TechBridge Technology Planning - A Pragmatic Approach

To develop technology plans for nonprofits, TechBridge uses a specialized Technology Planning Methodology. The first step in the process is a Current State Analysis. For Samaritan House, TechBridge interviewed the staff, inventoried the organization’s existing technology and assessed its use patterns. The second step is a Future State Analysis, which captures the vision of where the organization wants to go and the technology it needs to get there. The next step is to define projects and develop estimates of implementation costs for each project to help the organization quantify the investment and assess future funding needs. The final step is to prioritize projects to make the plan actionable. "Beyond being a workable technology roadmap, the technology plan becomes a key tool for securing funding", said Jack McMillan Executive Director, TechBridge. "Nonprofits can show funders a thoughtful plan and a viable approach."

In the early stages of developing the Samaritan House plan, TechBridge identified an opportunity for a quick win: Samaritan House needed an infrastructure upgrade. TechBridge helped Samaritan House acquire network, server and desktop hardware, and leveraged its membership in the NPower Network to facilitate a donation of $48,000 in Microsoft network and desktop software. TechBridge was also able to tie Samaritan House’s multiple locations together electronically via an Internet-based virtual private network (VPN), which gave the nonprofit wide area network capability at a fraction of the cost. "Our approach allows us to react to a situation quickly and do what is most pragmatic," McMillan explains. "With Samaritan House, the need for new infrastructure was immediate. We had the resources and relationships in place to spin the project out of the planning process and accelerate it."

Working in Cadence with Nonprofits

For nonprofits like Samaritan House, where staff has multiple responsibilities and is focused on executing programs, making time to focus on technology strategy is difficult. One of the key benefits of working with TechBridge is that they are a nonprofit and they understand the dynamics of nonprofits. TechBridge can pace a project’s development and time its activity according to the nonprofits’ capacity to engage, so that technology planning and implementation doesn’t disrupt the work at hand. "They didn’t try to bulldoze us and re-landscape in a week," said Snipes-Williams.

Leveraging Technology to Improve Program/Service Delivery

Today, Samaritan House of Atlanta is taking advantage of its new technology infrastructure to automate recordkeeping and reporting, which is freeing up staff to devote more time to service hours. The organization is currently evaluating options for a donor database, which is a key element of its technology plan. They are also participating in technology training programs that TechBridge makes available to non-profits.

Samaritan House continues to implement its technology plan and is fine-tuning internal procedures to maximize on the plan’s recommendations. "TechBridge helped us understand that technology planning is a living process that requires ongoing review and prioritization," said Snipes-Williams. "The ball is in our court, but we can count on TechBridge as a resource to help us research and identify cost effective solutions that mesh with our infrastructure and our culture."

Read about other TechBridge customers.

Read more about TechBridge's Services.