Use Your Strategic Technology Plan as a Fundraising Tool

You know that investing in technology can increase your organization's efficiency and enable you to reach and help constituents in new ways. But what about the cost? In a time when budgets are tight, technology planning will help you focus on the essentials, and will also help you make the case for funding.

Challenges of Technology Fundraising

Many organizations face challenges when it comes to funding information technology. The needs and demands continue to grow while funding remains scarce or nonexistent. The Foundation Center reports that major foundations gave less than one-half of one percent (0.5 percent) of their grants in capital support for "Computer Systems/Technology" during 2003. While this does not account for the technology that is supported through general operating expense or program development grants, it does suggest that there is limited funding to support information technology-specific initiatives or operations.

Why a Technology Plan Is a Fundraising Tool

A strategic technology plan is an often under-utilized asset that can help narrow the technology fundraising gap. In addition to helping organizations focus their initiatives and coordinate resources toward a goal, a strategic technology plan can be leveraged to pursue additional funding opportunities. It does this by:

• Articulating the connection between IT and the organization's programs;
• Making a strong business case connecting IT expenditure with gains in operational efficiency, increased service capacity, improved service quality, and lower ongoing costs;
• Defining discrete IT initiatives that can be supported with direct funding; and
• Providing a framework for accountability that can be used by funders to monitor the impact and performance of their grants.

Success Story -- How One Organization Leveraged Its Technology Plan for a 20:1 Return on Investment

In 2005, Our Piece of the Pie ( OPP), formerly Southend Community Services, was in the middle of transforming itself to pursue the new objectives outlined in its recently developed strategic plan. One of the objectives in the plan included the improved use of information technology (IT) to track their clients and the outcomes of its programs, which serve at-risk youth in Hartford, CT. To achieve this, OPP knew it needed to invest heavily in IT. Fortunately, it had an opportunity to secure a major technology grant from a local foundation. However, as Lisa Mottola, Vice President of Administration said, "An integral part of securing the grant was showing the funder that we had a strategic technology plan in place which documented why the money was needed and how it would be spent."

OPP worked with NPower NY , with the support of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, to develop a strategic technology plan. This plan successfully presented the additional detail needed to secure a $300,000 investment by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. That's a return on investment of 20:1 on their costs to develop the plan.

OPP worked with NPower NY, with the support of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, to develop a strategic technology plan. This plan successfully presented the additional detail needed to secure a $300,000 investment by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. That's a return on investment of 20:1 on their costs to develop the plan.

Building an Effective Technology Plan

A technology plan is not simply a plan for what technology should be purchased and when it should be upgraded. It is a mechanism to help prioritize and budget for the technology tools that are most important for achieving organizational goals. By starting with an organization's mission and priorities, a technology plan helps to clarify where opportunities exist to improve infrastructure or deliver services in a new way. To get more specifics on how to actually develop a technology plan, please review TechSoup.org's materials on Technology Planning or NPower's TechAtlas Technology Planning Tool.

What Funders Will Look For In Your Technology Plan

In order for a technology plan to be a highly effective fundraising instrument, it must have the following essential elements. Even if these elements are not encapsulated in an explicit way in your technology plan, you should be able to make a case along one or more of the following dimensions when pursuing funding for your plan.

• Alignment:

  Is your plan to use technology in alignment with the programs and mission of your organization?Does the plan align with the programs and mission of the funders with whom you wish to develop or deepen your relationship?

• Business Case:

  The business case for most technology projects can be computed by a relatively straightforward equation. The net benefits of the technology initiatives must outweigh the total costs.

• Framework for Accountability:

  Your plan should provide a high-level timeline for achieving goals and putting technology systems in place in a strategic and coordinated way. This timeline is a natural framework for ensuring accountability and providing funders with concrete milestones. During each phase of the planning, development and implementation, organizations and funders can make decisions about whether tasks were accomplished and initiatives continue to be viable.

• Discrete Initiatives:

  Often it will be in your best interest to develop your technology plan as a series of discrete initiatives. If you are pursuing a multi-funder strategy, this will allow funders the opportunity to decide which specific areas of the plan they would like to fund.

• Appropriate Costs:

  Demonstrate reasonable efforts to optimize the costs of your projects. Consider ongoing costs such as staff time, maintenance, and support.

• Proactive Approach:

  Articulate how your plan is proactive in its approach to technology instead of just simply trying to patch a set of existing problems in a "break-and-fix" mode of IT spending.

• Highlight Innovation:

  Many funders may be drawn to projects that use technology in new and innovative ways to service programs and mission. Funders may view such innovation projects as an opportunity to experiment with ideas that may prove to be valuable for other grantees in their portfolio. Although innovation can also provide an opportunity to raise the profile of your organization in the eyes of prospective funders, keep in mind that funders who are most interested in innovation may differentiate between "leading edge" and "bleeding edge" technology projects.

• Viability and Sustainability:

  You will need to ensure that the set of objectives outlined in your technology plan are reasonable both in their scope and timeframe. Additionally, your technology plan and its initiatives must be able to endure over time and enhance the health and long-term stability of your organization.

Technology Fundraising Sources

Once you have developed an effective technology plan, you can use it to approach three different sources of funding with greater clarity and precision.

Existing Funders: Your newly developed technology plan can provide a fresh dimension to an existing relationship -- shop it around to your current base of funders. Highlight how this plan strengthens initiatives they have already supported. This is a highly effective strategy and is likely to either yield actual outcomes or effective feedback.

In-Kind Funders: Throughout the years we have seen great generosity by technology giants such as Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, HP, Salesforce, and many others. To pursue this option, we recommend you break up your technology plan and identify areas where in-kind donations can make a significant difference. Approach these corporations or foundations with your technology vision and highlight where they can assist you.

New Funders: A technology plan may actually provide an excellent opportunity to pursue new funders. A well drafted plan will showcase your organization's vision, innovation, and effectiveness. Look for opportunities where your technology plan has an overlap with the mission of funders whom you would like to reach out to.

Technology Fundraising Strategies

• Shared Costs:

  One of the most effective strategies for technology fundraising is to distribute the fundraising load across multiple funders. If you have an extensive plan, do not expect one funder to cover it in its entirety. Instead, approach multiple funders and offer them the opportunity to support discrete initiatives within the plan. Having more than one funder on board will make your project immediately more attractive to other funders. One very effective means by which you can do this is to approach one funder for in-kind donations while approaching another for cash donations. This strategy of using multiple funders to support discrete initiatives, or to provide specific types of support, for one technology plan can be illustrated as:

  Technology Plan

  

• Distributing Across Grants:

  Fundraising for your technology plan initiatives does not need to be encapsulated in one proposal or even one grant. You may decide to break up your funding needs from your technology plan and distribute it across many different grants and funders. One specific approach is to encapsulate discrete elements of your technology plan in your other program grant applications. For instance, within a $100,000 capacity building grant, you may ask that $10,000 be used to support your technology plan. Spreading your technology needs across several grants can help lower the overall risk of the project and increase the likelihood of it being funded. This strategy of using a portion of several different grants to support the overall costs of your technology plan can be illustrated as:

  Funder C

  

Summary

Strategic technology plans are helpful frameworks for organizing people and resources toward common goals that are aligned with organizational priorities. A thoughtful, well-designed technology plan can also be used to pursue direct and supplemental funding for information technology programs and enhancements. Understanding your technology needs and how they relate to your organizational or program needs -- and being able to articulate that to funders -- is the first step to acquiring the technology you need to achieve your goals.

Ultimately, foundations and funders want to know that their grants are helping the organizations more effectively achieve outcomes. Because a technology plan shows the relationship between organizational priorities and IT initiatives, it establishes a link to the outcomes the funder is interested in supporting. As a result, the organization can show how a direct investment in technology or a supplemental technology grant as part of a program grant will directly contribute to outcomes. This is a critical linkage that many funders use to assess grant effectiveness.