Getting the Board On Board With Technology

One of the great challenges nonprofit Executive Directors face on technology issues is working with their Boards of Directors. Often the board is enthusiastic about technology and drives the agenda too hard. This can result in lots of fancy equipment but a staff that is under trained and increasingly resistant to using technology tools. In other cases, the board may be resistant to technology and not recognize the essential and mission-critical impacts that even minor technology investments can have. Either way, the challenge for executive directors is to find ways to work with their boards to think about and use technology in ways to improve effectiveness. Budgeting for technology, policy issues and staff development are only a few of the important topics confronting nonprofit executives and boards. It is essential that Executive Directors and boards work in close collaboration to understand and adapt to a new economy that demands nonprofits use technology to improve operations and programs.

In this interview, Cassandra Burton, Executive Director of the African American Women's Resource Center, shares her story. Burton recently graduated from Summit Collaborative's Strategic Technology Readiness program. The program was offered by Technology Works for Good as part of their Technology Leadership Development initiative. Cassandra's story illuminates many interesting facets of executive-board relations. We hope you find it useful.

Marc Osten: Cassandra, during the final session of the Readiness Program you mentioned that your relationship with your board has changed dramatically on technology issues. Can you tell us a little about how things changed?

Cassandra Burton: I don't have a large staff; in fact I don't have any staff. I'm it! I have volunteers that do hands on work at the center and we have a highly functioning and participatory board. Yet we, the board and I, had no idea about how to go about technology planning, or that it was even something we had to do. Up until recently we would just "here and there"buy equipment or get stuff donated that we couldn't use because we were not clear at all on our technology needs and mission. The first thing that happened was I had my board do the Strategic Technology Board Attitudes Survey. What came out of that was this tremendous enlightenment for both the board and myself.

MO: What do you mean?

CB: The data from the survey gave me insight into how they were thinking. For example, they had no clue about how much time it took to produce the things that we were giving them, the reports and financial statements and so forth. They thought there was some kind of form that every ED has and you just plug in numbers and information and you get a report. All of our board members are on other boards, so they have some experience in the area. They just thought that all of this work they were seeing was happening easily. When they realized how much time I had to put into just the reporting out to them, forget about all the other work I had to do, they understood why I was pulling my hair out. They could see the need for something to be done - that I couldn't continue to work like this. It was a revelation for me and for them.

MO: Sounds like an important moment of clarity between you and the board?

CB: I had no idea they didn't know exactly what I was doing. This was something I was not able to portray to them. They could then see why we needed to get together and plan solutions and not just buy a computer and go for it. I had no way to articulate that I was doing all of this work - making labels this way, or keeping track of donations that way. I didn't know how to explain how much time things were taking me and I didn't have anything different to compare it to. The survey was definitely the catalyst for bringing about this change.

MO: So what was the result of the 'change' you describe?

CB:

We decided that when we do our projected annual budget, we're not just going to throw in our guesses for money to buy new software and hardware. Our budgeting will now be based on what we want to accomplish with the technology. The other thing is a very simple concept, but the Readiness program really drove home this point, we never ever did look at our technology needs based on our mission.

We are an intelligent, sophisticated group of women and we just didn't get there by ourselves. Our technology plans, what little there were, were not mission driven. We are a resource center! Our ultimate goal is to provide an institution of resources to African American women and girls and people who are studying them. We never even had a single conversation about how technology relates to this goal.

MO: Cassandra, can you give us a concrete example?

CB: OK, the issue of DSL (High speed Internet access) came up instead of using a dial up to the Internet. I took the time to explain to the board, to show them why this would be an improvement and how it would help to get our work done. Slow Internet service hampers our ability to get certain things done day to day. I now will tie everything related to technology planning into our mission.

MO: So what does the future hold?

CB: Well the biggest thing is we now realize that we need a technology plan. I now have the tools to show the board why we need to go through our technology plan the way we went though our strategic plan. I was always in a strong leadership role with the board, but I am now a more informed leader on technology. No one else was going to take on the challenge of being the technology leader for the organization. They now identify me as the leader on technology and this has made me want talk to them about these things instead of just avoiding the issue.