Common Questions We Get From Non-Profit Organizations
How to get support from a team of experts and advisers to align technology with your mission.
There are many reasons a non-profit will seek out a Managed Service Provider (MSP). Non-profits in particular are required to do more with less. This comes with its own set of challenges — primarily limited IT staff who is tasked with keeping the infrastructure up, running and secure while troubleshooting and handling support requests from staff.
We have observed that growing non-profits typically start with someone internally who wears “IT support” as one of many hats and is often self-taught. They are so busy constantly putting out fires that they rarely have time to get to the root cause of an issue so that it doesn’t reoccur.
With limited IT staff, non-profits are unable to implement a long-term strategy and processes for their technology. Lack of standardized IT process and best practices can quickly overwhelm IT support. Cybersecurity gaps that go unaddressed could lead to data loss and cyber attacks. There is a point where your internal support person is going to need support.
Technology is essential to a non-profit and your IT department should act as a functioning business unit, providing all the capabilities of a fully functioning IT department with support layers for internal IT staff.
Seeking an MSP partnership for your non-profit can be an overwhelming process. During our conversations with non-profit managers and CEOs, we’ve noticed four particular qualities they focus on when considering a partnership with a MSP.
Non-profit leadership wants to understand how the MSP will use technology to support mission fulfillment in the following areas:
- Experience
- Value
- Pricing Structure
- Relationship
Before you ask the MSP questions, ask yourself a few questions:
- How do you want to run your non-profit?
- Does the absence of an internal IT resource(s) or overburdened internal IT resource threaten to become costly?
- If your technology went down would mission fulfillment be at risk?
The answers to these questions will determine how to get the most value out of your MSP relationship. Read on to learn about the benefits of working with an MSP and the qualities you should look for when vetting an MSP to partner with your non-profit.
Part 1: Experience: Why Industry Experience Matters
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