Nonprofits are under unprecedented pressure to produce better results with more clients, for less money. To shed light on how organizations are meeting this challenge, MAP for Nonprofits commissioned a study by Idealware to investigate how Minnesota service providers are using technology to innovate their service delivery, with an eye to factors that foster innovation. Based on a survey of 180 nonprofits and in-depth research with more than a dozen innovative organizations, we've developed a four-part framework as to how nonprofits can define ways to use existing and affordable technologies to address their own organization's needs. We'll present the framework, case studies on how organizations are currently innovating, and give participants an opportunity to brainstorm innovations for themselves.
3. Session Objectives
S ae eerho h w in eoa o po s r
h r rsac n o M n st n n rf ae
it
uin t h o g t d le sr e
s g e n l yo e r ev s
c o iv ic
Poid a rm wr f uin eeya t h o g
rv e f e oko s g vr ye n l y
a r d c o
t in oa a dim rv sr e
o n vt n poe ev s
e ic
H h h sm ea p s fu cs
ig l t o e xm l o sces
ig e
5. Research Process
Definition Phase: Expert
Interviews, Literature Review
Broad Survey: 179
Minnesota human service
nonprofits
6. Research Process
Follow-up Interviews:
C o ntacte d 31 p e o p le
C o nd ucte d in-d e p th
p h o ne inte rvie ws with
1 3 o rg aniz atio ns
Id e ntifie d nine case
stud ie s
8. Innovating with Everyday Technologies
People often think of innovation
as futuristic, cutting-edge
technology, but our research
found that many are innovating
with straightforward
technologies.
9. Innovation Can Be Low Cost
Many Minnesota nonprofits
successfully use existing
technology to innovate in
more subtle ways,
implementing solutions that
are often both low-cost and
effective.
10. Innovating Services Is Within Reach
picture
Innovation through
technology is within
the reach of any
nonprofit.
12. Case Study: Domestic Abuse Project
“Those were often
last-minute phone
calls saying, ‘I need D AP p ro vid e s th e rap y and
to go to court, me,’”
ad vo cacy fo r p e o p le who
and I need this
information to take
h ave e x p e rie nce d d o m e stic
with me.” ab u se , and wo rks clo se ly
with p aro le o ffice rs.
13. Case Study: Domestic Abuse Project
They modified the
organization’s existing
case management system
— an online database— to
allow probation officers to
look up program
attendance for
themselves.
16. Identifying Needs
Five of the 13 nonprofits
used a formal planning
process to define the needs “It was never a
they ultimately addressed. board decision
where we sat
For the others, innovations down and looked
were a solution to day-to- at communication
day issues rather than models or
needs identified out of anything like that.
It was just a way
planning projects. to meet a need.”
18. Understanding Technology
Five mentioned that
knowledge about existing
technology was a major
factor in their innovation.
Another seven mentioned
that lack of knowledge, or
lack of effective
technologies, was a
difficulty or hurdle for them.
19. POLL
[Add Readytalk Poll]
Do you feel that you’re generally aware of the
technologies that could help your organization?
-Yes, definitely
-Probably most of them
-Some of them
-No, not really
23. Case Study: HOW Family Center
A
“We’d always
communicated with H O W A e nriche s live s
them by email, but thro ug h m e nto ring fo r
they’d more or less
stopped responding.”
ch ild re n, fam ilie s, and
co m m unitie s. O ne o f th e ir
p ro gram s wo rks with h ig h -
sch o o l ag e m e nto rs.
24. Case Study: HOW Family Center
A
The program manager
noticed that the “It’s definitely
students responded increased our quality
quickly to text of services.
Sometimes.. A mentor
messages, making that
can even see their
a cheap and easy way to mentee that day.”
reach them.
26. Connecting Needs and Technology
The majority were inspired or
supported by something outside of
their organization. For example:
Work of a similar nonprofit “A fund ing
Speaker at conference
o rg aniz atio n ch o o se
u s as an inve ste e ,
Formal or informal peer and alo ng w ith th e ir
conversations d o llars cam e
e x p e rtise .”
Funders
Technology expert/consultant
27. POLL
[Add Readytalk Poll]
W hich of these have most inspired you with new ideas in
the past?
-Conference
-Conversation with peer(s)
-Reading about other organizations
-Consultants
-Classes
29. Effecting Change in the Organization
It’s not enough to just have an idea.
Six organizations defined innovations
that required very little financial support.
However, few interviewees said their
innovations required very little staff time.
Staff training and support were also key
factors mentioned to help a project
succeed.
30. Effecting Change in the Organization
Four interviewees
mentioned a culture of
change or generally positive “We’re always
asking if there’s a
disposition toward better way of doing
innovation as helping things, if someone
factors for implementing else is doing
something we can
their projects.
replicate, or if
someone on staff
has an idea we
should be pursuing.”
31. Case Study: United W of Olmsted County
ay
“O ur d e sire to g e t
co m m u nity-le ve l info Th e y wo rk to unite
and track u nd up licate d p e o p le and re so urce s
nu m b e rs re ally d ro ve and im p ro ve live s in the ir
u s to lo o k fo r a
co m m unity.
te ch no lo g y answ e r.”
32. Case Study: United W of Olmsted County
ay
By creating a shared
community database with a
scannable photo ID for
clients, they dramatically
Connecting a
speeded up intake forProviders
each
organization, and allowed
them to track data across
organizations.
34. W does success look like?
hat
All 13 organizations said they saw at
least some noticeable benefit as a
result of technology solutions they’d
recently implemented.
W categorized the benefits as
e
substantial for nine of these.
35. W does success look like?
hat
There was more effect on quality of
“It’s over-and-above
services than cost savings.
changed the way we
12 reported some positive impact on instruct people. It’s
made them feel
the quality of their organization’s
better about
services.
themselves, and
Six reported a cost savings. improved the quality
of education and
training we provide.”
36. Case Studies: Lifetrack Resources
“A lot of these
families are at home,
or can’t travel… We
knew they needed
the information we
were presenting but
we needed a way to By recording and close-
get it to them.” captioning seminars, they were
able to provide their information
for parents of deaf children to a
much wider audience.
37. Case Studies: Lifetrack Resources
“The trainer came up
with the idea of
having a blog to
present an
opportunity for As part of their support for job
students to practice seekers, Lifetrack set up a blog,
their writing skills… named “At Y Service,” to let
our
and work on students share their own
networking.” experiences in the area of
customer service.
39. Recommendations for Nonprofits
Sat it yu n e s
t wh o r ed
r
I nifeis gt h o g s
d t x t e n l ie
e y in c o
F miaiz yusl it aaa l
a ilre o r f h vil e
ew b
t ho g s
e n l ie
c o
P l o t e es
u in us id a
l id
C nid r t tgs a
os es ra in m l
l
G t u- f ms f n b ad
e b yin r t f d o r
o aa
B d e f b t c s a ds f im
u g to oh ot n t f e
r at
M aue n b ilo sces
esr a d ud n u cs
40. Recommendations for Funders
E c ua e ra iztn t c nid rh ir
n o rg og n a s o o s e te
io
n e s s u h s eh o g s
ed a m c a t n l ie
c o
H log n a n u d r a deis g
e ra izt s n es n x t
p io t in
t h o g sF miaiz yusl it aaa l
e n l ie. a ilre o r f h vil e
c o ew b
t ho g s
e n l ie
c o
S p ot o sl gs u trs oh l
u p rc nuin t c e t e
t r u p
og n a n in oa
ra izt s n vt
io e
Poid cosp l a n p otnie
rv e rs- oin t o p r its
l io u
E c ua e n vte ss f x tg
n o rg in oa ue o eis
iv in
t ho g
e nl y
c o
41. To learn more…
Find the fu ll re p o rt at
m ap fo rno np ro fits.o rg /inno vatio n
Th ank yo u!
Notas del editor
In late 2010, MAP received a multi-year gift from the ADC Foundation to research and support increased nonprofit innovation and evaluation of impact through the use of technology. In early 2011, MAP conducted a local and national search for a research partner. MAP choose Idealware. Research kicked off summer of 2011.
All seven people interviewed said the research sounded useful. They saw particular opportunities in: Sharing stories of what’s working Helping nonprofits find things that will work within their budget Encouraging the sector to do more with technology Encouraging funders to fund more technology projects Literature review showed great opportunities. The existing quantitative research was very general, and There’s a number of great case studies and examples of technology for human services, but very little on resources needed or the process of creating, implementing and maintaining such technology. Survey to determine how Minnesota 501(c)3 human service organizations are using information and computing technology to innovate—substantially improve the effectiveness or efficiency—the services available to their community. The survey was distributed throughout the state of Minnesota by MAP for Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits, and the United Ways of Minnesota using their own email lists.
Idealware and MAP for Nonprofits reached out to 31 specifically selected because we felt their survey responses indicated that they were using technology to innovate service delivery. Ultimately, we interviewed staff members at 13 nonprofits. From these, nine were selected as case studies, and contacted for further interviews. Know there are many more great examples, in the room, on the call, etc.
Quick description of organization – take from slide DAP was finding that they were spending a deal of time providing information to other organizations and probation and parole officers vs. providing service Many of the people receiving DAP services are court-ordered to attend programs and the probation officers rely on DAP to provide up to date information on their attendance. SLIDE - Some of the requests for information would come at the last minute just before the probation officer was going to court DAP learned that a nonprofit in Michigan had created a system to let external case officers access the information they needed
DAP set out to create a similar way for probation officers to access their system Their only investment was DAP staff time and some trail and error while modifying the organization’s case management system SLIDE - Now probation officers can access the attendance reports on the attendees under their supervision only, and if someone is behind they can find our why and address the issue SLIDE - Now DAP staff are able focus their time on service delivery and the relationship with the probation officers has improved dramatically They’ve also seen the average tenure of participants in the program drop from 45 to 18 weeks
CHAT IN NEEDS – OTHER PERSON SUMMARIZES AND RESPONDS LATER The research provides strong evidence that – in order to innovate – nonprofits need to step back and look at their operations to better understand the gaps or opportunities in their day to day work. A strong understanding of an organization’s needs ensure that any technology solution will really address the issues that the organization faces and open the door to innovative solutions.
Quick description of organization – take from slide One of HOWA’s programs – the Cross Age Mentoring Program - pairs students in grades 4 – 8 with student mentors in high school. The students form friendships, meet during lunch periods at school, and do after school activities together. Jane, a program manager at HOWA, began having difficulty reaching the high school mentors. In the past they had mainly communicated by email, but the mentors basically stopped responding She learned that the student mentors were increasingly using text message for communication When one of the mentors texted her, she took their lead and started communicating with the mentors via text messaging. She said it wasn’t a board decision where they sat down and looked at communication models – it was just a way to meet a need. And it works. Now she communicates with the mentors by text messaging and they are quick to respond. This solution didn’t cost anything more than their existing data plan. HOWA says that has definitely increased the quality of their services. They are able to communicate quickly with the mentors, sometimes even setting up mentor/mentees meetings on that same day.
SUMMARIZES RESPONSES TO NEEDS
ALSO ASK PEOPLE TO CHAT IN ON OTHER IDEAS
If other, can you chat in your thoughts?
FEEDBACK ON OTHER IDEAS – CONNECTING NEEDS AND TECHNOLOGY
UW of Olmsted County works to mobilize resources and volunteers, and advocate for those who need it. They serve more than 14,000 constituents and that number is growing. They wanted to get community level information and track unduplicated numbers. That drove them to look for a technology solution. One of their staff members was at a conference and learned about a system that lets multiple organizations in a community access a database that’s stored in the cloud. The shared database lets each individual service provider significantly reduce client intake time. If one organization does intake, the others don’t have to. After using this system, the Comm Info Sharing System, for awhile, the UW of Olmsted innovated a step further by creating the Olmsted Connect Card – a scannable photo id card given to users that further reduces intake time The nonprofit service providers using the system don’t need a lot of technical experience because the whole thing is housed in the cloud. All they need is access to the internet and a scanner. And the UW has been funded to provide the scanners at no cost to the 20 participating agencies. Overall the clients of the agencies get a higher quality of service. Reducing the time required to with clients for intake has the positive effect of increasing the time available to talk with clients and provide services.
UW of Olmsted County works to mobilize resources and volunteers, and advocate for those who need it. They serve more than 14,000 constituents and that number is growing. They wanted to get community level information and track unduplicated numbers. That drove them to look for a technology solution. One of their staff members was at a conference and learned about a system that lets multiple organizations in a community access a database that’s stored in the cloud. The shared database lets each individual service provider significantly reduce client intake time. If one organization does intake, the others don’t have to. After using this system, the Comm Info Sharing System, for awhile, the UW of Olmsted innovated a step further by creating the Olmsted Connect Card – a scannable photo id card given to users that further reduces intake time The nonprofit service providers using the system don’t need a lot of technical experience because the whole thing is housed in the cloud. All they need is access to the internet and a scanner. And the UW has been funded to provide the scanners at no cost to the 20 participating agencies. Overall the clients of the agencies get a higher quality of service. Reducing the time required to with clients for intake has the positive effect of increasing the time available to talk with clients and provide services.
REPORT BACK ON IDENTIFYING NEEDS
Lifetrack Resources, located in St. Paul, develops the strengths within those facing the greatest challenges so that all people are strong, healthy and productive members of the community. Lifetrack Resources has used technology to innovate and improve their service delivery in a number of different ways. The organization provides autonomy for innovation and technology, and a culture for it. Here are 2 examples: 1. MN Hands and Voices program provides a support network for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, and their families. Though they offer speakers and presentations, they had some challenges reaching their audience. SLIDE - Some were at home, couldn’t travel or the distance to in-person events was too great. They found that they could successfully reach their audience by recording presentations and making them available as closed-captioned webinars. Lifetrack uses Google Analytics to track website usage, and have seen very positive results.
Analytics to track website usage, and have seen very positive results. Lifetrack has also found success utilizing technology in their employment and economic opportunity services. Specifically from their Customer Service Training Program. SLIDE - They came up with the idea of creating a blog that provided their program participants to opportunity to practice writing, learn about the internet and work on networking. The blog, named At Your Service, is open to comments, and the feedback is helpful to participants to gauge the effectiveness of their posts. Participants can also attach their resumes to their posts.