Tech roles at nonprofits

Tech roles and responsibilities (Lisa (facilitator) / Max / Ryan)

In nonprofits: Sometimes someone becomes the “accidental techie” - the body of knowledge is vast!

• Tech Support
  • Someone should be holding tech support (but not necessarily solely responsible for solving)
  • Rule of thumb: It generally requires 1 hour per week per person for tech support
  • One solution: outsource tech support
  • Another solution: empower others to research it OR share your problem-solving skillsets to those who seem interested in addressing issues on their own

• Tech needs & Individual tool management
  • If someone is good at something, they should be the one that does it (given that it’s written in their job description)
  • Periodically assessing the tools being used - can two be consolidated into one, etc,?
  • Designate an owner for each tool (maybe the person who uses it the most)
  • Keep an inventory (whether it’s in your password manager or elsewhere) with notes: who’s responsible for the tool
  • Offboarding process should include a passing the torch of knowledge

• Documentation
  • It’s irresponsible not to have documentation
  • It may feel like no one reads it, but nails down organizational practices
  • Focus on the 95% of the tool/process usage (the edge-use cases don’t need as much focus)
  • Pretend you’re leaving next week - what do you want your replacement to know?
  • New people will read it and they have fresh eyes
  • Training new people is sometimes a good reason to update documentation (the trainees can even help you)
  • FAQs - can point people to resource if something is asked repeatedly
    • Example: “How do I set up my out of office message?”,

• Planning, Implementation, Delegating
  • Shadowing is a valuable tool
  • Time/project management: blocks of time on your calendar specifically for projects (even if you have to later move it)
  • Ask yourself, “Is this really urgent?” or “Can it wait?” when receiving new requests, issues. Etc.,
  • Being interruptible (available) vs not - it takes time to refocus after interruptions
  • Taking a day “off” when you’re actually devoting time for non-interruptible projects
  • Orientation to organizational culture (part of onboarding process)
  • Communication channels - text versus call versus instant message versus email versus desk visits
  • Helps differentiate what’s urgent
  • Provides expected wait time for different types of responses
  • Expectation management

Notes: NTEN Technology Staffing Reports are worth exploring: Report page