5 Awesome ways MSPs can help nonprofits accomplish their mission
Nonprofit organizations have a unique set of challenges. They have to deal with staffing and volunteer shortages, adhere to government regulations to maintain tax-exempt status, and work within very limited budgets. However, the biggest challenge nonprofits are facing involves IT.
They need to adapt to technology trends and address information security concerns to accomplish their mission, but the costly demands of IT are difficult enough to meet even for profitable businesses. For nonprofits, operating a dedicated IT department with the expertise necessary to keep in-house servers and workstations running smoothly is close to impossible.
Fortunately, working with managed IT services providers (MSPs) can eliminate these problems and provide a host of benefits to your organization. Here’s what you can expect from hiring an MSP:
#1. Reduce costs
The most obvious benefit of partnering with an MSP is that it offers nonprofits many opportunities to cut costs. A dependable MSP with experience working with nonprofits can serve as a fully outsourced IT department complete with expert guidance and all the solutions you need to protect your reputation and advance your mission.
An MSP provides patch management, installation services, system optimizations, data backups, proactive IT maintenance, and much more. The best part is, these services are available to your nonprofit for an affordable fixed monthly subscription fee.
#2. Protect data
While nonprofits might not have corporate secrets like businesses do, that doesn’t mean they don’t hold sensitive information. For example, nonprofits that operate in the healthcare sector might hold patient health information (PHI), which must be protected in accordance with HIPAA regulations. Transactions from donors also need protection.
An MSP ensures your most valuable assets are safe and sound. For starters, they perform a comprehensive vulnerability assessment to identify the weaknesses in your systems. They then offer robust security solutions like advanced threat protection systems, 24/7 network monitoring, and security training to protect your nonproft from a wide variety of cyberthreats.
#3. Enhance scalability
Nonprofits often find themselves facing overwhelming challenges when it comes to advancing their missions. The lack of scalability of traditional operational processes and in-house IT often puts up barriers in the way of innovation, thus stifling their ability to grow without adding risk.
MSPs typically offer a wide range of cloud services that reduce your reliance on physical office space and hardware and let you access computing resources on demand. No longer will you have to worry about things like costly hardware upgrades whenever you want to onboard new volunteers.
#4. Enable remote work
Nonprofits often work extensively with volunteers out on the field, particularly those operating in areas like healthcare, disaster response, and religious missions. That makes the ability to easily connect with your volunteers essential for the success of your mission. But that’s a lot harder if they have to manually exchange information via email or physical media.
MSPs can help you move your operations to the cloud to allow volunteers to stay connected no matter where they are. For instance, cloud platforms like Office 365 offer plenty of team collaboration tools, from shared Outlook calendars and inboxes to Microsoft Teams’ video chat and text messaging features.
#5. Optimize productivity
A big part of doing more with less is enhancing productivity. Since volunteers and employees typically join your organization to help make a positive difference in the world, they’ll be much happier if they’re able to do what they do best without constantly running into barriers because of troublesome technology.
Instead of constantly worrying about matters like data security and downtime, they should be able to focus on what they do best, whether that’s back in the office, out on the field, or in the comfort of their homes. MSPs make that possible by enabling better connectivity and mobility while alleviating the technical burden on your team.
If you’re running a nonprofit organization, consult with a Couple of Gurus for all your IT-related problems. We leverage our several years of experience in cybersecurity, cloud technology, and managed services to help you take your mission to the next level. Call us today to request a consultation.
