7 Challenges Nonprofits Face and How Cloud Solves Them

Running a nonprofit is not a child’s play – every new step brings along a new challenge. You need to generate funds and showcase its impact; challenges are an integral part of nonprofits. However, embracing a new vision and the use of technology allows you and your nonprofit to make sure that you’re on the path to make a difference in society.

As a matter of fact, nonprofits exist because they believe in their cause and work towards it. They continue their work no matter how hard the circumstances are. But sometimes, they too need a helping hand. Technology can be the best help any nonprofit can get, and one technology that can help nonprofits is Cloud.

The most common challenges faced by nonprofits are usually field-based – face to face communication and ease of access to essential data. Cloud solutions have eased employees to collaborate effectively and eliminate unreliable methods.

Let’s have a look at some of the common challenges that nonprofit organizations face in detail and how cloud solves them.

1. Collaboration

Nonprofit work involves a variety of people ranging from stakeholders to field workers. A major challenge faced by such teams is that they find it difficult to collaborate as they work from different geographies.

The cloud solutions for the nonprofit industry empower people to access all the relevant data regardless of location (they need a compatible device and an internet connection). Remote access allows easy sharing of data for nonprofits while increasing its security, resulting in increased productivity.

2. Grant Tracking

Nonprofits that receive grant funding often find it challenging to track them. However, failure to do so can result in severe consequences such as negative publicity, criminal prosecution, or cancellation of funding.

A great way to track all the grants made by the donors is to host your accounting software such as QuickBooks on the cloud. Cloud offers a unified platform for storing all the essential data, so you do not have to store them on separate systems.

This way, authorized personnel can easily track and report everything to the stakeholders and grant donors.

3. Enterprise-Level Security

Cybersecurity is still a significant issue for most nonprofits (especially with the increasing number of cyberattacks). According to a report by NCSC, there is a culture of trust in nonprofits, which creates opportunities for malicious actors to deploy a range of harmful tactics.

Hosting the applications securely on the cloud allows nonprofits to gain access to enterprise-grade cloud security. The cloud providers deploy various advanced security safeguards such as multi-factor authentication, data encryption, Intrusion Detection and Prevention, access controls, DDoS protection, and many more.

The cloud providers also offer limited data access, guard it with the latest antivirus and firewall, and automatic updates further increase its security.

4. Time Management

The biggest asset for any nonprofit is time. They have limited resources, and time is no exception. But few of them still fail to manage their time effectively, which is why the cloud is so useful to them.

The cloud can make every operation time-efficient for nonprofits. For instance, the administrative staff saves a lot of time with the quick deployment of the cloud and automation of monotonous tasks. Leveraging cloud technology means that nonprofits spend more time on their cause and less on repetitive tasks.

5. Scalability

Nonprofits are required to make the best use of their funds. This means that they have to do more with less – they need to scale up their operations like fundraising with a smaller budget than a for-profit organization.

The cloud can completely revolutionize the way nonprofits fundraise. For instance, the cloud provides a scalable infrastructure – nonprofits can quickly meet the peak demands whenever there is a big charity drive and lower it again during regular days.

6. Carbon Footprint

Most nonprofits wish to reduce their carbon footprint but fail to do so because of the local infrastructure power utilization. They need to utilize energy efficiently, and the cloud assists with the same.

The cloud allows nonprofits to host their applications on a remote server, which saves energy as there is no need to build an in-house IT infrastructure. In a recent Google Apps survey, it was found that a typical organization could reduce its energy consumption by 68-87%, and considerably reduce their carbon footprint.

7. Cost Management

Almost every nonprofit faces issues while managing its resources efficiently – grant givers expect their money to make an impact in the society, budgets are always tight, using outdated software applications, and there is hardly access to the latest technology.

The cloud delivers a lot for less cost, precisely what nonprofits need. It automates mundane tasks so that the employees can focus on more rewarding tasks and taking them closer to achieve the mission.

Moreover, they do not need to buy expensive computer systems for their organization as the data and applications are hosted on the remote servers of the cloud providers. Subsequently, the hardware maintenance and upgrade process is also the provider’s responsibility, freeing up valuable time for nonprofits.

Conclusion

As detailed above, cloud technology can completely revolutionize nonprofits function. Remote access, great scalability, and efficient time management are some of the cloud benefits that solve a majority of problems nonprofits face.

If you want to know more about how your nonprofit can migrate to the cloud and benefit from it, call our experts now at 855-910-6927.