Building a Resilient Tech Strategy: Checklist for Nonprofits

When it comes to your team’s fundraising and engagement software, you shouldn’t settle for an ad-hoc jumble of tools.

To stay ahead, your nonprofit needs a resilient technology strategy that fuels your mission, adapts to change, and is a true asset to your work. The best tech strategies help your nonprofit become proactive instead of reactive, allowing you to leverage opportunities and capitalize on your strengths.

Ready to bring your team to the next level of tech resiliency? This checklist guides nonprofits through the process of designing a technology ecosystem that’s built to last.

1. Establish a Clear Strategy and Vision

Technology decisions should never be made in a vacuum. A resilient nonprofit technology strategy starts with a clear, documented vision that aligns your systems with your long-term organizational goals. This is the difference between simply buying new tools whenever the need arises and thoughtfully designing a cohesive tech infrastructure.

Here’s how your team can bridge the gap:

• Define your future state. Work with your internal teams and tech consultants to define what success looks like in five years. This "future state" vision goes beyond features and focuses on mission-critical outcomes, like achieving a complete, 360-degree view of every supporter. Here’s what an effective vision statement with a tech lens might look like:

  • “By 2027, our technology ecosystem will automate 90% of routine data entry and gift processing tasks. This shift will allow our development team to reallocate hundreds of hours annually from administrative work to high-value relationship building, directly supporting our goal to double major gift revenue.”

• Assess your current ecosystem. It’s crucial to understand your current systems, staff capacity, and business processes across the entire organization. For too many nonprofits, existing systems are highly decentralized, leading to disconnected data and inefficient manual processes. Survey your team or even work with a tech consultant to gather these insights.

• Build a detailed roadmap. It’s not enough to simply know where you want to go and the problems you want to solve. Take time to prioritize initiatives based on their strategic impact and feasibility. Think through how you’ll build institutional consensus and where you might hit roadblocks along the way.

Keep in mind that your tech strategy will likely change over time. However, it’s important to build a firm foundation during this step so you always understand your priorities.

2. Unify Your Data with a Truly Integrated CRM

A resilient nonprofit can trust its data. Data silos (i.e. isolated pockets of information across different departments and tools) are too often a source of stress and inefficiency for nonprofit staff. 

With a centralized, integrated CRM system, your nonprofit can break down these silos and leverage donor data to actually empower (not overwhelm) your team. While you reimagine your CRM strategy, ensure you:

• Make your CRM a mission-critical asset. Your CRM should be more than a digital filing cabinet—it should be the centerpiece that actively helps your team build lasting donor relationships and make smarter fundraising decisions.Try to integrate it into your workflow wherever it makes sense to do so for consistency. 

• Prioritize native integration and data governance. Look for a central platform with strong, native integrations that automate data transfer and maintain data quality. This gives your team time back to actually engage supporters.

• Seek platform expertise. For teams leveraging complex CRMs like Salesforce, working with a knowledgeable, specialized nonprofit consultant ensures your CRM is configured correctly from the outset and tailored to your unique needs.

Choosing the correct CRM from the start is crucial to get your efforts up and running as soon as possible. If you decide to look on your own, be sure to leverage demos and talk with product experts to find the best solution.

3. Explore AI Thoughtfully

Lately, it seems like there’s a new AI tool built to solve any and every point of fundraising friction. AI can be a true amplifier for your mission, but resilient nonprofits should approach this tech thoughtfully. After all, a resilient tech strategy doesn't chase every new tool—it focuses on what really works.

Consider the following when considering AI adoption:

• Understand your AI use cases. Beyond the promise of organizational efficiency, consider the tangible use cases AI can offer your nonprofit. This could be in areas like improved audience targeting, engaging with supporters, or data analysis.

• Align your AI policy with institutional values. Trust and integrity are essential, especially for organizations that manage sensitive supporter data. In addition to security considerations, Nonprofit tech expert firm Heller Consulting stresses the importance of establishing an internal framework for ethical AI implementation at your nonprofit.

Remember, the power of any AI tool is directly tied to the quality of the data it learns from. When you have clean, integrated data, you ensure that your infrastructure can evolve as the AI landscape does. 

4. Prioritize People Through Change Management

Even the best technology in the world is useless if your team doesn't adopt it. Implementation setbacks can trigger domino effects throughout your nonprofit, some with immediate impact and others that take time to materialize.

True tech resilience means investing in the people who use the tools every day so you can actually realize the promise of your nonprofit’s software ecosystem.

Prioritize these change management strategies for effective implementation:

• Secure buy-in from all stakeholders and your org leadership. Technology impacts every aspect of operations from fundraising to program delivery. In addition to executive consensus, you’ll also need buy-in from your staff who will be using these tools the most. 

• Treat adoption as a critical project. Effective implementation relies on coordination across departments to avoid falling back into old habits and institutional silos. Make sure your full team is aligned on the importance of this project and a shared vision of success.

• Invest in ongoing training and capacity building. Schedule structured trainings periodically (for example, at 6 months or 12 months post-launch). These will help recalibrate team usage and uncover gaps in adoption you could otherwise miss.

By placing your people at the center of your implementation strategy, you ensure that your new technology supports your mission rather than being a source of organizational friction.

5. Sustain and Protect Your Investment

A resilient strategy is designed for longevity. Effective tech implementation requires teams to continually revisit their tools to ensure they’re working effectively and adapting to your nonprofit’s evolving needs.

Here’s how to stay on top of your nonprofit’s tech investment:

• Establish a proactive maintenance plan. Technology requires proactive attention to keep data clean, integrations running smoothly, and systems optimized. Consider leveraging professional nonprofit technology and data management services to ensure your complex systems are looked after by experts.

• Build a roadmap. Ensure you understand the key features and functionalities your org will need in the next five years, and make sure you are testing new tools for how well they integrate into the ecosystem.

• Enforce regulatory and cybersecurity best practices. Even smaller nonprofits must take proactive steps to safeguard their systems, including routine staff training on phishing and enforcing safeguards like multifactor authentication.

• Routinely measure ROI and adjust. Regularly work with your team to calculate the return on investment of your technology, measuring both the staff hours saved through automation and the direct financial gains from operational efficiencies.

By committing to ongoing stewardship of your systems, you ensure your technology remains a robust foundation for your mission rather than becoming a liability.

This checklist empowers your nonprofit to understand your tech inside and out within the context of your short- and long-term goals. That way, you can keep your team rallied around the same goals and priorities. Eventually, you’ll perfect supporter experience, build confidence across your team, and position your organization for long-term mission success.