(ISF) Nonprofit Best Practices

I am working with a group of local nonprofit professionals to develop
a curriculum to support recently established guiding principles and
best practices around information management, which I have included
below for your reference. We are making good progress, with a detailed
outline of information and activities to support each practice.
However, it is a large and important task and we want to be sure we
are providing relevant and meaningful information to each participant.

Throughout the process, we remain mindful of the following:
-The subject area includes information technology, but also the much
larger concept of information sharing and management.
-The curriculum is being developed for the entire nonprofit community
which encompasses organizations of all shapes and sizes with varying
resources.
-The audience will consist of executive directors, IT/IS/IR staff,
finance/operations staff and board members.

With that mind, I wonder if you might be willing to take a minute or
two to share the following with me:
-What are your biggest challenges/concerns?
-What resources/info would be most helpful to YOU in your role?
(samples, checklists, reference materials?)
-From YOUR perspective, what do need other stakeholders to understand?
-Please share any resources (samples, articles, checklists,
guidelines, websites) that you find indispensable or particularly helpful.

With many thanks in advance for your valuable time & insight,

Beth Baldauf ( bbaldauf%40uway.org">bbaldaufuway.org)

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SCANPO Guiding Principles & Best Practices
<http://scanpo.org/pdf/SCANPO%20Guiding%20Principles%20Best%20Practices.pdf>

Information Management Guiding Principle:

Nonprofits have extensive responsibilities for managing information in
a way that ensures confidentiality, accuracy, timeliness, integrity,
security and compliance. Adequate and current technology is critical
for managing info and achieving the organization's mission.

Best Practices:

1. Systems are in place to provide timely, accurate and relevant
information.
2. The organization has created and regularly updates a
plan for inventorying and ensuring sufficient resources for technology.
3. The organization has established policies that govern the use of
information and technology systems, including security, data storage,
appropriate use, access rights, maintenance, and back-up.
4. The organization has established policies to ensure confidential
information and privacy, with appropriate procedures to limit access
to data.
5. Staff, board members and volunteers have the skills they need to
use technology required for their work.
6. The organization has a written mandatory retention and periodic
destruction policy, which includes guidelines for electronic files and
voicemail.
7. Policies and practices are in place to identify and protect the
organization's intellectual property rights and to ensure the rights
of other organizations are not violated.
8. The organization maintains and implements plans to deal with
disasters and transitions.
9. The organization seeks to ensure that any web-based information
about the nonprofit is accurate.

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The general principals are sound, and that is a useful list - but it is not nonprofit specific. I am wary of nonprofit IT somehow being defined as different from general IT management as I think it leads people to think there is some special nonprofit piece they don't know. The principals below could apply to any and all companies and organizations with an IT infrastructure. When talking at such a broad level, the opening statement could have the word nonprofit replaced by "all companies and organizations" and still be true.

The resources I use day to day that might support those principals are those that assist the role of an IT support manager, and those would simply not be relevant to ED, board and operations staff. Likewise when I have taught "Accidental Techie&quot; classes that includes the resources need to implement these principles in a small organization without IT staff, I can't imagine those classes speaking usefully to IT professionals, EDs or the board.

I'm trying to imagine a similar curriculum that was about Good practice in finance management that was aimed at every size of organization and every level of stakeholder from CFOs to operational staff.

So I know this isn't what you asked for, but I am questioning the benefit of a curriculum aimed at every kind of staff in every kind of organization. Perhaps you could be more specific in what perspectives you want to hear and what audience you want us to address.

Don't mean to pour cold water on this - I do think it is a useful and
productive discussion to have. I look forward to hearing the views of
others on this.

Jenny

-----original message-----
>&gt;Information Management Guiding Principle: Nonprofits have extensive responsibilities for managing information in way that ensures confidentiality, accuracy, timeliness, integrity, security and compliance. Adequate and current technology is critical for managing info and achieving the organization's mission.
Best Practices:
1. Systems are in place to provide timely, accurate and relevant
information.
2. The organization has created and regularly updates a
plan for inventorying and ensuring sufficient resources for technology.
3. The organization has established policies that govern the use of
information and technology systems, including security, data storage,
appropriate use, access rights, maintenance, and back-up.
4. The organization has established policies to ensure confidential
information and privacy, with appropriate procedures to limit access
to data.
5. Staff, board members and volunteers have the skills they need to
use technology required for their work.
6. The organization has a written mandatory retention and periodic
destruction policy, which includes guidelines for electronic files and
voicemail.
7. Policies and practices are in place to identify and protect the
organization's intellectual property rights and to ensure the rights
of other organizations are not violated.
8. The organization maintains and implements plans to deal with
disasters and transitions.
9. The organization seeks to ensure that any web-based information
about the nonprofit is accurate.&gt;>

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