Growing Your Nonprofit Through Cloud ERP Technology

By: | Category: ERP

Scarce resources, ever-changing Charity Navigator ratings criteria, and growth of social enterprises, are only a few out of the many challenges of running a nonprofit in today’s environment. In addition, organizations are expected to accurately measure outcomes, link those outcomes with the true cost of programs, and also deliver a superior donor experience.

Furthermore, many nonprofits are using software solutions with limited computing capabilities. The need for affordability has resulted in many organizations using business application solutions that do not provide real-time visibility and insight into their operations and their mission.

But gone are the days when the accounting system of record was all that mattered, and when spreadsheet-based systems or off the shelf solutions like QuickBooks sufficed. There’s a massive change in today’s nonprofit business model, and globalization and the rise of the Internet are opening up a lot of opportunities for growth. However, in order to maximize these opportunities, organizations must discard aging accounting systems. The question then is, how can nonprofits take advantage of modern technologies at an affordable cost and low complexity?

Cloud to The Rescue

This is where solutions that are developed for cloud can make a major difference. In making a decision, nonprofits should consider cloud ERP for nonprofits, since cloud-based vendors also provide services for software they supply. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers offer the underlying technical infrastructure needed to access the solution, as well as the server hardware, database maintenance and administration, document storage, technical upgrades and ongoing enhancements required. This takes the responsibility of upkeeping the system and maintaining the infrastructure away from the organization, thereby saving the organization time and costs.

But that’s not all, remote access, date sharing, scalability, and enterprise class security all afforded by the cloud increase productivity, enhance fundraising opportunities and enable nonprofits to grow more efficiently.

If your organization is considering a move to cloud based solutions, or you’d like to learn more about the benefits, visit our nonprofit technology resources center for more information, or contact us and one of our Nonprofit Cloud technology experts will be in touch.