Are you feeling burned out?
Nonprofit IT can be exhausting. Learn how to de-stress to better tackle your job and help your nonprofit succeed.

There is so much stress in managing nonprofit IT.

There are conflicting agendas, tight budgets, and unrealistic demands.
A lot of us have been burned by IT projects in the past that still give us nightmares. The tool was expensive, required a huge project to implement, took a ton of time, didn’t work, everyone hated it, the training was terrible, and the vendor or consultants or your boss left you holding the bag.

Some executives really do understand how crucial functioning IT is to your nonprofit – to your work life and to your ability to achieve your mission.
But even if you are lucky enough to have a lot of leadership, IT management is still tough. It touches every staff member and even little issues can make your work unworkable. Don’t get us started on cybersecurity fears.

While you work on the big picture of IT management at your nonprofit, don’t forget to work on managing your own stress and avoiding burnout.
With all the recent research and attention paid to self-care in nonprofit careers we wanted to spend a webinar focused particularly on
de-stress and self-care in nonprofit IT roles.

Director of Marketing and recovering IT Director at large and small nonprofits Carolyn Woodard explores the latest research on the benefits of de-stressing and some tips on incorporating self-care in your nonprofit IT management routine.

If your first reaction to the idea of self care is that you are too busy to put it on your to-do list, this is the podcast episode for you.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Do you have an IT roadmap at your nonprofit?
As a nonprofit leader, how can you design an IT roadmap to create value for your organization?

On October 3, 2024 the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership partnered with Community IT Innovators to provide a workshop: Design an IT Roadmap to Create Value for Your Nonprofit.

To fully utilize the power of IT to support your nonprofit, you need to have a plan. View the workshop video to learn the steps to create your own IT roadmap and incorporate IT strategy into your leadership and budget practice.

To learn more about the Georgetown Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership at the McCourt School of Public Policy check out their program here. The Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership provides advanced education in leadership, public and nonprofit management, advocacy and philanthropy, with domestic and international applications. Their multi-sectoral approach, public policy orientation, and research focus on effective practices, ensure the breadth and relevance of the educational experiences we offer.

They focus on four program areas, found on their website:

Executive Certificate and Customized Programs available online and in person.
Graduate Education
Research that Informs Practice
Local to Global Community Engagement

Thank you, Georgetown Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership for inviting us to present to your alumni and to Hoyas For Others.

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers, accounting, development, and nonprofit IT personnel – and as with all our webinars, it is appropriate for a varied audience.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Las mejores prácticas para organizar sus archivos en la nube para lograr seguridad y eficiencia.

La organización de archivos en la nube es algo que puede parecer una prioridad menor, en particular con el aumento de las herramientas de búsqueda potentes y ahora con el auge de la búsqueda con inteligencia artificial (IA). Carolyn habló con el invitado Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager Team Lead de Community IT, para responder a preguntas sobre por qué es importante crear un sistema de organización de archivos, tanto para una mayor ciberseguridad en el mundo de la IA como para la productividad y la eficiencia de su personal. Los consejos para la organización de archivos en la nube incluyen priorizar el proyecto, etiquetar claramente los archivos y crear políticas de gobernanza sólidas y capacitar al personal sobre sus expectativas en cuanto al etiquetado y el guardado de archivos.

Norwin ofrece algunas razones para etiquetar con precisión sus archivos y defiende la necesidad de organizarse en línea. También ofrece consejos para lograr que su liderazgo participe en la definición de sus políticas de organización de archivos y vea las ventajas estratégicas de priorizar este proyecto.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Best practices on organizing your files in the cloud for security and efficiency.

Cloud files organization is something that can seem like a low priority, particularly with the rise of strong search tools and now with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) search. Carolyn spoke with guest Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager, to answer questions about why it’s important to create a file organization system, both for increased cybersecurity in the world of AI, and for the productivity and efficiency of your staff. Cloud file organization tips include prioritizing the project, clearly labeling files, and creating strong governance policies and training staff on your expectations on labeling and saving files.

Having a method and a system is important for safeguarding file access when you use AI tools to search accessible files. It’s also important to create a file retention policy for your organization, and governance around file search.

How can you save money by routinely saving what is important and removing old or misleading files to an archive or deleting them? In addition to spending your nonprofit funds to backup files that are no longer relevant, your staff will spend more time evaluating if the AI search tool has surfaced a relevant or irrelevant file. That staff time is also money.

Norwin provides some reasons to accurately label your files and makes a case for being organized online. He also provides tips on getting your leadership engaged in setting your file organization policies and seeing the strategic advantages to prioritizing this project.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?
Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford?

In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions.

October is Cybersecurity month! Community IT Chief Technology Officer Matt Eshleman walked through our revised Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits in a webinar designed to get your nonprofit prepped to face cyberliability insurance requirements and ever-evolving threats.

Learn the Community IT approach to cybersecurity and how even small changes will protect your organization against threats big and small.

2024 Updated Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits – Download

Matt shares updated advice on security improvements that provide protection against the most common attacks. You will learn about AI and cybersecurity, best practices in staff training, how to qualify for cyber insurance, and why you need written IT documentation and governance policies. Do you have an approach to compliance? Do you know if your staff are following your cybersecurity policies and procedures?

With the rise of automated and realistic AI tools and more sophisticated methods of identity and email verification, your nonprofit can’t afford not to prioritize cybersecurity. It may be difficult to qualify for business insurance if you don’t complete certain checklists of cybersecurity precautions. But if you don’t know where to start, it can be tempting to delay indefinitely.

This Playbook gives you a simple structure to understand how to think about cybersecurity risks and costs for your nonprofit. Matt’s presentation gives you tips you can put in place quickly and train your staff on immediately. You can download the new Playbook for free here.

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers, accounting, development, and nonprofit IT personnel – and as with all our webinars, it is appropriate for a varied audience.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

Presenter:

As the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT and our resident cybersecurity expert, Matthew Eshleman is responsible for shaping Community IT’s strategy around the technology platforms used by organizations to be secure and productive. With a deep background in network infrastructure, he fundamentally understands how technology works and interoperates both in the office and in the cloud.

Matt is a frequent speaker at NTEN events and has presented at the Inside NGO conference, Non-Profit Risk Management Summit and Credit Builders Alliance Symposium. He is also the session designer and trainer for TechSoup’s Digital Security course.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?
Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford?

In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions.

October is Cybersecurity month! Community IT Chief Technology Officer Matt Eshleman walked through our revised Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits in a webinar designed to get your nonprofit prepped to face cyberliability insurance requirements and ever-evolving threats.

Learn the Community IT approach to cybersecurity and how even small changes will protect your organization against threats big and small.

2024 Updated Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits – Download

Matt shares updated advice on security improvements that provide protection against the most common attacks. You will learn about AI and cybersecurity, best practices in staff training, how to qualify for cyber insurance, and why you need written IT documentation and governance policies. Do you have an approach to compliance? Do you know if your staff are following your cybersecurity policies and procedures?

With the rise of automated and realistic AI tools and more sophisticated methods of identity and email verification, your nonprofit can’t afford not to prioritize cybersecurity. It may be difficult to qualify for business insurance if you don’t complete certain checklists of cybersecurity precautions. But if you don’t know where to start, it can be tempting to delay indefinitely.

This Playbook gives you a simple structure to understand how to think about cybersecurity risks and costs for your nonprofit. Matt’s presentation gives you tips you can put in place quickly and train your staff on immediately. You can download the new Playbook for free here.

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers, accounting, development, and nonprofit IT personnel – and as with all our webinars, it is appropriate for a varied audience.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

Presenter:

As the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT and our resident cybersecurity expert, Matthew Eshleman is responsible for shaping Community IT’s strategy around the technology platforms used by organizations to be secure and productive. With a deep background in network infrastructure, he fundamentally understands how technology works and interoperates both in the office and in the cloud.

Matt joined Community IT as an intern in the summer of 2000 and after finishing his dual degrees in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems at Eastern Mennonite University, he rejoined Community IT as a network administrator in January of 2001. Matt has steadily progressed up at Community IT and while working full time received his MBA from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University.

Matt is a frequent speake

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Best practices on improving data security, making the case for creating the policies, and the impact of AI on data security.

Carolyn speaks with guest Jeff Gibson from Build Consulting to answer questions about why data is important to nonprofits, how your data can get really widely distributed in different tools in different departments, and why it is important to do an audit and assessment to know what data you have.

Do you know where your data risks lie? Do you know you are in compliance with laws and your internal policies? Do you have a data policy? What do you need to know about data governance for nonprofits?

Jeff has over 25 years in nonprofit IT including as CIO Chief Information Officer, but recognizes that many staff at nonprofits work with data or use tools that create databases – but don’t have a data background or expertise with database management. That can create holes in your cybersecurity that cause real risks for your organization.

But it can be really difficult to see a need for specific data policies. It can be difficult to convince leadership to prioritize the time to do a data assessment and create data policies. And at small to medium sized nonprofits without resources for a compliance team, it can be hard to monitor compliance with your own policies and with legal requirements.

Jeff shared his experiences and insights into these difficulties and offered some tips on making the case for the danger of unmanaged data. If you are feeling anxious about your data security policies, this discussion on data governance for nonprofits will give you ideas on how to move forward.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

How do you track your subscriptions and licenses? Why is it important to know who has which subscription at your nonprofit?

Many clients come to Community IT experiencing difficulty tracking IT inventory. In addition to tracking physical hardware, laptops, and devices, nonprofits also can find it difficult to track licenses and software subscriptions to cloud-based apps and IT tools.

The rise in cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) models has led to ease of use. It is really easy to sign up for a subscription to many IT tools and platforms that can help productivity and benefit your nonprofit. But there are many advantages to tracking subscriptions, and disadvantages – financial and security – over leaving subscriptions and licenses up to individuals on your staff. Also make sure your nonprofit has strong practices for off-boarding staff and ending their subscriptions and licenses when no longer needed.

Director of Information Systems and Technology Pat Sprehe joins Carolyn in this podcast to discuss the reasons your nonprofit should care about licenses and subscriptions, and how to go about managing the ecosystem from an IT and budget perspective. Among other duties, Pat manages subscriptions and licenses for Community IT staff and is well aware of the challenges and issues.

Learn best practices to manage costs and ensure security for all your users, without stifling their entrepreneurship and self-management. With a little prioritization now, you can ensure your organization is protected from bad actors and can save on subscriptions and licenses.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.