Happy Spring everybody! We hope you’ve been able to get offline and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.
Last week, we hosted the "Advancing Impact and Equity with the Nonprofit CDM" virtual event. In this webinar, Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN, Leon Wilson, Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer of The Cleveland Foundation, and Darrell Booker, Corporate Affairs Specialist at Microsoft Philanthropies shared insights on global changes and the impact of digital transformation in the nonprofit sector.
We’re so excited to share the recording of this amazing conversation. If you missed the event or want a refresher, keep on reading!
The NCDM Community
The conversation opens with Ryan Ozimek, CEO of PICnet, and Tim Lockie, CEO of Now IT Matters, briefly discussing the Nonprofit Common Data Model (NCDM) community. The NCDM’s mission is to nurture the growth of a vibrant nonprofit data model ecosystem and to more effectively achieve the Sustainable Development Goals through business, nonprofit, and individual collaboration. Part of this mission, as Tim shares, is decreasing the amount of money spent on data migration.
“Today, the budget spend on data migration for a common project is about 40% of the budget. We think it’s possible to move that closer to 10% over the next 5 years. And we think that’s possible with the NCDM.” Tim Lockie, CEO of Now IT Matters
The NCDM team hopes to achieve this by leveraging a community for partners, by partners. Bringing together people who are tackling these challenges on a regular basis, we embrace the open source, collaborative spirit. If you want to get involved, join the online community!
Our Panelists
Tracy Kronzak, Director of Innovation at Now IT Matters, introduces our delightful panelists Amy, Darrell, and Leon.
Amy Sample Ward is the CEO of NTEN, a nonprofit organization focused on making sure all nonprofits can use technology in strategic and racially equitable ways to meet their missions and community needs. Follow Amy on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Darrell Booker is the Corporate Affairs Specialist at Microsoft Philanthropies. Through the Philanthropies division and Microsoft Tech for Social Impact, Darrell is on a mission to use technology to make a better world. He is also leading one of Microsoft’s racial equity commitments termed the Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities. Follow Darrell on Twitter and Instagram.
Leon Wilson is the Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer at the Cleveland Foundation, the world’s first and oldest community foundation. Leon is involved with technology and its use in the field of philanthropy. Prior to joining the Cleveland Foundation, Leon also worked with small and midsize nonprofits implementing technology and understanding the pain points that exist. Follow Leon on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Setting the Scene
To set the scene for our conversation, Amy begins by speaking about the moment that we’re in as a collective people.
“I don’t know how to have a conversation about technology without talking about the oppression that it perpetuates.” Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN
Amy goes on to speak about how technology has been built by white folks to maintain white power. They affirm that we can’t create a better world without actively dismantling this system.
“If we can’t have a conversation about equity start with a direct naming of white supremacy, I don’t know what equity we’re talking about.” Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN
Darrell continues by addressing the inequity that is prevalent in nonprofits in terms of what technology is available to them. Currently, many nonprofits are forced to use unrestricted funds to address their technology needs. But are unrestricted funds evenly distributed?
“When we look across this country, nonprofits that are black led or supporting black communities are receiving unrestricted funds at a 76% smaller rate than white led organizations.” Darrell Booker, Corporate Affairs Specialist at Microsoft Philanthropies
Since technology has become increasingly essential for nonprofits to achieve their mission, this disparity in funding is driving a larger and larger wedge between the resources available to folks.
What Does it Mean to Serve Nonprofits with Technology?
As previously mentioned, technology is essential for nonprofits. And like people, nonprofits are not a homogenous group. One question that Leon raises is, which nonprofits are you catering to? Large nonprofits? Nonprofits that receive a lot of funding? Nonprofits that have been around for 10, 20, 30 years? Sometimes you may not be aware of your own biases.
Leon shared a story about Cleveland, Ohio’s COVID 19 rapid response fund. Various funders and folks from around the city collaborated to give over $12 million dollars to 200 different organizations.
“We took the time to look at the data. How did we do from a racial equity standpoint? And surprisingly, we did exactly what Darrell said. When we looked at the dollars that went out, and we consider ourselves to be unbiased, black led organizations got 70% less. Or we gave them less than what they asked for compared to a white led organization.” Leon Wilson, Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer of The Cleveland Foundation
Leon and the team working on the project dug into what happened. What questions did we ask? What questions didn’t we ask? What coded words were used?
“We have to look at the biases in how we operate and how we’re stratifying the nonprofit community.” Leon Wilson, Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer of The Cleveland Foundation
So, what does it mean to serve nonprofits with technology? It means that you engage organizations of all levels, all sizes, all ages.
What is the System We’re Trying to Change?
There was a time when every nonprofit, to some degree, owned their own data. Data lived on servers that were on site. Even the few virtual servers that existed were on the premises. As Leon says, “Fast forward 15 years and now your data is all over the place.” With subscriber and cloud-based applications and tools, organizations are often watching their bills pile up.
“One thing that I think is true of the nonprofit ecosystem is that they’ve been passive receivers of technology over the past 40 years.” Tracy Kronzak, Director of Innovation at Now IT Matters
Amy goes on to share about NTEN’s Equity Guide for Nonprofit Technology Equity Guide for Nonprofit Technology which is helping shift this narrative and give organizations agency over their data. One aspect of this guide that nods to the NCDM is the emphasis put on data interoperability.
“Anyone who’s creating technology needs to make it easy for the data in their system to port over to other systems. Not doing that is an equity issue both on the organization and its constituents.” Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN
The NCDM, if widely adopted, would make it easier for technologists to make their products interoperable. And this interoperability would benefit smaller nonprofits who potentially don’t have the influence to demand data standards from their vendor.
What does it mean to create a data standard like the NCDM?
Leon shared that, historically, common data models like SQL and HTML were created to produce similar interoperability that the NCDM strives for. Without a data standard like the NCDM, organizations have been forced to rely on .csv files. Importing and exporting .csv, when possible with the platform they’re using, is time consuming for organizations and laborious for staff.
“Vendors need to come together and agree upon adoption of the common data model. Then it becomes a feature for the client to look for to help them cut down the cost of data migration.” Leon Wilson, Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer of The Cleveland Foundation
Amy goes on to speak about the importance of vendors explaining to organizations what the NCDM is and how it functions. A culture shift may have to take place for organizations and the way they interpret “data standard” and “data model”.
“This is not a whole new definition of collective impact. We are not telling you what your data means to you or to your constituents. We are helping you to make it moveable and usable.” Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN
If you’re an SI, ISV, vendor, or nonprofit organization and you want to be part of this impact, join the online community.
Final Thoughts
“There is tremendous opportunity with the NCDM.” Leon Wilson, Chief of Digital Innovation and Chief Information Officer of The Cleveland Foundation
“Use what has already been put together from a community, as to the great attributes and fields that you should be capturing, so that you’re not reinventing the wheel.” Darrell Booker, Corporate Affairs Specialist at Microsoft Philanthropies
“Building a better world is going to take every damn person there is, doing everything they can, with everything they have, from wherever they are.” Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN
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