The 2019 Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) Conference brought together nonprofit professionals from across the state. Attendees joined the conversation around this year’s theme of Building a Better Commonwealth. It was an opportunity to connect with others who are deeply committed to making an impact in our communities and learn about the important work of our peers. In this post, we discuss key technology takeaways from the conference including new approaches to old problems and how to proactively use information to demonstrate impact.
New Approaches to Old Problems
The opening session discussed innovative ways of working together to achieve large common goals like financial opportunity, inclusiveness, and housing. These challenges aren’t new, but the collaborative approach to solving them offered a fresh perspective. There was a focus on working together to tackle these difficult problems. In the past, scarce and limited resources have made organizations hesitant to share knowledge and tools. Now, an influx of shared spaces and growing networks emphasize the importance of connecting and sharing ideas across the sector.
Shared resources that serve the nonprofit community can help organizations learn from collective knowledge and increase efficiency through the implementation of best practices. Technology that increases transparency and facilitates collaboration enables us to work together. By leveraging these opportunities organizations can maintain their identity, free up precious resources, and engage with partners they might not previously have sought out.
Measuring Impact with Evidence
During the conference a question was posed: How can information be gathered and used as evidence to measure impact in a way that is truly meaningful? Organizations need systems and processes in place that are proactive, rather than reactive to the needs of a funder or executive. As one panel illustrated evidence should be used to inform, refine, and be responsive to the needs of those gathering the data. Most importantly it should offer transparency to constituents or those the information is being gathered about.
This resonated strongly with my background in designing systems for the purpose of gathering and delivering data. Legacy systems can be rigid about how data is collected, analyzed, and shared. This has made it historically difficult to measure impact using an evidence-based approach. Now systems, like Salesforce, can be configured to meet data and reporting needs. Organizations should ask why they want specific information, who needs to see it, and how it can be gathered in the least disruptive manner. Using these questions as a foundation for solution design can lead to measuring impact in a meaningful way.
Summary + Conclusion
It is hard not to be impressed by the commitment and creativity that over 800 attendees brought to the MNN Conference. As representatives of more than 38,000 nonprofits in the state and hundreds of thousands more across the nation, it is a very visible demonstration of the power nonprofits have. The conference highlighted technology’s role in transparency across the sector and how it is being used for evaluation and measurement. It will be interesting to see how we continue to leverage technology to build a better commonwealth and a stronger sector.