Assess Your Organization's Digital Capability

TechSoup Digital Assessment Tool
Solutions & Services
McKenna Bidelman
10.19.2021

AGENDA
1. Framing the Problem
2. Digital Transformation Initiative
3. Framework and Model
4. Digital Assessment Tool
5. Questions

" Recent studies show that technology within the charity sector lags
behind the private sector by at least five years, and many
nonprofit organizations are struggling to embed digital into their
operating models. "
Accenture
"THE NONPROFIT DIGITAL IMPERATIVE:
How Nonprofits Can Maximize the Value of Digital Transformation" (2020)

There are many institutional and historical challenges that prevent
Digital Adoption among Nonprofit Organizations.
Lack of IT Expertise Transition to SaaS
Overhead Myth Lead Gen Tools
Access to Consultation

. © TechSoup Global | All rights reserved
6
1.UN Sustainable Development Report 2021, 2. John Hopkins Center for Civil Socity Studies, 3. Nonprofit Trends Report 2021, 4. TechSoup report on Global Data Handling and Digital Readiness 2021
The Global Nonprofit Sector
has more to do.
• Structural inequalities are starker
than before.
• ~120 Million people were forced back into
extreme poverty and chronic hunger in
2020.
• We are further away from meeting
the 2030 UN Sustainable Development
(SDGs) target than ever before.
But, there are fewer
resources and funding.
• $6 Trillion shortfall in funding
annually to meet SDGs.
• 82% of Nonprofits reported negative
impact on their ability to deliver
programs in 2020.
• 77% of Nonprofits reported lack of
funding as their largest barrier to
digital adoption.
But, we need drastic Global Transformational intervention to improve
the Digital Capabilities of the nonprofit sector to enable it to deliver impact
at the scale required to address critical issues.
… and the sector is not
prepared for it.
• 71% of Nonprofits have Low Digital
Maturity
• 85% of Nonprofits use Manual data
entry to report on their programs
• 53% of nonprofits staff have lack of
digital skills and training

Digital Transformation Initiative

8 © TechSoup Global. All Rights Reserved.
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is the process of determining and
implementing policies, increasing staff capacity, and specific
technology systems which allow organizations to deliver their
services with greater impact for the individuals they serve, their own
decision-making processes, and policy decisions in their
communities.

9 Copyright © TechSoup Global. All Rights Reserved.
What is Digital Transformation?
• Increase nonprofit digital capacity and capabilities so that they can meet their mission goals
and increase their impact.
Do More (Mission) with Less (staff, money, time …)

What are we transforming?
TECHNOLOGY
PEOPLE
PROCESS
= HIGHER IMPACT

How can we help transform nonprofits?
• Start with org mission
• Help identify focus areas – what should
they prioritize?
• Help assess their urgent needs in these
priority areas
• Recommend solutions based on their
needs

Nonprofit Digital Transformation
1. Enables nonprofits to Do More with Less
2. Must transform People, Process and Technology
3. Must Assess Needs in focus areas
4. Provide Recommendations and Solutions to address the identified needs
30 sec Digital Transformation Recap

There are Four Core Elements of the Digital
Transformation Initiative
2. Digital Capability Model
• A relevant, global nonprofit digital capability
model to measure the Stage of Capability.
1. Digital Assessment Framework
• A framework to assess the organizations’ current
digital capability.
• A tool that helps nonprofits assess their digital needs,
understand their stage of capability and recommends
resources to improve their digital capabilities.
Organizations can manage their digital transformation
journey on the DAT.
4. Marketplace of Resources
• A marketplace of resources including technology
solutions, trainings and access to expert advice to
help nonprofit organizations on their Digital
Transformation Journey

1. Digital Transformation Framework
A framework to assess the organizations’ current digital capability.

The Digital Transformation Framework helps nonprofits align the
development of their digital capabilities with their organization
mission.
There are three main parts of the Framework:
Focus Areas: 6 standard focus areas for
every Nonprofit to assess and improve
their digital capacities in.
Mission & Goals: A framework to connect
the org mission with the focus areas that
the org can prioritize.
Resources & Tactics: Topics that help orgs
understand how to plan their digital enablement &
help us provide specific recommendations.

The Digital Transformation Framework consists of 6 categories
that represent TechSoup’s segmentation of organizational
function as it relates to technology
Each category has an intentional
number of questions assigned
to represent key topics of inquiry
related to the utilization of
technology and policy for impact.

• Monitoring &
Evaluation
• Service
Delivery
• Beneficiary
Management
• Program
Insights
Programs Fundraising
• Donation
Processing
• Donor
Stewardship
• Grants
Management
• Event
Management
Communications
• Organization
Presence
• Content
Creation
• Digital
Marketing
• Marketing
Insights
Operations
• Finance
Management
• HR
Management
• Workplace
Collaboration
• Information
Management
• Business
Insights
Digital Security
• Data Privacy
• Business
Resiliency
• Device
Management
• Threat
Detection
• Threat
Protection
• Authentication
& Authorization
Infrastructure
• Asset
Management
• Asset
Maintenance
• Server
Infrastructure
• Network
Infrastructure
• Identity
Management
The framework is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of
an organization’s digital capabilities in each focus area.

2. Digital Capability Model
A relevant, global nonprofit digital capability model to measure the Stage of
the organization’s capability.

The Digital Capability Model measures an org’s digital capability by
assessing how People and Process are integrated into the
technology implementation in the organization.
• For each of the six framework
categories, the capability model
approach takes care in evaluating:
• Technology Culture
• Skills Training
• Organizational Processes
• Data Systems
• State of Technology
• Technology Approach

The Digital Capability Model helps organizations establish a
baseline for their current digital capabilities and serves as
way to measure improvements over time.
Organizations will
receive a rating for each
assessment they
complete, and an overall
rating after all
assessments have been
completed.

From Theory to Practice: The framework and model are implemented in the
DAT to assess organizations on all three aspects of People, Process and
Technology and provide relevant Capability Rating and Recommendations.

A tool that helps nonprofits assess their digital needs, understand their stage of capability
and recommends resources to improve their digital capabilities. Organizations can
manage their digital transformation journey on the DAT.

The Digital Assessment Tool (DAT) is a free web application that helps
nonprofits identify their Digital Capabilities through a self-assessment
and recommends resources tailored to enhance their organization’s
effectiveness in delivering their mission.

We collaborated with experts and partners from across the world to
build a framework that is globally relevant.
Partners Advisory Panel TSGN Cohort
Funders
Consultants
S. Radoff
Associates

The assessment questions and the tool that we created were
iteratively tested by a cohort of 30 Bay Area organizations.

Nonprofit orgs can use the Digital Assessment Tool (DAT) to
assess their needs, understand their Digital Capability Rating
and get recommendations on how to improve.
Nonprofit organizations can use the DAT in 3 ways:
To Assess their
Needs
• Nonprofits can assess their org
needs in all 6 categories:
• Program Delivery
• Operations & Collaboration
• Fundraising
• Communications
• Infrastructure
• Digital Security
To Understand their
Digital Capability
• Based on their assessments, the
DAT provides a Digital Capability
Score that helps the organization
understand how they’ve performed.
• The Score rates them on their
capability from 1-5 that relates to
1. Ad Hoc
2. Functional
3. Standardized
4. Optimized
5. Adaptive
To get Recommendations
on how to improve
• Based on their assessments, the
DAT provides custom
recommendations to the org on
which resources they can use to
improve their digital capability.
1. 2. 3.

DAT User Journey

Provides a baseline
assessment,
a capability rating
and
recommendations
within the first
25 minutes.
Promotes org-wide
collaboration in the
digital
transformation
journey
Provides the ability
for offline
collaboration and
consultation.
Everything in one
place:
Mission Goals
Assessments
Score
Recommendations
Assignments
Orgs can compare
features if more than
one software has
been recommended
through the tool.
Software
Comparisons
Org
Dashboard
Print
Capability
Introductory
Assessment
Inviting
Colleagues
Notable Tool Features

The software comparison feature allows orgs to compare the
features if more than one software has been recommended from
the TechSoup catalog for the same task.
• Recommendations are tailored to the organization
based on capability scores in each framework
category.
• This feature helps organizations easily compare
recommended software offers at a glance.
This feature was also added based on feedback
and requests from the first pilot organizations.
Currently, this feature is dependent on the
information available on the catalog page in
TechSoup – which sometimes are not enough.
We plan to refine these for the top software
recommended, so these comparisons can be
more helpful to nonprofits.

4. Marketplace of Resources
A marketplace of resources including technology solutions, trainings and
access to expert advice to help nonprofit organizations on their Digital
Transformation Journey.

We intend to bring the entire marketplace of resources that
TechSoup provides nonprofits – as well as – relevant resources
that are not available in TechSoup.
We are already improving the resources
available to nonprofits:
• Library of nonprofit policies
• Improvements on software
comparisons.
• Digital transformation learning track
• Services to help nonprofits plan their
DT
We are also supporting cohorts
of nonprofits through their
digital transformation journey in
the Digital Resiliency
Programs.

assessment.techsoup.org
Create your own DAT account, take the assessments, and share your
results. Please direct any and all questions
to assessment@techsoup.org

Assess Your Organization's Digital Capability

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