Managed IT Services for Nonprofits: Is it Worth it?

No matter the type of business or size of the organization, every company can benefit from investing in their IT. Not only is it essential to have a handle on your technology to maintain productivity, but you also need to ensure that your IT strategy is supporting your overall business plan. More importantly, nonprofit IT services should support your employees so that they can focus on doing their best work.

IT services, specifically managed IT services, are something in which every nonprofit should consider investing in. Managing things such as cybersecurity, onboarding, and digital assets can be a big burden, especially on smaller organizations with fewer resources. That’s why managed IT services for nonprofits can be an excellent investment that beats handling IT in-house by being more budget-friendly, more secure, better for employees, and better for your business overall.

What are the Benefits of IT Support for Nonprofits?

Streamlined Operations

The beauty of an MSP is that they are seasoned experts in technology and often work proactively to avoid any downtime, bugs, or other issues. By avoiding retroactively fixing problems once they’ve occurred and slowing down your business’s operations, MSPs can end up saving nonprofits a lot of time. 

Improved Cybersecurity Measures

Most businesses deal with sensitive data, and nonprofits are no different. With data such as donor information, employee information, and payment data in servers or the cloud, no nonprofit wants to be the target of a cyber attack and potentially lose the hard-earned trust of donors and partners.

MSPs, fortunately, are always on the cusp of cybersecurity solutions, so you can rest assured your security is being monitored by experts. Furthermore, MSPs can also make sure IT systems are up-to-date and compliant with all laws and regulations, so you can trust your systems are safe and compliant.

Cost Savings

MSPs can prove less expensive than building an entire in-house IT service team. Additionally, depending on the type of pricing model offered by the MSP, nonprofits have the option to pay only for the services they use, avoiding the costs of training new employees and buying IT equipment and software. Oftentimes, you can even get discounted access to software and hardware through an MSP. 

If you view IT as an investment, your return will be much greater with an MSP, as a good MSP means getting a team of experts that you can trust will support your team and their IT needs. This is an invaluable asset to any organization, but especially human-centric organizations like nonprofits.

Increased Adaptability

Instead of having to stay up-to-date with the newest in IT technology and cybersecurity solutions, MSPs do the updating for you. Through them, you can access the latest IT solutions and never have to worry about doing the research yourself. Boom, instant time saver.

What Types of IT Support are Available for Nonprofits?

There are many different managed IT service providers out there that offer a whole host of different types of services and support, but here is a list of many of the types of IT support that would be available for nonprofits at any MSP:

• IT strategy consulting
• Cybersecurity measures
• Cloud solutions and services
• Regulatory IT compliance 
• Employee and client onboarding assistance
• Overall IT support

Consider Ripple for Your Nonprofit’s Managed IT Service Provider

Ripple offers managed IT services to a wide range of organizations, including services for nonprofits of all sizes and needs. We can supply additional support by providing corporate sponsorships, helping nonprofits receive discounts for their IT products and solutions, and developing an IT roadmap so your team knows where their dollar is going. 

Above all, Ripple provides IT support that’s run by people, and for people. We know that your team is the reason you even need top-notch tech, and so we create solutions and solve problems in ways that put humans back in the center of IT solutions and strategy. We focus on the quality of the service and support we give to our clients and their employees because we know that happy people are the key to a thriving business.

If you have any questions about using an MSP or want to contact us about potentially working together, feel free to shoot us an email or schedule a free Zoom consultation. We look forward to talking with you!

FAQs

What are the cost considerations for nonprofit IT services?

According to NTEN’s annual Nonprofit Technology Staffing and Investments Report, the average IT spend for a small nonprofit is about 13.2% of the total budget. For a bigger nonprofit, it’s around 2.8%.

Every nonprofit’s IT cost considerations will look different, but these give some averages that may help you decide how much your organization should be spending.

How can nonprofit tech support enhance organizational efficiency?

By improving things that can cause time-consuming problems such as employee onboarding, security, and IT compliance, MSPs and nonprofit tech support can be one of the most effective ways to enhance organizational efficiency.

What specific IT services are essential for nonprofit organizations?

The IT services that are essential for a nonprofit will vary from organization to organization. However, it is hard to argue the importance of cybersecurity, so we would put security measures at the top of our list of essential nonprofit IT services.