However, the environment for New Zealand non-profits remains uncertain, with significant pressure on communities, shifts in government funding leading to tightening budgets, and strain on service providers. Despite these challenges, technology continues to evolve.
As a technology partner to many charitable organisations across the country, we wanted to reflect on the report's findings and share our insights on the key priorities and opportunities for the sector moving forward.
Technology waits for no one. Standing still means falling behind.
Of the 1,020 New Zealand and Australian organisations surveyed, fewer than two in five had a digital transformation plan in place. Yet the survey found that having such a plan can boost team satisfaction by 24%.
In an environment of tight budgets and constrained resources, it’s tempting to delay technology planning. This is where a strong technology partner becomes crucial—they should take the lead and invest in providing a clear, strategic roadmap. A well-defined plan, whether annual or a rolling three-year strategy, ensures your organisation can focus on its impact while staying on top of the changing digital landscape. Without this investment from your technology partner, your approach becomes reactive, disjointed, and more costly, potentially exposing your organisation, team, and data to unnecessary risks.
Remember even if budgets to implement improvement are constrained, the plan is still a critical step - it allows risks to be surfaced, understood and investment redirected if the risk is deemed too high.
Cyber threats are on the rise, especially with advancements in Artificial Intelligence. Unplanned upgrade events, like the 2024 Crowdstrike outage, show how even non-security issues can cause mass disruption. It is encouraging that by late 2023, over half of Australasian not-for-profits had a disaster recovery plan in place, but concerningly, only 15% had tested it in the last year and ensured it covered critical technology systems.
Involving your technology partner in disaster recovery planning is important. While planning for the practicalities of earthquakes and pandemics are top of mind, your technology partner can provide a fresh perspective, often identifying challenges you might not foresee. We encourage our customers to embrace "productive paranoia" by using events like the Crowdstrike outage to role-play potential scenarios and ask, "What would we do if that happened to us?" Often, the lessons learned are less about technology and more about your people and processes.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the buzzword of 2024, and even by the end of 2023, the not-for-profit sector had doubled its adoption of generative AI tools compared to the previous year. With Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT-4o, and a surge of AI tools entering the market, this trend is set to continue. The challenge for all organisations, whether for-profit or not, is how best to leverage these opportunities.
Currently, the most impactful use of AI for most organisations must be in the copywriting space. For not-for-profits, who often need to communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders, these tools can significantly enhance your efficiency. We are excited to see the new versions of these tools allow organisations to input their sensitive data, without fear of it being used to "train" their algorithm.
However, what's next? At this stage, we believe Microsoft Copilot is somewhat overhyped by the tech sector. While it offers benefits, particularly for high-volume users of Microsoft Teams — such as summarising meeting minutes and outcomes — it's not yet delivering enough value to justify recommending it broadly, especially since Microsoft isn’t offering its usual Chartable discounts to non-profits on the Copilot licencing.
Looking ahead, we expect that AI agents will become integral to all software solutions in your technology estate, from CRM and EDM systems to expanding its influence in core tools within Microsoft and Google Apps. Building your own AI agents to mine your own data will become standard. Our hope is that this will allow not-for-profits to seek insights that help your organisation make more informed decisions and hopefully address emerging problems in our communities.
Talking about AI can be daunting, but now is the time to consider how you'll stay ahead in this space. We've recently run a successful co-learning group with customers exploring AI tools to solve everyday workplace challenges, and we plan to expand this initiative in the coming months. We see it as our responsibility to keep our customers at the forefront of the next technological wave, but it’s going to take a village to raise these robots! It’s time to identify your AI champion, ensure your leadership is aware of the opportunities and risks AI presents, and develop clear policies and public guidelines on how your organisation uses AI.
Information systems enable organisations to capture, process, analyse and report on the data associated with the service they provision to the community they support. Good systems can enhance the productivity of your team and even help you win new contracts. We were initially surprised that in October 2023, only one-third of organisations agreed their systems work well for their management, staff and volunteers. But the story why lies in the rest of the data - when it comes to how many systems organisations use, two-thirds of organisations use two to four systems to store information about clients (or members/stakeholders) and their services. One in seven organisations (and one in four community disability and aged care organisations) use five or more systems. Five! It does seem that government plays a significant role in making this complicated, by mandating systems be used to receive funding.
Managing the challenge of multiple systems isn't the only problem New Zealand Not for Profits face. Outdated software systems are common, and as they often house the most sensitive data of those you support, they need vigilant monitoring and attention. Are you confident your vendors are maintaining your software system to a known security standard?
We know that transitioning to a new system is a significant challenge — it requires clear requirements analysis, complex vendor assessment, and careful migration and of course, significant funding. Your technology partner should bring their expertise to the table. You and your team play a crucial role in these projects however, bringing your knowledge of the sector, service, team and contracts to the project to ensure the end solution meets your operational needs. To do it well requires a lot of trust.
The report shows that the top three technology challenges facing not-for-profits remain consistent with previous years:
While these challenges are common in the not-for-profit sector, we think many for-profit organisations in New Zealand face similar issues in 2024.
Do we have a solution? Not entirely. However, we believe we’re at a pivotal moment in technology, one that requires closer, more collaborative partnerships than ever before. Organisations should partner with those who share their values, represent their community, and are invested in their purpose. A good technology partner should not only offer solutions but work side by side with you, understand your unique challenges, flex as needed and ensure your technology aligns with your goals.
If you’re a New Zealand Not-for-profit looking for a technology partner we’d love to chat. We’re a values lead mid-sized New Zealand owned and operated technology company. Our not-for-profit technology services include Managed IT, Cyber Security and Technology consultancy.
