Helping smaller nonprofits afford the IT help they need

Well, yet another round of papers is done and out of the way.  I did a rather lackluster blurb about Gogo In-flight WiFi Service which, although it wasn't my best work, might come in handy for someone traveling this holiday season (especially if you're flying on American Airlines). 

The paper I enjoyed the most though, was Fundraising Analytics: What Nonprofit Organizations Can Learn from the Private Sector (yeah, I know, sounds thrilling).  This is the one that I'm hoping to refine and turn into something more substantial, and see if I can get it published.  Anyway, my basic premise is that nonprofits are behind the curve on using data mining to it's fullest extent, and text mining might be the next big thing.  I can picture taking all those reactive research reports and dumping them into a data warehouse, and just culling through it all (along with collected news articles and contact reports) for connections.

I'm putting together a quick and dirty powerpoint for my database prof to share some ideas I have about what can do in the future to improve the product we have, and make it more analytic-ready.  Mainly, I'm going to focus on what smaller nonprofits can do to mine the information they already have, without access to the tools that larger organizations have.  For instance, we've been using Tableau to aid visualization, but considering it's limitations, I was shocked when I checked into buying the full version.

(my reaction to their insane pricing)

So, my goal during this break is to look into what options a smaller nonprofit might have to reap the benefits.  I know there are macros for excel already out there that will do regression models, so if I find ones that are free I might start throwing that together with some other basic things (I know the newest version of excel  has a few rudimentary visualization tools for data mining so I'll see if that does what I'm envisioning), and if need be, making my own free tool.  It'll be a far cry from a CRM, but it'll be something.  It needs to be easy enough so that any person without a background in this stuff can just toss in the data, click a button, and get ready-to-use findings back, with possibly some charts to help sell the idea to the management-types.  I'll also check out the offerings already out there for open source things, and see what can be done.  

I have an uncle that runs a battered women's shelter in a fairly rural place.  He needs a quick and easy way to browse grants, to organize contacts, and to find interested donors.  He shouldn't have to spend lots of money to get this done; their funds are better spent on their primary mission.  Uh oh, I'm sensing some scope creep...but honestly, this is the stuff that I'm passionate about, and I'll do what it takes.   

Information Systems Deployment, aka "What NOT To Do", and hopeful publication

Our discussion topics for this week were IS deployment, specifically dealing with the following questions:

• What are the key components of project management? (Answer: Scope (the outcome), Sponsorship and Management (the people), Management Methodology (the process), Reporting (communications), Control (the quality), and Value (business value and technology support)).
• What role does a project's sponsor need to play in the technology implementation process? (Answer: Providers and clients both have responsibilities to fulfill if a project is to succeed.  More than anything, this boils down to an issue of clear communication)
• What are the key managerial authorities a project manager needs to succeed? (Answer: power over who's on the project's team, the power to make assignments, and the power to provide performance consequences)
• What questions does the project sponsor need to ask a project manager?  (I found this chapter in the book to be one I marked as useful in a managerial position of any type.  Again, it all boils down to communication skills)
• Whys is it important to explicitly state the intended business result of an IT project?  How should this be done? (This chapter discussed "MOPS"--measure of performance, as consisting of intended goals and expected constraints.  A book was mentioned, Robert F. Mager's "Goal Analysis: How to Clarify Your Goals So You Can Actually Achieve Them", and it looks as though our university library has it, so I'm going to pick it up on Monday for some leisure reading.  Hey, I have plenty of goals that need to be achieved, so it's worth a shot).

Finally, we discussed a classic What NOT To Do case regarding Maine's failed Medicaid system.  It's a good example of how decisions that seem to make sense at the time, can really snowball and backfire.

We've been assigned a research paper, and I've chosen the topic of Business Intelligence Implications for Nonprofits.  I've seen nonprofits of various sizes use data mining for many different jobs...everything from gathering metrics to justify certain projects, to hone in on donor targets, to refine events and outreach programs.  I'm not sure yet if I'll be crafting a survey to send out to some random nonprofits, but it's an option.  The professor has mentioned that he'd be more than happy to help us with publication, and I'm going to opt for that track as time permits.