Access the Wealth Within – Uncovering Talent and Utilizing Technology

Posted by The Connected Cause on Jun 10, 2013 in Blog, Business, Community, Partners | 1 comment

In her work with nonprofits Amy Quinn often refers to the “New Normal”. She believes, and has personally witnessed, how leveraging technology and the solutions and innovation it offers, can help organizations achieve higher levels of success.

In her Avectra blog post “The Wealth Within”, Amy urges organizations to focus less on what they don’t have, or can’t afford, and instead look within to uncover untapped resources and talent to bring innovation to their programs.

If you’re ready to look for these (perhaps) hidden resources at your organization, but don’t know where to start Amy recommends reading the 2012 survey report, Unleashing Innovation: Using Everyday Technology to Improve Nonprofit Services from Idealware.org. This report identifies four “core elements common to organizations that use technology to successfully innovate program delivery”:

• Needs identification
• Knowledge of technology
• Connection of needs and technology
• An environment supportive of change

In her blog post, Amy examines two case studies, one from a large nonprofit and one from a small one. These studies reveal how both organizations recognizing they needed to do things differently, carried out a needs identification, utilized the knowledge of their staff, created “gatekeepers” and fully evaluated their technology and training needs.

When asked what drove the innovation, the Executive Director of the smaller nonprofit said that the employees believed in their capabilities as well as accepting the responsibility of finding “better ways to do things”.

Click here to read the full blog post and learn what you can do to unleash innovation at your nonprofit.

About Amy Quinn

Amy Quinn is an independent consultant, speaker, and, most recently, author of the book, Fundraising Innovators: Leaders in Social Enterprise Share New Approaches to Raising Money. After successful positions in the business and nonprofit sectors, including American Airlines and Dreyers-Nestle, she followed her heart and established a business to help organizations raise more money. Innovative fundraising means having the funds for programs and achieving mission.  

About

The Connected Cause is a place for experts in the nonprofit online space to share perspective, offer guidance and promote best practices for using today’s technology effectively. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive source of collaborative thought leadership for the nonprofit industry.

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