By Brian Murrow
(This article is part of a series of guest columns written by innovators in the nonprofit sector. PNNOnline will be featuring a new "Challenges of the New Century" guest column each Friday.)
The power of the Internet is enabling users to share information, knowledge and tools. In today's Internet economy, businesses and organizations that do not adapt their business models to support collaboration and information-sharing will be compelled by market forces to become collaborative -- or will suffer.
For those outside the nonprofit sector, the high degree of competition that exists within the nonprofit sector often comes as a surprise. But just as the for-profit sector has enjoyed the synergies of collaborative technology, it's time for the nonprofit sector to do the same.
The technology revolution of the 1990s empowered organizations to gain efficiencies by using technology. The real benefit of technology over the next 10 years will be collaboration around common tools and information, so that organizations can better deliver services to the customers that need them most.
The private sector is in the process of realizing the gains of collaboration around the shared investment and use of technology. Take for example the Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler collaboration, which is a common Web-based platform for procuring automotive parts. The automobile industry's shared procurement platform saved the industry from making three separate investments in technology, while maintaining the brand equity of each participating company.
Additionally, the private sector is widely using Application Service Providers (ASP). An ASP remotely hosts the business's software applications, such as accounting and human resources. The business gains access to the software application and their specific data by logging on to the Internet and entering their username and password. ASP's enable organizations to benefit from upgrades or modifications recommended by individual users, as it's a shared platform. So when a business recommends a new tool be built or a field added to the accounting application, for example, all users of the ASP benefit.
The benefits of an ASP model are the same for nonprofit organizations as for businesses. By using such an ASP model, nonprofits all over the country can share the best practices and tools developed and applied at the local level. And since hosting a Web site is not geographic-dependent, nonprofits can share the infrastructure costs of developing and hosting their Web sites among thousands of individual nonprofits.
This model has the ability to significantly increase the quality of the average nonprofit's Web site while lowering the cost to build and maintain the site. There are currently a few national nonprofit organizations that are collaborating with their local chapters to implement such a model.
By collaborating around shared technology and information, nonprofits can spend more time and resources on value-added activities within the community. For example, good stockbrokers do not look at themselves as sellers of stock, but as a provider of financial security. This is why good, value-added stockbrokers have never been afraid of the proliferation of Web-based discount brokers. Instead, they embraced the Web as a way to become more efficient and provide more value to their customers.
In looking at the volunteer listing and management services, we can see many similarities to stockbrokers. The efficient use of collaborative technology, such as sharing volunteer opportunities among nonprofits, for instance, will allow volunteer coordinators to focus more on their role as a volunteer provider of fulfilling life experiences for volunteers -- and less as a volunteer matching service.
Just as the business sector has come to realize that collaboration around the use of mission-focused technology will help ensure long-term success, so too does the nonprofit sector need to realize the same thing so it can maximize the likelihood of success in the Internet age.
(Brian Murrow leads the PricewaterhouseCoopers e-Philanthropy practice, which works with nonprofits, dot-coms, and large multinational organizations to develop and implement Internet strategies, and promote Web-based tools and standards. A sample of Brian's e-Philanthropy clients include America's Promise; The Alliance for Youth; CreateHope.org, an online giving portal for organizations' employees; MissionFish.com, an online auction that benefits nonprofits; and SERVEnet.org, a volunteer listing and management Web site.)
(Anyone interested in submitting story ideas for this series can send an e-mail query to this link.)
