It doesn’t come as a surprise that both charities and not-for-profits are facing tough challenges as they continue to try and support the people that need them in an ever-evolving digital world. Worst of all, squeezed budgets and fundraising obstacles as well as more and more remote working and volunteers all over the place are making things very difficult indeed. Furthermore, a whole host of not-for-profit/charities are trying to help those communities in need who are based in different locations with limited access to digital technologies.
It is important to note that many employees of charities and not-for-profits are keen to enjoy the benefits that come from hybrid and remote working as 68% of charities are looking to keep it on a more permanent basis. In addition to this, charities are struggling to cope with hybrid working as well for team members, volunteers and the people they are trying to serve.
In summary, it is clear from the above that the main challenges that charities and not-for-profits are facing are keeping teams and volunteers connected and making sure that people that require their services are not isolated due to a lack of technological know-how. In our latest blog article, we will demonstrate how both charities and not-for-profits can satisfy both demands and create more inclusive services.
Keeping the connection intact
When it comes to having team members, volunteers as well as donors scattered all over the country, being able to keep everyone informed and together is so important. This can be from the daily tasks of team members right through to planning volunteer events and keeping donors engaged and up to date with the ongoing charity work – having the right tools in place is vital.
This is where Microsoft Teams can come in as it goes far beyond the basic chat features, providing you with the opportunity to keep connected with both the people and teams that need it. The great thing about Teams is the fact that it can transform your workflow from the outset through instant chats, video calls, file collaboration as well as channels to keep things organised in one place. Easily create channels for certain activities, projects, events and invite all stakeholders in the business to keep all documentation filed in one central place to allow them to access it whenever they want from wherever they want. Easily check in and chat within the channel and even take this one step further by adding Microsoft Planner into it to easily allocate tasks as well as to allow you to keep on top of upcoming events and deadlines.
You can easily think that the capabilities and functionality of Teams is finished at that point. This could not be any further from the truth as our in-house IT experts can take this one step further by implementing Teams based phone systems as well as Teams Meeting Rooms. By moving your communications into the 21st century with Microsoft Teams, you can consolidate your licensing and cut costs. To back this up with some statistics, in a recent Microsoft report it was found that 64% of CFOs in charities said that moving to the Cloud would help to reduce overall costs by over 20%.
As well as this, you can be rest assured that your communications will be organised, secure and easily accessible to the right people from any location.
Comprehensive digital inclusion
In an online world that is evolving every single day, there is a chance that the most at-risk people are left behind. For charities serving these people, digital inclusion is at the top of the agenda. In a report about Charity Digital Skills, over 50% of charities were concerned that they would be excluding certain individuals.
As much as we are used to looking online for support for certain issues, for some people they are looking for the emotional side of it by speaking to an actual person on the phone. For charities helping vulnerable people, call centres are a vital element of how they continue to be available to people they support, which gives them that access they require.
The frustrating thing about landline-based call centres is the fact that they are limited as they need to be from a certain location and don’t offer any additional data insights which can help to improve the service of the charity. On the other hand, if you have a Teams-based contact centre setup it gives you that capability to pick up calls from any location whilst at the same time being able to track key data such as response times & call volumes. Once you have this sort of information at your fingertips, charities can make decisions such as when the most calls come into the charity and where they need to allocate extra resources to answer calls.
The great thing about having Teams as your preferred communication platform is the fact that all the calls and files are secure, both for your workforce as well as your volunteers and donors.
Next Steps?
Getting these solutions up and running is easy with our team of IT professionals as we can help you to implement Microsoft Teams, provide you with ongoing Teams training as well as offering you assistance with any other IT support-related issues to ensure that you are getting the very most out of your IT solutions. To get the ball rolling on the above, please give us a call today!
Want to hear more from our IT experts? You can if you are a member of our mailing list.
