Transforming Nonprofits

Part 1: Understanding the relationships we have, and what journeys constituents walk with our organizations, is critical to nonprofit strategy—including technology strategy.

Peter Mirus (Partner) leads a discussion about how to analyze your organization's relationships and create constituent journey maps that help inform everything from branding and marketing to information system requirements.

At the heart of this conversation was the idea that business process, data, and technology initiatives at nonprofits need to be relationship-oriented in order to produce the best results.

Before co-founding Build Consulting in 2015, Peter spent 15 years working as a creative director, brand strategist, digital communications expert, and data/technology strategist for organizations ranging in size from small/local organizations to Fortune 1000-sized organizations in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. His breadth of experience results in a set of relationship and constituent journey mapping techniques and tools that can be scaled to the needs of any organization.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied business, data, and technology experience.

In part two of this "Ask the Experts" webinar co-presented with Community IT Innovators, we answer your questions on ways to create a sound process for software selection, before you consider the specific technologies available to meet your organizational needs.

Join Build Consulting co-founders Kyle Haines and David Deal as they leverage their combined 70+ years in nonprofit technology projects to answer your questions about what makes a software selection successful.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience.

Build's clients often tell us that our nonprofit software selection process is unlike what they have experienced before. And vendors often tell us that our clients are better prepared than any other nonprofits to approach software selection and implementation efforts.

We're going to be covering questions about software selection, about project leadership, change management, how to involve stakeholders and what you should think about when you're evaluating platforms, when you're thinking about changing business processes and more.

ICYMI check out part 1!

In part one of this "Ask the Experts" webinar co-presented with Community IT Innovators, we answer your questions on ways to create a sound process for software selection, before you consider the specific technologies available to meet your organizational needs.

Join Build Consulting co-founders Kyle Haines and David Deal as they leverage their combined 70+ years in nonprofit technology projects to answer your questions about what makes a software selection successful.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience.

Build's clients often tell us that our nonprofit software selection process is unlike what they have experienced before. And vendors often tell us that our clients are better prepared than any other nonprofits to approach software selection and implementation efforts.

We're going to be covering questions about software selection, about project leadership, change management, how to involve stakeholders and what you should think about when you're evaluating platforms, when you're thinking about changing business processes and more.

Be sure to join us for Part 2!

Join guest expert Ryan Ozimek and Build Partner Kyle Haines and listen in on an informal discussion and Q&A on the ways Microsoft is expanding its offerings and presence in the nonprofit technology ecosystem, and what that means for your organization.

Ryan is an experienced independent software vendor and open-source evangelist and Kyle serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. They'll share the things that they are most excited about with Microsoft's recent announcements, what they think it means for nonprofits, and their hopes for what it means for the broader sector.

As summer turns to autumn and the weather gets a bit colder for many of us, return to a simpler time when there was civility and decorum as people debated ideas and discussed visions for the future. Hot cocoa encouraged, but not provided.

Listen to the end to hear audience Q&A after the chat, when Ryan and Kyle answered your colleagues' real-life questions about Microsoft expansion in the nonprofit technology space.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. And Build is scrupulously vendor-agnostic—this fireside chat explores the pros and cons of Microsoft's growing focus on nonprofits, without taking sides. Presenters:

Ryan Ozimek has managed PICnet's growth since the beginning, either on the ground in PICnet's DC or SF office, or sitting on a plane criss-crossing the country. In the eight years since starting PICnet, Ryan has taken on strong roles in PICnet's community, including an officer position on the board of directors for Open Source Matters (the non-profit behind Joomla!), a steering committee member on the Non-Profit Open Source Initiative, and co-organizer of many a Penguin Day.

In his former life in sunny Southern California, Ryan spent much of his spare time catching waves on Sunset Beach. However, now residing half-time in Washington, DC, surfing has reluctantly been replaced by such pastimes as avoiding frostbite and complaining about poor East Coast surfing conditions. Ryan has a B.A. in Communications and a Masters of Public Policy from University of California at Los Angeles.

Kyle Haines co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, after working in and with nonprofit organizations to improve their development operations and technology for over 20 years. Kyle's consulting work at Build touches all nonprofit operational areas—but has a strong focus on using technology to enhance constituent experiences, which leads to improved fundraising and greater mission impact.

Kyle has served as interim CIO for several organizations, where he enjoys tackling deep-seated challenges. Internally, Kyle leads our efforts to create and maintain a strong corporate culture in which staff can grow and flourish.

Kyle Haines' entire career has been working with nonprofits, and that gives him a unique perspective on what it takes for an organization, at the deepest cultural levels, to have long and fruitful relationships with both donors and program beneficiaries.

Nonprofit organizations know they need to keep themselves safe from cybercriminals. But how safe is safe enough? How much should organizations budget for the latest defensive technology, and how much should they focus on staff training? How does a nonprofit leader balance cybersecurity and convenience for users?

In this webinar co-presented with Community IT Innovators, we answer your questions on ways to build a cybersecurity budget into your technology roadmap and create a sound process for managing risks and managing staff training, before you consider the specific cybersecurity technologies available to meet your organizational needs.

View Build Consulting's change management expert Peter Mirus and Community IT's cybersecurity guru Matt Eshleman and CEO Johan Hammerstrom for an in-depth discussion of the competing demands on nonprofit cybersecurity practices – quantifying risks, setting a budget, and guarding productivity.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. Build and Community IT are scrupulously vendor-agnostic, so this conversation will feature a realistic look at the cybersecurity tools available – many of them surprisingly affordable, or focused on training and onboarding changes you can make immediately.

Build Consulting believes that cybersecurity presents clear risks to nonprofits, and that most nonprofits are not as prepared to face cybersecurity risks as they should be. In our experience working with hundreds of nonprofit organizations across well over a thousand projects, we've learned there is one important thing nonprofits don't take into consideration that really comes into play when considering cybersecurity: the technology shouldn't come first, it should be considered last.

If you want a successful technology-supported change at your organization, the change must start with your people and processes, not with cybersecurity technology!

Jo Butler, Build Consulting's Senior Nonprofit CRM Database Manager, shares strategic CRM adoption tips to get your CRM used by everyone at your nonprofit organization.

Peter Mirus, Partner at Build Consulting, presents an exploration of the dimensions of data quality—completeness, validity and accuracy, consistency, timeliness, and integrity – interwoven with impact examples from the nonprofit and public sectors. Attendees will learn a structure for how to qualify "what makes data good," and how to talk compellingly about data quality in their organizations. Peter co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, following over 15 years of nonprofit consulting experience in the areas of technology, branding, marketing, and development. Peter's work for Build clients has a broad focus spanning many operational areas, including fundraising, program monitoring and evaluation, accounting, and impact reporting/analysis.

From supporting the groundbreaking medical researchers of tomorrow to students embarking on the most formative years of their lives, The University of Pennsylvania is creating a platform for innovation that meets the diverse needs of a community of students, researchers, faculty, administrators, and staff.

Josh Beeman, Associate Vice President of Information Technology (AVP) & Associate Chief Information Officer (ACIO) of The University of Pennsylvania spoke with Build Consulting Partner, Kyle Haines, about meeting the needs of stakeholders and how Josh emphasizes taking a customer-centric approach to his work.

With the weather warming up, we moved our Fireside Chat outside! Some of the best conversations are inspired by sitting around the fire and thinking of possibilities and visions – large and small.

Our Fireside Chats are designed for audiences with varied experiences with technology. In this Fireside Chat learn more about how The University of Pennsylvania creates the space for innovation to be nurtured and accelerated for its community. Joshua Beeman is the Associate Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President for IT at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this role, he was the University of Pennsylvania's Information Security Officer for eight years. He has been working in IT for over twenty-five years. In addition to Penn, he has worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and as an Information Assurance consultant to the federal government in Washington, D.C. Mr. Beeman has served on Amazon Web Services' Customer Advisory Board and as the co-chair of the EDUCAUSE Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC) Governance, Risk and Compliance group. In 2018 his Information Security program was awarded a CSO50 award for their work in orchestration and automation. He is a graduate of UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania.

Join Build Partner, Peter Mirus, and moderator, Jennifer Keller Jackson, to learn what it takes to lead an effective software selection! There are many reasons why selection processes can hit rough patches. Maybe you need to alter the composition of your selection team, perhaps your objectives or requirements aren't clear, perhaps you confused one or more vendors at some point in the process, or perhaps you just need someone to translate some of the vendor "techno speak" into plain business language. The range of technology available has a spectacular range of costs, with licensing/subscription, implementation, and support fees each ranging from free to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. You'll want to evaluate both what the software provides and how well the provider (or service partner) will use the software to meet your objectives. Taking a "platform approach" for your organization creates a particular set of challenges that don't exist to the same degree in a "best-of-breed approach."

For most organizations, selecting a technology platform represents a long-term commitment and also an opportunity. But how do you capitalize on that opportunity? All nonprofit organizations stand to benefit from an improved technology environment, which requires improving your software selection skills.

Join David Shapiro, Sandy Martins, and Build Partner Kyle Haines to learn about how MENTOR made strategically-sequenced investments in technology to transform the way their organization worked.

David is the Chief Executive Officer of MENTOR, Sandy is MENTOR's IT Director, and Kyle serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. David will share more about MENTOR's history, some recent technology projects that have made an impact, and what he's learned along the way.

Bring the beverage of your choice and enjoy this St. Patrick's Day fireside chat. Some of the best conversations are inspired by sitting around the fire and thinking of possibilities and visions large and small.

Our Fireside Chats are designed for audiences with varied experience with technology. In this Fireside Chat learn from MENTOR, a nonprofit who has used technology to advance their organization strategy.