Why IT Matters

We talked with Tim Sarrantonio, a veteran business partnership, and nonprofit leader, about how cloud software best serves nonprofits. Tim is Head of Partnerships and Business Development at Neon One. We dig into the concept of what CRM for nonprofits means and what its future looks like - SPOILERS: There is no CRM, but there are many identities, sources of truth, and responsibilities where vendors serving nonprofits have to facilitate data transit and analytics.  If vendors serving nonprofits have a greater responsibility for collaboration, regardless of whether or not they are competitors, then nonprofits themselves also have greater responsibility for their technological agility.  We also discuss recent philanthropic trends towards technology and the organizations and processes that support better nonprofit adoption of technology for the long haul, rather than for the sake of accomplishing a single technology-related goal.  This conversation is especially relevant to nonprofit leadership teams, application vendors and platforms serving nonprofits, and nonprofit technology staff - enjoy the benefit of Tim’s years of experience (and literally, one of the most pop-culture-Nerd-filled recordings we’ve done in a long time)!

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This month is the 1 Year Anniversary of Why IT Matters, which has, frankly, stunned Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak.  After twenty guests and amazing conversations with industry experts, thought leaders, anti-racists, and do-gooders, we (meaning, Tim) decided to take it home to our own “Why IT Matters.”  We asked each other the same questions: What were three defining moments in your life? If you weren’t where you are today, where would you be? Are there any do-overs that you would take, and what are they? (Spoiler: No), and our Lightning Round of rapid-fire Q&A.  This is who we are, covering the moments and topics that drive our conversations, insights, desire to create in the world, and why we do what we do - we offer these conversations with humility and a bit of trepidation.

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This month is the 1 Year Anniversary of Why IT Matters, which has, frankly, stunned Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak.  After twenty guests and amazing conversations with industry experts, thought leaders, anti-racists, and do-gooders, we (meaning, Tim) decided to take it home to our own “Why IT Matters.”  We asked each other the same questions: What were three defining moments in your life? If you weren’t where you are today, where would you be? Are there any do-overs that you would take, and what are they? (Spoiler: No), and our Lightning Round of rapid-fire Q&A.  This is who we are, covering the moments and topics that drive our conversations, insights, desire to create in the world, and why we do what we do - we offer these conversations with humility and a bit of trepidation.

Click here to watch this episode!

We’re back from a brief summer break with an intense, provocative, and inspiring conversation with Marnie Webb, Chief Community Impact Officer at TechSoup.  There’s an incredible amount of opportunity to re-imagine what technology, as applied to civil society, can look like, and we cover some of the critical gaps in how our understanding of what constitutes “nonprofits” limits our ability to create durable change in the world.  In explicit, by changing the frameworks in which technology is capable of being granted to change-making organizations, we can create a much more inclusive and extensible impact. Re-defining our understanding of the long-term outcomes of technology in civil society, and most importantly, what criteria we use to enable organizations with technology in the first place - especially organizations that detract from liberties, rights, and democracy - is the hard conversation that, according to Marnie, “we have to run towards.” Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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We started this discussion with Sam Fankuchen talking about what it means to serve nonprofits with software. It rapidly became an engaging analysis of nonprofits' models to accomplish work, solicit volunteers, and solve problems.  Sam is the founder of Golden volunteer platform. In this episode of Why IT Matters: It Starts With a List, we cover nonprofit work's historical and modern volunteering needs, including how companies that run corporate responsibility programs can improve their approach. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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Doyin Richards is the founder of the Anti-Racism Fight Club, and a leader in bringing discussions about racial equity to the forefront. We cover a lot of ground in this discussion, which is candid, revealing, and substantially educational.  Talking about race is never easy, harder still when we lack the words and concepts, and harder still when we first must consider our own sense of inadequacy.  It’s also a privilege for those of us who do not live with the daily reality of the outcomes of racism.  So, we roll up our sleeves, bring some highly challenging topics to light, and hopefully walk away better allies through action. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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This is a conversation about leapfrogging the past to make a better future.  Our guest, Tiffany Spencer, founder of HBCUforce and COO of Esor Consulting, talks about the necessity of both providing skills and a path towards applying them in order to achieve greater equity in technology. HBCUforce, in specific, works with Salesforce implementation partners, students from historically black colleges and universities, and volunteer trainers to create career paths.  Along the way, we cover the intersection of assumptions and outcomes made about creating racial equity in technology, and the roles that tech leaders can play in helping level the playing field. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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“I’m a serial volunteer,” says our guest, Rubin Singh Founder and CEO of OneTenth Consulting.  This describes how many of us get involved in nonprofits, either as staff or businesses serving them and through this lens we talk about many things that cover how to both be an entrepreneur and supporter of equity in our work.  This includes how we consult with nonprofits, engage in digital transformation, and the participants in the room that inform technology adoption, creation, and change management.  Our conversation re-enforces themes from prior guests, Black in Tech with Derrell Booker, and Standing With Our Feet in Two Worlds with Amy Sample Ward that the path towards a culture change in IT begins with integrity and authenticity, and taking tangible, albeit slow steps that we only look backward on later and say have become a revolution.  We also touch on the importance of nonprofits to own their own data, and how data portability, and the efficiency at which the nonprofit ecosystem operates in aggregate, is the next destination for equity in tech. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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Continuing our discussions on Why IT Matters: Creating the New Norms with Kate Ruff about how nonprofits are best supported with data structures, standards, and models, we push into new territory with Chantal Forster, Executive Director of the Technology Association of Grantmakers on how nonprofits can be better served by the philanthropic world, including with how philanthropy collects and digests data.  We talk about creating new philanthropic culture, how businesses, data platforms, and academics serving nonprofits need greater participation in the discussion of data standards, and the need for critical technology infrastructure funding and support for the nonprofit ecosystem, at large.  And, dive into the work of the newly-formed “Honeycomb Alliance,” which is seeking new funding for digital infrastructure work for nonprofits. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

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A year ago today, the protests against the killing of George Floyd began in Minneapolis.  In recognition of the global dialogue of racial justice in the past year, we are offering a lengthy, candid, and at times explicit, discussion of what it means to be Black in the world of corporate IT in 2021.  Our guest, Darrell Booker, Program Manager for the Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African-American Communities (NTA) at Microsoft Philanthropies, whom we previously hosted on Why IT Matters: Where We Can Lean In More returns, representing his journey, frustrations, and hopes for changing how the world of corporate IT receives, supports and grows Black employees.

This conversation is profoundly complex and challenging and touches on the structural and personal aspects of racism and its direct impact on living one’s life.  As much as we strive to retain our authenticity in the workplace, this is an unpacking of how the very institutional structures that we seek to undo become how our authenticity and identity become eroded in the attempt.  Before we arrive with the desire to understand and solve problems, especially as white people, the first step is divesting our intent from the outcomes we want to see. Why IT Matters is hosted by Tracy Kronzak and Tim Lockie of Now IT Matters!

WARNING: Video contains explicit authentic language.

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