Finding the Right Partners

New America’s PIT wanted to work closely with organizations in the space. Our hope was that we would be able to identify issues plaguing the organization and provide technical solutions that would hopefully scale to similar organizations. We circled a partnership with a service immigration nonprofit with tens of thousands of members, which we’ll call the Partner. The Partner was a fantastic partner and worked in a number of different areas ranging from legal services to financial literacy to work placement. We developed a formal work agreement, a memorandum of understanding, and tackled their member intake process. Our thought behind this choice was that their intake was a solution that could potentially be scaled to multiple organizations, even if they weren’t member-based, because every organization we encountered did some form of recorded intake before they were able to provide a service. Intake also affected several teams like membership, legal services, development, and naturalization.

The solution would be pretty simple—digitize the paper form with a process that could easily be captured into their customer relationship management. The form was long and captured a broad set of information, some of which felt more necessary than others. We learned through conversations across the organization that the form had effectively become a one-size-fits-all solution that met the needs of every vertical. It made sense, but led to a bloated form with information being collected at membership intake during a naturalization workshop that would not be needed that day. The culprit was most often grant reporting, which is not an area that could easily be ignored.

We first tried an entirely custom-made form, but quickly pivoted away from that. The thought process was pretty simple once we realized there was no way the organization, or many organizations like them, could change a custom form without us. We moved towards a commercial off-the-shelf product, a combination of tools like TypeForm and Zapier, which had enough ease of use and flexibility to work for us and the partner. In testing, we found that folks who were hoping for assistance could easily use the form and that we could successfully capture data in the Partner’s Salesforce, for instance. However, there were requirements outside of our control that made the digital form untenable. Some of these issues came up over time, like shifts in priority, but others were longstanding and difficult to overcome. These included things like the form itself having no clear owner that could decide what to change or uncovering grant requirements that made the digital form more complex. After several months of work, it became clear that the Partner would be unable to make the changes necessary to move the project forward, so we took a step back from the partnership. While we didn’t achieve what we wanted, we learned a lot along the way.

Shared goals, not your goals

A mistake I made early on was to believe that efficiency in and of itself was a good enough incentive to encourage organizational support for change. To the organizations I was speaking to, it was helpful, sure, but what would they actually get out of it? How would the efficiency I was proposing actually help them achieve their goals? Efficiency must be tied to outcomes and proposals should be clearly related to improving what the organization is doing.

Advice:

• Take the time to envision what happens if you succeed and relay that information, not just the time saved. It’s not just about spending less time doing data entry, but what that person could be doing instead. Data entry is work that many organizations run on and is seen as valuable work—replacing it with even higher value work can get you closer to what you want.
• Scoping work is challenging. You’re going to learn new things along the way that will alter your understanding of the problem or necessary solution. Check in frequently and discuss the trade-offs between custom and off-the-shelf solutions with your partners. Make sure folks know what sustaining a project looks like after you leave so that their concerns are considered as you’re developing a solution.

Understanding funding and how it incentivizes the organization

How do you put users first when organizations are incentivized to help the highest number of people possible? Funding can sometimes be directly tied to the number of people the organization serves, which creates an incentive around helping those that are easiest to help: cases that cause minimal fuss. The organizations I spoke to understood this was a problem, but looked to how their funding operated and realized that either they were able to employ folks and help people or they weren’t. For technologists used to putting outliers at the forefront of their work, this can be discouraging. When thinking of how to improve this area, consider what structures are in place, whether through local/state government or philanthropy, and how you can help the organization in spite of the limitations in place.

Advice:

• There are a lot of useful things you can do to help the organization understand who’s coming in the door for help. The best way to advocate for the folks who need help is to help the organization better collect and reflect on the data they have available to them.
• Understand that commercial off-the-shelf tools are often the thing organizations need most. Tools like Salesforce aren’t for every organization, but making sure organizations use simple tools, like G-Suite tools or those like them, can make a world of difference. Sometimes your job is to just train them on how to better use their existing tools or help them switch to an improved service.

Get to know the organization and work outside the tech silo

Tech is often an afterthought within nonprofit organizations. Most are too small or don’t have folks on staff with those skill sets. In larger ones, you may find a few staffers dedicated to information technology services, but I’ve never found folks focused on service transformation or “digital innovation.” Tech is a means, understandably, and many organizations don’t understand what’s possible. Your job is to help them integrate better thinking about technology and design into how they work.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t people who care deeply about improving organizational operations. They do, and these folks can be instrumental in driving a project forward, especially if you won’t be working at the nonprofit five days a week. One of your first tasks should be to identify your partners within the organization. They’ll likely fill a few different roles and the earlier you find them, the better off you’ll be.

Advice:

• If you find yourself working with an organization with IT staffers, become their best friends. Chances are, they’ve identified problems or bad patterns. Be their champion and advocate for what they think is best, while doing your best to get them a seat at the decision-making table.
• Find your point of contact. You’ll be new and may not know how the organization works or who does what. You’ll have basic questions and having a point of contact early on will make it easier to get those answers instead of banging your head against the wall. Your point of contact will almost always be clear, but in cases where it isn’t, don’t be afraid to ask or, if you’re in a professional partnership, get someone’s name down in writing.
• Find your champion. It’s important to find someone that can help keep momentum going when you’re not around. Finding someone to champion your work on the inside can help. Identify who already had that good idea and find ways to elevate them. Include them in your work, make it a two-way street. Skill exchange is a good way to create a rapport, but also think about how they may advance in the organization.