There is a general fear of technology within the third sector. Since vHelp started, we have been trying to put our finger on it but realised it’s a very complex problem. In this blog, we’ll try and break down some points and reflect on them. Hopefully, it will help others reflect too.
Fear of Technology Adoption
There is a general fear of technology adoption and this isn’t just with the third sector, this is with any organisation considering technology change and adoption. It’s the worry about weeks-long upheaval and chaos when you move over to a new system and things don’t work.
This is totally understandable; because these worries come from previous experiences. I even relate to this on a personal level, I hate changing mobile phones! 3 years ago, I had a nightmare with losing data and not being able to log into key apps on my phone. Two weeks ago, I got a hand-me-down phone and I kept delaying my move over to the new phone fearing what happened last time.
But when I went through with it, I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the process has become. I simply put the phones next to each other and all my data was on the new phone! No cables, no backups and no hassle.
My point here is that we have these worries associated with previous experiences and sometimes we forget that the world around us has moved on, technology companies have become a lot better at helping customers smoothly move over and making it a pleasant experience.
It’s also worth noting that if you are converting a manual process to a digital process the size of the change will certainly be less intrusive and disruptive. In fact, you may be surprised by how much time you have on your hands now the manual process is gone. We see evidence of this when organisations processing expenses manually start using vHelp to reimburse volunteer expenses.
Then there is the fear of using the technology – we get asked ‘Do you provide training?’ Will my team be ok using the system? \ Again, I understand where this worry comes from because the third sector is riddled with legacy systems that are so complex and have a terrible user experience.
We always assure customers that we provide training but we also say “If your team can order food online then they can use vHelp to manage volunteer expenses”. I see scepticism when I say that, but people ring me later and tell me how they couldn’t believe how intuitive our user experience is and how they found everything with no hassle.
Of course, there is also the question, what if my volunteers can’t use technology? We’ve tackled this in detail in the linked blog
Fear of Technology Cost
I sometimes can’t help but think the charity sector views the use of technology as a luxury, there is the thinking “if we can do it manually why spend money automating it”. Technology is no longer a luxury, technology is the backbone of lean operations, which is needed now more than ever.
I’ve always found the success of Just Giving really interesting, the sector has adopted it very well and it became the go-to service for raising money. It appears that the costs associated with using the service are justified by the fact they are raising money - if you’re raising money it’s okay to pay for it.
This is a great step forward, but we now need to move to the next phase, SAVING money, especially during the current economic challenges.
To save money charities need to have a lean back office - being operationally efficient gives your team time to focus on doing what really matters.
Of course, there is a cost to this efficiency, and we often get asked “How do I justify this cost?” The answer is, build a business case.
By building a business case you will understand how much your current processes cost you, you will also understand what the frustrations with the current state of play are. Then you compare this cost to the cost of a digital solution and the benefits it brings. If these benefits outweigh the cost, then you will be able to convince your internal team. Keeping in mind that benefits are not limited to cost savings, there are intangible benefits such as staff/volunteers’ retention, inclusion user satisfaction, loyalty and so on.
Building a business case may sound like a daunting task but it’s not. We will dedicate a full blog to building a business case for a technology solution.
It’s reassuring to see funders are now supporting digital adoption, recently the BBC Children in Need announced they will start directly funding charities core costs. This will definitely help charities adopt and benefit from technology as it’ll take away some of the cost worries.
Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
vHelp provides a simple solution to pay volunteer expenses quickly and securely