Every nonprofit worker needs digital skills
Digital is no longer just the domain of IT professionals. Fundraising leaders are running CRMs. Field programs rely on gathering and utilizing huge amounts of data. Everything is digital and there’s no going back.
The acceleration of new and emerging technologies holds great promise for our sector, unlocking the potential for faster impact, at scale. But without the skills and leadership to utilize these new technologies across NGOs, the danger is that those who most need the impacts get left behind – or worse, are made unsafe by the act of receiving aid.
We must drive real and sustained digital transformation that empowers NGOs – and the communities they serve – with the digital and data skills, and leadership needed to thrive in this new world.
“The problematic moment is when people either employed by NGOs, at any level, or the communities they serve don't understand not only the risks, but the efficiencies gained from going through digital platforms, digital programming,” says Stephanie Siy, Interim Senior Director of Field and Impact Programs. “For NGOs, with shrinking budgets, how do we maximize on the digital services that could be used?”
Equipping people with digital skills and leadership at every level of nonprofits is a key place to start.
NetHope is advancing sustained digital transformation across the sector by going beyond basic digital literacy to accelerate digital understanding, capabilities and leadership at the strategic and intermediate levels our Members — and their communities — need to thrive.
22 years’ experience upskilling NGOs in digital
NetHope has been working to build the digital skills and leadership (and through them the efficiency and impact) of the nonprofit sector for two decades through its annual Global Summits, NetHope's Center for the Digital Nonprofit, Working Groups, and Chapter Meetings. NetHope regularly releases toolkits, hosts webinars, and publishes articles to equip its Members with the latest, contextualized information and holistic best practices to help them harness digital to build their programs and run their organizations.
For the last three years, NetHope has also been running Women of NetHope.
“Women of NetHope started as a mentoring program, and then evolved – with the goal to support women in their career paths, get women into senior leadership roles, and support women with the scarce resource of digital leadership skills to stay in the nonprofit sector,” says Morgane Bradley, NetHope’s Head of Data and Digital Solutions, and Program Lead for Women of NetHope.
Research shows that when women lead, they drive diversity, equity and inclusion, so by supporting women to become digital leaders in the sector, our investment won’t end with them.
“Women of NetHope is focusing on leadership because this is how you can instigate change,” says Morgane Bradley. “This is how you can actually have an impact in your organization for the better.”
In collaboration with NGOs and tech partners, NetHope also founded the NetHope Digital Leadership Institute (NDLI) to empower individuals (particularly those in not traditionally IT roles) and organizations to thrive in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape. The NDLI currently offers three courses:
‘Invaluable insights that enhanced my leadership’
Feedback from Women of NetHope and NDLI show just how impactful and vital equipping nonprofit employees and leaders with digital and leadership skills is. 99% of those who have participated in one of the NDLI courses say they apply their learning and skills in their daily work. 75% feel that taking part in a course enhanced their organization’s digital culture and created an enabling environment for collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, and data-informed strategic planning.
“The Leadership Skills for a Digital Age course not only provided me with invaluable insights but also facilitated a dynamic learning environment. This collaborative approach not only enhanced my own leadership skills but also fostered a network of support and knowledge exchange that continues to benefit both me and my organization,” says Angelo, from Winrock International.
And one participant of the Leading with Purpose course run by Women of NetHope said, “This course was a fantastic opportunity, it totally changed my perceptions around leadership and women leaders and gave me a great sense of self-awareness. I feel like I am more aware of my strengths and weaknesses and encouraged to find and be my authentic self as a leader instead of trying to change myself to meet societal standards and expectations.”
Bridging the divide to accelerate digital understanding, capabilities and leadership of our Members
Over the next ten years, NetHope will continue increasing the digital skills and leadership of the nonprofit sector, supporting its Members at all levels and geographies of their organizations, from the C-suite to their local implementing partners. NetHope will expand the NDLI Program with the goal of reaching more people with transformative digital skills and leadership.
“The Leadership Skills for a Digital Age course has been a pretty great success,” says Stephanie Siy. “With previous participants wanting to dig deeper into each of the six focus areas of the course – technical literacy, digital responsibility, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit – we have expanded the course to three levels. The foundational level, an intermediate level, which is a six-part course providing more in-dept learning on each of the above areas, and an executive level, specifically for executives and C-suite level employees to drive impactful change within their organizations.”
NetHope is also creating courses targeted at its Members’ national and local implementing partners, focusing on what it looks like to ensure they have the digital skills and leadership needed to implement early warning systems, or protect their systems from cyber-attacks for example, with limited resources.
In addition, NetHope's Center for the Digital Nonprofit team plans, at the request of Members and partners, to research the following areas in 2025.
Digital isn’t an option – people need the skills now
“There is no part of an INGO that doesn't need to be digitally savvy,” says NetHope’s Chief Operating Officer, Dianna Langley. “What we're finding now is that people who have come up in their careers as a fundraiser, or a water and sanitation expert, for example, find themselves in charge of large digital platforms – and they have to be that senior leader deciding ‘these are smart choices’. And these are not small choices. So, everyone needs to have capacity and capability in this area.
“That's what NDLI is – it is taking non-traditional IT people and giving them leadership and exec-level digital skills or digital capacity, so that they can be good at providing that digital to the downstream to beneficiaries.”
As NetHope works to bridge the digital skills and leadership gap its Members and partners have identified, it will help equip its Members and the communities they serve with the digital skills to accelerate their impact and keep themselves safe – ultimately helping ensure 1.67 billion people in 190 countries are able to keep getting the help they need.
Don't miss...
Every installment of our six-part series exploring how NetHope’s 2024-2030 strategic plan is tackling the New Digital Divides:
Digital Skills and Leadership Resources
