by Matthew N. Nathan

This toolkit is based on the Technology Planning workshop held at the May 1st, 2003 Community Technology Network of the Bay Area Spring conference

Presenter Bio - Matthew N. Nathan

Matthew is an education, technology and funding consultant helping organizations develop and support technology programs in education, and youth development. His clients include the Tech Museum of Innovation and the Girl Scouts of the San Francisco Bay. Matthew is the former Chief Executive Officer of Vision Education, a New York-based educational technology consulting and training company that he co-founded. He is the author of the Getting Started with Technology Guidebook: Implementing Technology, the primary resource manual for technology planning, implementation and integration for over 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs in the United States and Canada. As a grant writer, in the past four years he has collaborated to raise over $5 million dollars in local, state and federal funds for Community Technology Centers and school-based after-school programs.

Goals and Objectives

Technology planning can take a great many forms but the goal is always the same: to envision how technology can be best used in your organization and create a roadmap of how to get there. This toolkit content was originally delivered as an open workshop for members of many organizations. Here it has been adapted to facilitate the technology planning in a single organization. 

Procedure Building Your Team

Gathering together many stakeholders in your organization to do technology planning is essential. No useful technology plan is ever written in a vacuum by just one person. Begin by creating a technology planning team or committee charged to create or revise your organizationís technology plan. This plan can be a stand-alone document or an element of your overall strategic plan.

Critical people to include in the team include:

• Existing technology staff
• Program staff
• Board member(s)
• Organizational leadership
• Administrative staff
• Development staff

You may also wish to include volunteers, consultants and clients in your planning process.

Kinds of Technology Plans

Technology planning can seem like an overwhelming task. Deciding what kind of plan you are working to produce can help keep planning manageable and the team focused on the plan’s goals.

• Some plans are time bounded. They are designed to look into the future and plan for a specific amount time across program areas and organizational departments.

  • 3 ‚ 6 month plans (short range)

  • 6 ‚ 24 month plans (mid range)

  • 2 ‚ 5 year plans (long range)

• Other plans are content bounded. They are designed to plan for technology in a specific program or department.  

  • ogram-based technology plans (How technology will integrate into existing and new programs for clients)

  • Organizational-based technology plans (How technology will integrate to support organizational operations including communications, development, information tracking and management and administration)

Parts of the Plan

Your technology plan will address many different issues depending on its scope and focus. The list below includes topics suggested by workshop participants as potential parts of a technology plan:

• Organizational Mission: Why does your organization exist? What role does technology plan in that mission

• Goals and Objectives: What is the goal of this plan? Is it to improve internal communication? To use technology for fundraising? To create new programs that use technology with clients?

• Current resources and infrastructure: What systems and resources do we already have in place? What is working and what has not worked so well?

• Professional development: What will staff, board members and volunteers need to learn to implement the plan successfully?

• Timeline of implementation: When will the plan be implemented? In what order will activities take place? Who is responsible for delivering and overseeing this implementation?

• Evaluation criteria: How will you know if the plan is working? What will success look like?

• Staffing plan: Who are the people responsible for supervising and implementing the plan? Will your organization need to hire new staff or consultants for the implementation

• Web Site: What is on our web site now? How often should content be updated? Who writes web content? What is the core goal and message of our web site?

• Budget: How much will it cost to execute the plan? What are current or potential funding sources? In the event of budget shortfall how can we modify the plan to respond to a smaller budget?

• Maintenance and Repair: How will we back up our data, protect ourselves from viruses and keep our computers working?
  Some parts of your technology plan can be copied and pasted from other documents (Mission statement, for example) while other parts will be created specifically for use in the technology plan.

Planning Process

The planning process should be time-bounded: there should be a “due-date” for the plan when it must be completed and presented. Start by reaching out to critical stakeholders (see above). Be sure to set time aside for meetings (one per month at least) as well as for individual work following up from planning meetings.

Building Management and Board support for the technology plan is critical to its success. Encourage your Executive Director to publicize the technology planning that is underway. Find a Board Member to champion the cause of technology at the board-level. Keep the planning visible by publishing short updates and summarizing the results of the plan for all to see. The more voices you can engage during the planning process the fewer complaints you will hear at the end and the fewer obstacles you will encounter in implementation.

Implementation & Evolution

Once your plan is completed it should be used, not just left on a shelf to gather dust. The technology plan is a snapshot of the present as well as a roadmap for the future and should be revised at least once per year as your organization’s needs and plans evolve.

Online Resources

Tech Atlas
Tech Atlas is a free web-based technology inventory management, assessment and planning tool that can be helpful in planning infrastructure development projects.

Tech Soup
A wonderful repository of all things tech-related for non-profits. Contains knowledge banks, frequently asked questions, toolkits and links to all aspects of technology planning and implementation from Development to Programs to Tech Support and everything in between.

Alliance for Technology Access
The Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) is a network of community-based Resource Centers, Developers, Vendors and Associates dedicated to providing information and support services to children and adults with disabilities, and increasing their use of standard, assistive, and information technologies.

Non-profit Genie
Sponsored by the California Management Assistance Project (C-MAP) this web site is a great resource for technology planning an implementation containing information both California-specific and generally applicable for non-profits.

Human and Organizational Resources

Matthew N. Nathan
The author of this toolkit provides fee-based and pro-bono technology planning and consulting services to non-profits and educational institutions. To find out more or ask a question email him at .

CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services is a nonprofit training, consulting and research organization with offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Through a broad range of services, they provide nonprofits with the management tools, concepts and strategies necessary to shape change in their communities. For more information contact CompassPoint at 415-541-9000.