Why Can SharePoint Be Important for Non-Profits?

Digitization and technology have their impact on everything today. Whether it’s a business, work culture, or even charity, technology has its crucial presence in all. Non-profit organizations have evolved a long way from the traditional donation-dependent framework to a tech-savvy entity that helps them meet the pace of growth required to survive in the current era.

The success of non-profit organization depends on donations or funds from different external sources and its resources. If the fund is mismanaged or not used properly, it may result in loss of clients, trust, and status. Therefore, it’s crucial for non-profits to use effective yet affordable tools to handle the entire process.

The answer to this problem lies in one technology and that is Microsoft SharePoint, a web-based collaborative platform.

How can SharePoint benefit non-profits?

A SharePoint Version that is Affordable and Effective

Gone are the days when SharePoint was considered the technology of only the big and profitable companies. With the release of Office 365 and SharePoint Online, non-profits can now find a SharePoint version that is affordable and effective. Microsoft offers Office 365 and SharePoint either totally free or at a significant discount to non-profits (depending on the plan). This is a no-brainer considering all the features and benefits that are provided.

Central Location for All Your Important Documents

Most non-profits email accounts are scattered all over Yahoo, Gmail, or any other mail provider. Important documents are also stored all over the place (i.e. Dropbox or personal drives). Utilizing SharePoint brings all these important aspects of your non-profit under one roof. With SharePoint there is a cohesiveness that streamlines processes. When an employee leaves, the important documents are all saved under one common location, so there is no loss of data or difficulty finding the right information at any time.

Shallow Pockets for IT Budgets

SharePoint is a cloud-based system that allows you to work 100% online. Since your files are in the cloud, Microsoft controls the security aspect and spends millions of dollars on that effort, so you don’t ever have to worry about your data being breached. Non-profits don’t need to worry any more on server hosting, software licensing, or separate IT support. This all comes as a bundled package under services provided by Microsoft. If you need to scale up or make the tools more effective as per your use case, the platform is highly flexible for customizations. And that’s where Beyond Intranet

Sharing Internal Documents with External Partners

Non-profits work mostly with external partners. SharePoint is a well-known platform for document management and seamless collaboration. You can easily set up a document library where all the important documents related to vendors, donators, or stakeholders can be placed, and you can also manage user permission levels to access the documents. Apart from document management, you can also set up group calendars to track projects, tasks, meetings and events, or create custom workflows that simplify your specific processes. We have a complete SharePoint team of experts who can demonstrate how to set up these processes in SharePoint easily.

But when we say document management, we don’t mean DROPBOX! SharePoint isn’t just drop box.

Knowledge Management and Collaboration

SharePoint is excellent when it comes to knowledge management and collaboration. We know that organizations, including non-profits, can suffer when there is miscommunication or no communication at all. It is important to bridge this gap and SharePoint Knowledge Management tools have taken the charge to determine how they can help you reinvent the way you work!

Users can search, share, add, or access important company information whenever and wherever they want within high security levels.

Value of Your Own Non-Profit Intranet

Just like with SharePoint, having an intranet of your own was also at one time thought to be just for larger companies! Small organizations avoided giving even a thought to their OWN COMPANY INTRANET. Surprisingly, though, experts state that non-profits are among the companies that can benefit the most from having their own intranet. Resources are required to collaborate and work from anywhere, anytime. It is necessary that everyone continuously shares the latest docs and info at one common location, ensuring easy access at all times.  Only SharePoint can make this happen.

A well-thought-out intranet can be the nexus where staff can easily find relevant documents, organizational charts, employee directories, employee benefits, forms, general directions for operating as a member of your nonprofit, and more. SharePoint Online makes setting up and modifying your intranet super easy. All you need to do is plan up your Intranet carefully.

Scalability and Customization

SharePoint is a highly customizable application, one that is designed to accommodate your changing needs. You can not only create custom workflows of any of your business processes within this, but you can also set up document libraries to allow for easy document sharing, setting up group calendars to track projects, tasks, meetings and events, and more.

Microsoft also takes good care of keeping SharePoint Online updated with new features on a regular basis, making the platform up-to-date as well as highly scalable.

We’re Here to Help!

Hey, non-profits! You continuously serve your communities, so give Beyond Intranet the chance to serve you!

Beyond Intranet, (a subsidiary company of Beyond Key) is a SharePoint custom development expert for the last 12 years and can help you in any aspect of SharePoint customization, ready-to-use SharePoint add-ins, integration capability, and intranets for nonprofits. We have built an enviable reputation as an expert in SharePoint based consulting, Custom Application Development, Intranet Design and Development, Branding, and  SharePoint Migration.

Reach out to us at [email protected] and connect with our SharePoint experts to get a free consultation today!