The particular benefits of the Internet for organisations

If you develop the capacity of your organisation's staff to use the Net effectively, it can

• Maximise your organisation's capacity to be innovative, reliable, and flexible in changing times.
  
  
• Eliminate and/or reduce the cost of producing and distributing materials - announcements, updates, bulk mailings, newsletters and flyers, for example.
  
  
• Assure the quality and integrity of reports, grant applications and statistics - by reducing data entry mistakes and storing data in easy to use, but flexible formats that can be used to quickly write reports or respond to inquiries.
  
  
• Shorten the length of time to complete projects or solve problems - by providing staff with project outlines, milestones, streamlining their work processes, automating repetitive tasks, and making the information they need accessible and easy to use.
  
  
• Protect and improve the organisation's reputation - by keeping clients and collaborators informed of programmes and projects.
  
  
• Allow staff to respond effectively to questions and concerns of the community or press, as well as allowing staff to analyse and respond quickly to future needs and concerns of clients, programmes, and funding sources.

In the networked society every nonprofit organisation will need an information management system - regardless of how big or small the organisation or how big or small the system. This system would attempt to integrate current office protocols- logging appointments, taking clients' histories, updating clients' records, mailing letters, creating announcements, etc.- with the organisation's technological capabilities.

Resources

The US NCexChange project toolbox has presentations on the effective use of the Net in nonprofit organisations.