Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

Shauna Dillavou is the co-founder of Brightlin.es, a security firm working with the nonprofit sector to prevent vulnerabilities. She is a seasoned intelligence analyst with decades of experience working for the US government. She formerly was part of a team locating cartel associates by their online traces, and founded Brightlines to reverse-engineer that experience to protect vulnerable staff fro...

In this interview from December 2024, Director of Marketing Carolyn Woodard talks with Ramunda Lark Young about her journey from growing up in Tulsa Oklahoma to working in Washington DC to founding an online Black bookstore during the 2007-2008 recession.  In addition to a website where you can find curated lists of books to fit any interest, Mahogany Books now has 2.25 in-person stores in DC and...

Expert Tips on Current Trends:  Webinar 2025 Nonprofit Tech Round Table How is your organization using AI? What policies do you need? What should you be worried about? Download the Community IT Acceptable Use Policy Template for AI Tools in the Nonprofit Workplace . Steve and Matt also share a veritable "grab bag" of new tools, new chips, and other new issues to keep an eye on that will...

Expert Tips on Current Trends:  Webinar 2025 Nonprofit Tech Round Table Is the Hybrid/Remote Workplace here to stay or on the way out? Download the Nonprofit Guide to Remote Work What is the new cybersecurity reality and what should you be doing now to better face the next threats? Download the updated Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits Playbook Join CTO Matthew Eshleman and Director of IT Con...

Set four intentions to make 2025 safer, saner, and more fun for your IT staff and your nonprofit. Now is the month to set intentions for the year ahead. We know nonprofits are facing challenges in a challenging time. Be intentional about setting expectations for yourself and your organization this year and you will take some of the stress off. Director of Outreach and podcast host Carolyn Woodard...

If your organization uses Google Workspace you have access to Google Groups. Kind of like a listserv but so much better. What are Google Groups? If your nonprofit uses Google Workspace , you can use Google Groups to manage tasks via an email group, with granular controls and monitoring if you need it. Google Groups can improve security for email addresses like “donate@mynonprofit” or “info@mynonpr...

Welcome 2025! It's going to be a big year for nonprofit IT and as is our tradition, our senior staff weighed in with the biggest stories of 2024, the most overlooked trends, and what they will be keeping an eye on in 2025.  We hear from Senior Engineer David Dawson, Director of IT Consulting Steve Longenecker, IT Business Manager Erik Solce, IT Business Manager Team Lead Norwin Herrera, Chief...

Is your nonprofit ready to go server-less? What's holding you back from going to the cloud?  Norwin Herrera is an IT Business Manager with Community IT and has decades of experience in IT and as a nonprofit IT consultant. In his work with clients over the years he has learned some of the barriers to moving entirely into the cloud, and gives some advice in overcoming that inertia.  Starting wi...

Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofit Accountants, Hosted by Jitasa University Join Matt Eshleman, cybersecurity expert and author of the re-released Community IT Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits Playbook, in a short presentation on how to use the playbook to protect your organization if you are a financial manager or accountant. In this video, you will  Learn about the free downloadable Pla...

New nonprofit auditing requirements SAS145 now include IT and cybersecurity compliance. Are you ready? In 2022 the AICPA Auditing Standards Board (ASB) issued Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 145, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement . The new standard became effective for audits of financial statements for periods ending on or afte...

It won’t be a surprise that AI is on everyone’s mind. Matt also shared some thoughts on some year end cybersecurity tips and maintenance to ensure your cybersecurity practices – and permissions – are up to date. Nonprofit Cybersecurity expert and Community IT CTO Matt Eshleman offered these year-end cybersecurity tips. Do a permissions audit at the enterprise level – what are your defaults for sha...

If you find yourself with a little downtime, what should you work on? The Gala is back! If your nonprofit is focused on an end of the year fundraising event, you may find yourself and your IT team with a little extra time on your hands this December as the rest of your staff are pulled away from their desks and are calling the help desk less frequently. Carolyn Woodard reviewed our recent webinars...

Are you feeling burned out?  Nonprofit IT can be exhausting. Learn how to de-stress to better tackle your job and help your nonprofit succeed. There is so much stress in managing nonprofit IT.  There are conflicting agendas, tight budgets, and unrealistic demands.  A lot of us have been burned by IT projects in the past that still give us nightmares. The tool was expensive, required a huge project...

Do you have an IT roadmap at your nonprofit?  As a nonprofit leader, how can you design an IT roadmap to create value for your organization? On October 3, 2024 the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership partnered with Community IT Innovators to provide a workshop: Design an IT Roadmap to Create Value for Your Nonprofit. To fully utilize the power of IT to support your nonprofit, you need to ha...

Las mejores prácticas para organizar sus archivos en la nube para lograr seguridad y eficiencia. La organización de archivos en la nube es algo que puede parecer una prioridad menor, en particular con el aumento de las herramientas de búsqueda potentes y ahora con el auge de la búsqueda con inteligencia artificial (IA). Carolyn habló con el invitado Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager Team Lead de...

Best practices on organizing your files in the cloud for security and efficiency. Cloud files organization is something that can seem like a low priority, particularly with the rise of strong search tools and now with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) search. Carolyn spoke with guest Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager, to answer questions about why it’s important to create a file organizat...

Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?  Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford? In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions. October is Cybersecurity mont...

Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?  Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford? In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions. October is Cybersecurity mont...

Best practices on improving data security, making the case for creating the policies, and the impact of AI on data security. Carolyn speaks with guest Jeff Gibson from Build Consulting to answer questions about why data is important to nonprofits, how your data can get really widely distributed in different tools in different departments, and why it is important to do an audit and assessment to kn...

How do you track your subscriptions and licenses? Why is it important to know who has which subscription at your nonprofit?  Many clients come to Community IT experiencing difficulty tracking IT inventory. In addition to tracking physical hardware, laptops, and devices, nonprofits also can find it difficult to track licenses and software subscriptions to cloud-based apps and IT tools.  The rise in...

What do you need to do now to track your inventory? Why do you need to track inventory - and why isn't there a killer app for that yet? A significant number of clients come to Community IT without any inventory tracking at all. Besides being a financial risk this is a clear security risk - especially if you have no system in place to off-board staff who leave your nonprofit but keep their lap...

Have you ever used a skills matrix in IT change management at your nonprofit? In pt 1, Heather describes a typical IT Skills Matrix and how you create one, and responds to audience questions. In podcast part 2, she delves into identifying stakeholders and gives several examples of when and how to use a Skills Matrix to build and empower your team. Do you know your super-users and early adopters ?...

Have you ever used a skills matrix in IT change management at your nonprofit? In pt 1, Heather describes a typical IT Skills Matrix and how you create one, and responds to audience questions. In podcast part 2, she delves into identifying stakeholders and gives several examples of when and how to use a Skills Matrix to build and empower your team. Do you know your super-users and early adopters ?...

Tiff Parker is an expert in Google Workspace support, having used Google Workspace herself throughout her career and developing a practice as an in-house expert to our clients who use Google Workspace. Carolyn asked Tiff for her tips on features to use and things to know about Google Workspace at the office. The takeaways:  Know the difference between My Drive and Shared Drives, and set up Shared...

Senior Consultant Nura Aboki explores best practices on supporting one or two Macs when everyone else is on Windows laptops. Nura and Carolyn discussed the ins and outs of supporting a few staff members and managing a few Macs, whether in a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace environment.  The days of leaving your Mac users to manage their own devices are long gone – current cybersecurity risks requ...