The changing face of the third sector

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1 Claranet whitepaper Cloud Hosting for Charities The changing face of the third sector Connecting your charity to the future Claranet supports Microsoft cloud platforms and technology For more information : claranet.co.uk - twitter.com/claranet To book an appointment or to discuss our hosting services : Call us : us : business@claranet.co.uk

2 Content The Charity Gap The Cloud Challenge Using Cloud for competitive advantage How Cloud benefits charitable organisations Getting specific Next steps

3 What we mean by a charity today will completely disappear by Lucy Green - Founder and Director of Larato What does it mean to be a charity today? Whilst the aim and ambition to improve the lives of others remains true, the way in which charities reach out to supporters and the people who consume their services is changing. This document is informed by our experiences of working with local and international charities such as WRVS, Amnesty International and Unicef on their IT infrastructure needs. It explores how technology, and specifically the advent of Cloud, can deliver great gains to charitable organisations, and address the challenges brought on by an always-on, hyperconnected economy. The Charity Gap The way charities operate is under pressure to change. Fuelled by social, economic and technological shifts, gaps are appearing between what people need and what Government can provide meaning that charities are increasingly being called upon to fulfil services to the public, and individuals are being encouraged to become activists within their community through initiatives such as the Big Society. Access to services and service providers are now expected around the clock, which requires charities to find additional funding to change the way in which they engage with fundraisers and beneficiaries. Changes in Government funding and policies can have a material impact on the ability of a charity to succeed and so it makes sense to reduce this risk. Charities are having to adopt frameworks and working practices that are more in line with traditional private sector businesses, and investors have the same expectations that they would of a commercial business when it comes to strategic thinking. This is not to say ethical approaches must be compromised, or causes should be replaced by pursuit of profit; but that the approach to business operations, infrastructure and technical innovation of charities needs to match those of their private sector counterparts. The Good News This realisation has coincided with a transformation driven by the maturing of the Digital Age whereas twenty years ago we were just introducing the internet to networked office computers, we now have a proliferation of connected devices directly in the hands of most individuals often referred to as the Consumerisation of IT. This shift gives us a global community that is connected like never before, and presents an opportunity for charities to have greater access to supporters and activists, and generate funding and awareness at higher levels than previously possible. Thanks to platforms like Twitter, WordPress and Change.org, individual voices are being lifted to policy-changing levels and fundraising sites are offering ways for entire communities of likeminded people to make an incredible impact (take for example the #nomakeupselfie that raised over 8m for Cancer Research UK within a week). All of this combines to offer fantastic scale to those charities that are able to effectively connect with these communities and the thing that they all have in common is that they re leveraging the Cloud. 2

4 The Cloud Challenge The challenge for charities in making the most of the Cloud opportunity are threefold: Having the correct infrastructure Given that many charities were founded pre-internet, there is a proliferation of old infrastructure present in the sector. With precious little to invest, and a great deal of scrutiny on where money is spent, IT has often not been given the correct level of priority. In fact, IT is central to enabling organisations to flourish especially now that supporters, potential investors and employees are all highly digitally connected. Individuals take connectivity for granted and expect the organisations and businesses that they interact with (and work for) to be present wherever they are. It is crucial for charities to recognise this and respond appropriately by making the right IT investments that will enable them to seamlessly connect with their supporters, and their wider networks of colleagues, family and friends. Far from being just about an internet connection, maximising Cloud services involves having the right overall infrastructure either within the business, or outsourced to an appropriate solution provider. Figure 1: Methods of giving: proportion of total UK donors, 2012/13 Competition from profit-making organisations With attention spans becoming shorter, charities find themselves competing with profit-making organisations for the attention of the people that they want to engage with. 52% 31% 28% 24% Retail is a prime example of an industry that is leading the charge in this area they were the first to have advertising based on the browsing habits of individuals, websites that are optimised for mobile, tablet and PC, and the ability to pay at a click. It has never been easier to make a digital cash transaction and charities that are able to harness retail s mindset are the ones that will make headway soonest. Cash Direct Debit 16% 14% 4% 4% 2% Buying Raffle Event Cheque Fees Payroll Other Source - Charities Aid Foundation The key to this is making it really easy to donate. The easier it is for a person to donate to you, the more likely you are to benefit from spur of the moment donation decisions a study commissioned by NCVO and CAF throughout 2012 discovered that only a third of individuals donate by Direct Debit. The overwhelming majority of donations were made by cash so charities need to be in front of the right audience at the right time to capitalise on these donation decisions. 3

5 Making the right decision Given the amount of platforms available and ways in which organisations can interact with supporters, deciding where to invest and what department this investment belongs to can feel confusing. Social media and digital engagement are often given to marketing as a tactical to do without taking into consideration the bandwidth, connectivity and mobility requirements necessary to effectively implement a successful strategy. Infrastructure projects are then given to IT without necessarily providing a link back to business KPI s, leaving departments that should be closely aligned, working separately. Whenever customer outreach, supporter engagement or fundraising strategy is discussed it should be in conjunction with the capability of the infrastructure and it is critical that decisions made fulfil the following objectives: Increased income Every IT service has the potential to influence income if properly aligned to the organisations goals. From CRM that keeps in regular, relevant contact with your supporters, to offering the ability to donate across multiple platforms, there is no excuse for IT not being an enabler. Cost reduction Infrastructure investments made today should aim to ultimately reduce the overall long-term cost of IT service provision and this is where Cloud really performs. Correctly implemented, the right IT strategy can also be highly effective in reducing costs such as physical office space, energy usage and headcount. For charities this further extends to reduced fundraising costs, expenditure on customer outreach and more cost-efficient beneficiary communications and service delivery. Flexibility As previously highlighted, individuals expect to be connected to the internet at any time on any device, regardless of location. This high expectation, and the proliferation of internet-ready devices means that organisations who are unable to deliver a quality online experience across devices and networks lose out on employee productivity, supporter engagement and donation opportunities. This flexibility also extends to network performance and bandwidth elasticity. Organisations often experience spikes in interactions and donations coinciding with anniversaries and special events those not equipped to manage bursts in traffic risk a dissatisfied supporter base, compromised network quality and lost income. By using a hosted Cloud platform, this pain is taken away as the service automatically flexes to meet your needs and saves you costly hardware upgrades. Using Cloud for Competitive Advantage In our view, and based on our experiences of working with charitable organisations, the optimal way forward is to utilise Cloud services. Organisations that are not yet using, or introducing, Cloud within their infrastructure are in danger of being left with mounting costs for a less than ideal infrastructure and running the risk of losing relevance with supporters. Legacy infrastructure is costly, and with vendors and users pulling towards an app-based future (as evidenced in business with Microsoft s drive towards apps, and a Mobile First, Cloud First strategy), charities need to make Cloud a fundamental part of their IT and Fundraising strategy. Cloud offers charities a fantastic way to not only compete (and let s be clear charities are definitely competing for people s time and money), but also the ability to stay focused on their mission whilst rapidly responding to, or even predicting, changes in supporters preferred choice of engagement. 4

6 How Cloud benefits charitable organisations Supporter outreach One thing that charities have, more than any other type of organisation, are stories. Many people are compelled to take action, or make donations, on the basis of the story of an individual that they can relate to. Smart organisations are leveraging their online presence to provide a platform where people come together and share their experiences. Take Amnesty International as an example. Its website: is built upon Claranet s managed application hosting platform which is tightly tied to Amnesty s content management system (CMS). This gives Amnesty a powerful platform to curate and share content that encourages site visitors to take action be that commenting, sharing or making a donation all of which are highly visible and easy to do. In addition to this, they can track, manage and enable self-service transactions that deliver straight to the heart of the charity. The days of organisations sending expensively produced leaflets and pens that pass straight from letterbox to bin should be numbered, and chuggers are giving charities a bad press when trying to fundraise on the street. Cloud offers an alternative, intelligent option because it allows for an immediate, reciprocal and importantly measurable interaction. There are also incentives from major vendors designed to help Microsoft offers charitable organisations cost-savings on online software solutions such as Office 365 and Windows Server through its not-for-profit programme. Employee productivity As with any private sector organisation, the issue of employees having a more satisfactory IT experience at home vs the workplace is commonplace and charities must compete for talent. Having a working environment that supports mobile working is not only highly attractive for potential employees, it also enables organisations to get the best possible productivity results as staff are empowered to work anywhere that they have a device and access to the internet. Cost reduction A highly-mobile, highly-connected workforce reduces the need for office space and costly equipment as staff are able to work at a location convenient to them. Solutions such as Office 365 from Microsoft mean that not only can teams connect and collaborate in online workspaces using SharePoint, they also get the benefit of productivity software directly to their tablet, pc or mobile device. Because Office 365 and other cloud-based software is commonly priced and billed on a subscription basis, organisations have the benefit of being able to move IT costs from CapEx to OpEx. To extend these benefits even further, many charity organisations that we work with opt for full platform hosting which means that instead of costly on-site servers that require manual maintenance and management, they only pay for the capacity that they use, meaning network downtime becomes a thing of the past as bandwidth automatically flexes to meet usage requirements. With access to information about our users, we would be able to support their journey to the Amnesty website and, once there, ensure they had access to the content and resources they needed. This in turn would help us encourage and facilitate campaigning activity amongst all our users. Kamesh Patel - Head of IT, Amnesty International UK 5

7 Getting specific There are numerous ways in which Cloud solutions can help you. The below sets out the key categories in broad terms although we have helped many organisations opt for a blended or hybrid model as they begin their Cloud journey in order to maximise the value of their existing IT assets as part of a carefully planned transition process. Software as a Service (SaaS) By delivering specific applications to users, regardless of location or device, you can offer employees greater flexibility, encourage productivity, and keep your teams in touch wherever they are. Office 365 from Microsoft is a good example through the delivery of SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and desktop tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Why do it? Switching to Cloud-based solutions and services delivers an incredible array of benefits to all organisations. What we re finding with our charitable customers is that by taking a more commercial approach to IT infrastructure and investment (including making clear demands on what they want to be delivered) they are reaping rewards that directly benefit the communities that matter the most the ones they want to help. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) IaaS delivers enormous benefits in terms of flexibility, network elasticity and cost savings through the provision of compute power, memory, and storage on-demand. Claranet s certified data centres, which are built on enterprise-grade hardware and designed to work in conjunction with industry-leading vendors including Microsoft, offers organisations access to incredible network power and speed, priced on a consumption basis. Platform as a Service (PaaS) PaaS allows organisations to develop, run and manage web applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching apps. This is typified by products and services such as Microsoft Azure. How to do it Claranet specialises in providing Hosting, Network and Communication solutions built in conjunction with leading vendors like Microsoft, and with the needs of charitable organisations in mind. Thanks to our sector and technology experience, we know one size (and one Cloud) doesn t fit all. That s why we work closely with each of our clients to provide a customised solution that facilitates more effective collaboration and interaction between people, networks and apps. All of our solutions are built on our award-winning hosting and network infrastructure and are designed to deliver ROI today, whilst providing the scope and flexibility to provide integrated or incremental services as your organisation grows. 6

8 Can we help you? Founded in 1996, Claranet is one of Europe s leading managed service providers, offering commercial and charitable organisations hosting, networks and communications services. Charitable organisations in the UK, and world-wide, rely on Claranet to design and implement hosted IT infrastructure solutions for networking, connectivity and communication. To find out more about the work we do, talk to a like-minded charity expert at: Claranet understood the imperatives, working closely with us and going the extra mile that was needed to help us progress. We can now face outwards, listen and react to the markets, and begin engaging more actively with our existing and a new customer base. Susan Pym, Head of Finance & IT, LED For more information : claranet.co.uk - twitter.com/claranet To book an appointment or to discuss our hosting services : Call us : us : business@claranet.co.uk