How can program management tools help you develop your nonprofit organization's programs?

One thing I have found helpful is knowing which tool best supports the operational goal and capacity of your non-profit. As a nonprofit executive, I found a logic model a highly useful tool. A logic model is a visual representation of your planned programming. It serves as a roadmap of how the organization plans to achieve its desired outcomes using defined resources and strategies, which include measuring performance, identifying operational resources, building a communications strategy, designing the program, and much more. In short, using a logic model helps connect the vision for your organization's impact to the day-to-day operations of your organization.

Establishing good routines is essential to effective program operations, and project management tools (I’m partial to asana but there are others out there!) can help in establishing and sticking to them. Spend the time to create templates - doing so can foster health conversations about where projects get stuck, or where approvals really need to happen. Then by implementing them, your team can apply their capacity to the content of the work, rather than the process of the work. Lastly, don’t be afraid to change those templates as your needs evolve.

Remember to consider the cost of training and any required system upgrades over time. These may not be factored into the purchase price, and can be costly even to current customers.

Seek out side-by-side comparisons of program management tools online to better gage product features and to access customer reviews.

Choosing the right program management tool for your nonprofit is crucial for nonprofit capacity building for several reasons: assessing opportunities for improvements, strategy planning, increasing program effectiveness, optimizing operations for sustainability, and more effective communications to stakeholders by sharing progress and impact reports.

In my current role as program specialist, tools like Microsoft Project and Asana have helped me plan tasks, set deadlines, and assign responsibilities. SharePoint and DropBox have also allowed for easy access and collaboration on documents. Program management tools can thus enhance efficiency, improve communication and ultimately increase the impact that non-profit organisations are making on the communities they serve.

Some nonprofit programs have only a few people responsible for every task between operations and program development. There are cloud-based platforms that can help a nonprofit organize, track, and report on projects. For example, a tool like Smartsheet automates workflows and builds solutions at scale. It breaks down goals into smaller tasks, assigns these tasks to team members, and tracks the progress of each task.