Originally published June 14, 2021.
We often talk about the benefits of digital document management for businesses. But what about for nonprofit organizations?
Since these organizations are usually staffed largely by volunteers, any opportunity to simplify things is worth taking advantage of. Document management can make the ins and outs of volunteering much easier, helping to maximize their time and donations.
If you run a nonprofit, document management is a great way to make the most of your resources. Keep reading to learn how to optimize your digital content management to the fullest.
1. Identify Your Needs and Budget
When you run a nonprofit organization, you become an expert at stretching a dollar as far as it can go. You know how to get a lot from a little, and you do everything you can to make the most of your resources. Document management can accomplish this goal, but first, you need to find the right system for your needs.
Consider the following elements:
-
- Tools: What are the tools needed for document organization? What types of documents are you organizing? Who needs access to these documents—volunteers, workers, or people the organization helps? How do you want to access these documents?
- Scalability: If you use a cloud-based platform, you’ll have plenty of scalability to potentially expand or downsize your organization. The cloud platform will give you what you need, and it always leaves room for growth.
- Budget: When it’s time to buy anything new for your organization, cost-effectiveness comes first. You want to make sure that the new item will last for a long time, serve the organization well, and cover a lot of ground.
By maximizing your organization’s workflow, your document management platform can help you get things done without too many bumps in the road. A better workflow means better cost-effectiveness, which is why a lot of nonprofit organizers find document management indispensable for their missions.
2. Leverage Cloud-Based Storage for Easier Document Management
Document storage can get complicated, especially for nonprofits. Some nonprofit organizations maintain even more paper than for-profit businesses. All of that paper can get in the way of day-to-day activities. Not only does it clutter your workspace, but it also leads to gaps in your workflow. For example, how much time do your team members spend waiting for documents to print? What about the time they spend changing ink and toner in the printer? Then there are other tasks, like chasing down signatures.
Fortunately, cloud-based storage can make document management much easier. With a cloud-based approach, you won’t have to waste time searching for just the right document. You can find exactly what you need in an instant, which means that you can get to work or pull information from that document right away.
Plus, you won’t have to spend any time creating a complex organizational system, and you won’t have to lose time on disorganized documents. When you have a digital content management platform at your fingertips, that platform can organize your documents automatically. As soon as you upload a document, it’s there whenever you need it.
Now, you can spend your time on more important things, and you can keep your focus at the heart of your organization’s mission. The smoother your workflow becomes, the more your organization can accomplish.
3. Choose a Secure, Compliant Solution
Nonprofits can hold just as much sensitive information as for-profit businesses, and yet nonprofits often don’t have the same security measures. For this reason, it’s important to choose a document management solution that can help you change that.
Here are some key security and compliance features to look out for:
- Access control: Limit access to sensitive documents
- Encryption: Add encryption data at rest to your existing document platform
- Audit trails: Version control and legal hold capabilities enhance compliance
No matter what solution you choose, keep in mind that digital documents are always more secure than physical ones. Physical documents are easily lost or stolen as they move from place to place, but digital documents allow for more secure viewing and communication. Plus, physical documents are vulnerable to fire, flood, and other disasters. With a cloud-based platform, though, you can always access your organization’s digital documents, no matter what happens to their physical counterparts.
We’re Here to Help!
Making the shift from paper files to a digital document system can be complex. It requires a lot of moving parts and poses some unique challenges for nonprofit organizations. The good news is that you don’t have to make these changes alone, and when you do make the changes, you’ll notice a big difference in how you run your organization.
The Vasion team is here to help you make the most of your digital document transformation. We’d love to show you how our platform works. Schedule a demo for a personalized demo catered to your non-profit’s unique needs.