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Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits with Johan Hammerstrom pt 2

· 33 min · S7 E75

Episode Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits with Johan Hammerstrom pt 2

0:00 33:07

In Part 2 of the Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits webinar, Carolyn Woodard and Johan Hammerstrom, CEO of Community IT, get practical about what well-managed IT looks like, and why the capacity to manage IT matters more than any tool, device, or license you can buy.

Johan walks through a simple framework: five capacities every nonprofit's IT should have, and ten security essentials that non-technical leaders can use as a checklist.

Carolyn then shares why she wrote the upcoming white paper with the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG), reframing nonprofit IT around assets instead of deficits.

Nonprofit staff bring deep knowledge of their mission, IT vendors bring technical expertise, and funders bring capacity-building dollars and a view across their grantees. The missing piece is IT management, and closing that gap takes everyone working together.

The Q&A takes on a question many listeners will recognize: what can a one-person team wearing too many hats do to be more proactive when there's no time to think strategically? Johan's answer is to make your vendor carry the proactive work, and to build in simple checkpoints that keep the relationship accountable.

Haven't listened to Part 1 yet? Find it in your podcast feed.

This episode covers:

• The five IT capacities your nonprofit should be able to do either internally or with vendor support: resolving simple issues on demand, resolving advanced technical issues, proactively managing IT systems, proactively managing IT operations, and planning strategic investments • Ten security essentials across devices, accounts, data, and governance, and why your acceptable use policy should address AI and be a living document • Why funding technology without funding IT management capacity leads to technical debt, and why expecting mission-driven staff to also be IT experts is an equity issue • How a monthly vendor check-in and an annual assessment timed before budgeting can shift a vendor relationship from reactive to proactive, and why an assessment is an easier ask of funders • Why AI adoption is exposing underlying IT management gaps that AI can't fix on its own

Resources Mentioned:

• Webinar: Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits – Community IT • Template: Acceptable Use of AI Tools in the Nonprofit Workplace – Community IT • Webinar: Nonprofit Cybersecurity Playbook, Updated for AI (October 21) – Community IT • Kauffman Foundation – kauffman.org • TAG 2026 Conference – Technology Association of Grantmakers – tagtech.org • Start Here: Nonprofit Cybersecurity Basics - Community IT • 2026 Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits Playbook - Community IT

_______________________________ Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/ • email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com • on LinkedIn • on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagement • on the Community IT website

Thanks for listening.

Links in the notes 11

Transcript

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