3 Ways Nonprofits Can Find Talented Technology Experts

Last year, the troubled rollout of HealthCare.gov drew attention to the lack of technological expertise at federal agencies. But these missteps should get the attention of nonprofits and grant makers, too. The reality is that technology increasingly plays an integral role in all public-interest work.

In a recent report prepared for the Ford and MacArthur foundations, we interviewed almost 50 people, including policy makers, nonprofit and foundation leaders, scholars, business executives, and technologists, to understand the challenges nonprofits face in recruiting and retaining technology expertise and using technology to achieve their goals.

We found that while many organizations recognize the value of technological expertise, they often struggle to recruit new talent and use it well.

One expert we interviewed explained the stakes of this technology deficit for organizations that promote the common good: “I can’t think of a nonprofit that couldn’t benefit in some way [and] on some level from some more sophisticated tech.”

The key reason for seeking individuals with more technology expertise is to improve the work and techniques of nonprofit organizations.

These missions urgently need a more modern tool kit for outreach and advocacy. A challenge now is that many nonprofits undervalue the utility of technology to solve social problems and help organizations become more efficient and effective.

Hiring people with the right technology skills would allow nonprofits to use the latest innovations to enlist their supporters to take action and would bolster, and in some cases transform, vital work.

Many of those we interviewed spoke about the underlying power of technology to change not just how organizations think but also how they work. Modern technology organizations embody values like openness, experimentation, and collaboration—all potentially key features of a thriving, innovative nonprofit sector.

Importantly, greater technology expertise could help nonprofits advance their influence on public policy. We were told time and time again in undertaking this report that we live in a technological world and we need a sector that can talk about technology in a sophisticated way.

This challenge can be solved. We frequently heard that technologists today are often civic-minded and interested in using their skills to serve the common good.

The key is to take common-sense steps that can help build a stronger talent pipeline. This is a task the nonprofit sector should begin advancing today.

Among the steps:

• Foundations and nonprofits should go straight to the source, directly promoting training programs for the next generation of technologists who are interested in social impact and policy change. Currently, few technology programs are designed to prepare computer scientists or engineers to work in civil society or government. Further, universities too rarely create the kind of cross-disciplinary programs—between engineering and public policy, for instance—that would expose students to work outside of the corporate world and emphasize the opportunity to serve and benefit society with their skills.
• People in the nonprofit world can do more to forge partnerships that build a talent pipeline. For instance, the Google Policy Fellowship places students interested in the intersection of the Internet and public policy in summer internships with like-minded public-interest organizations. Nonprofits should look for opportunities to create and expand these sorts of opportunities.
• Nonprofits can work to make their organizations more attractive to technologists. This doesn’t necessarily mean paying better but offering a creative and innovative culture. The biggest challenge today in attracting talent, said some experts, was not compensation but the lack of opportunities to grow, experiment, and build a career. That said, foundations could play a role in offering scholarships and flexible loans that would allow technologists to enter the public-sector work force without feeling like debt significantly limits their employment opportunities.

The challenges are daunting, but there’s real potential for a technological revolution within civil society. To capture this opportunity, philanthropy and nonprofits can’t afford to wait around: They should take the lead in seeding change.