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When Meta announced in early May that it was shuttering Workplace, no one seemed particularly surprised. Workplace had faded from the limelight in the previous two years, with updates and new functionality announcements slowing to a trickle.
Part of the fallout of the announcement included the shut down of Workplace for Good, Meta's free NGO offering.
The sunsetting of a foundational tool like Workplace is hard enough for an enterprise, but the prospect is even trickier for NGOs.
What's Getting in the Way of Digital Transformation for NGOs?
Workplace for Good provided a free way to connect staff and volunteers and to keep everyone involved aligned with the NGO's mission. Its closure, along with the shut down of other tools over the years, makes digital transformation more difficult for NGOs on tight budgets.
A 2023 report on digital capabilities for NGOs in APAC found many NGOs struggle to effectively deploy digital technology and have little capacity to undertake digital transformation. "Many lack the appropriate funding and resources to invest in the technology infrastructure required for digital transformation initiatives,” the report reads.
NGOs face challenges beyond just resources that stymie their digital transformation efforts.
"NGOs can benefit from strong collaboration. However, there are structural factors that make centralized, digital or social collaboration challenging,” Carrie Basham Marshall, told Reworked.
“NGO workers in the field rely heavily on the communication norms and patterns of their hyper-local stakeholders. If local governments and other charities are using WhatsApp or email, the NGO teams also use those tools to preserve efficiency. This makes the addition of a secondary, HQ-deployed tool for internal collaboration tough to add to the mix. Regardless of the technology that HQ has deployed, it takes a back seat to the most pressing challenges being solved by field workers,” she said.
Additionally, some NGOs and non-profits have field teams working in conditions that aren't conducive to digital collaboration. No electricity, limited internet connectivity and dangerous political conditions make digital communications a luxury in many cases.
Marshall also notes that budgetary restrictions aren't always a hindrance, with some non-profits having technology budgets that rival those of for-profit entities. But the slow rate of change for many NGOs caused by rigid processes and multiple stakeholder reviews can prevent action. The hierarchy of decision-making stifles quick innovation, she said.
“I saw a particular NGO spend several millions of dollars developing a new intranet, only to have the years-long process render the project out of date and useless by launch time,” she said. When experiences like this happen, the people doing the mission-related work have to take on how to collaborate online, because they cannot depend on HQ to deliver the centralized tool, she continued.
The non-profit world's focus on formal content within documents — think the grants, reports, data outcomes and more required to obtain funding — trickles down into all levels and working behaviors. Formal documentation is therefore prioritized over spontaneous collaboration or "working out loud."
Returning to the closure of Workplace for Good, Marshall said NGOs and large corporations alike must include the longevity of (and investment in) the product by the vendor in their the criteria when selecting a collaboration platform.
“I've seen organizations from a global non-profit and a major American bank get left behind because they chose the shiniest, newest tool and the oldest, most legacy platform available, respectively,” she said.
Both projects failed because the vendors discontinued the products. Collaboration leaders must stay aligned with vendor product management teams and join customer advisory boards and be willing to pivot when a vendor makes changes. “That's the nature of SaaS-based collaboration: change is constant," she said.
Related Article: Meta Shutters Workplace. Now What?
Start With Small Steps to Digital Transformation
NGOs, SMBs and corporations all have the same challenge with digital transformation: understanding and visualizing results. The issue is common with all digital transformation efforts, regardless of where they happen, said Mulytic Labs CTO David Johnson.
The solution is to reframe digital transformation from a waterfall-style project to an ongoing activity, he said. People and organizations see technology as binary — they have a problem and a technology solution to fix that problem, problem done. But at a time when the landscape is always changing and pressure to transform is increasing, this pattern doesn't cut it.
NGOs need to go big by going small, Johnson said. They should start by chipping away at small problems: make small bets in technology and see if they work.
Email automation or document retention are two examples of small investments that have negligible impact on people's working lives but can improve workflows. The goal is to continue with small changes like these, which minimize downside risk, but show progress and succeed in engaging end users.
“NGOs need to look at digital transformation as a continuous process, they need to own the results but not tied to 'how' the results are achieved. If they are flexible with 'how' the results are achieved, they can use specific vendors to solve specific problems, keeping costs down in the process,” he said. NGOs should look for vendors that are targeting specific solutions rather than leaving the plan to the vendor doing the work as that leads to trouble, he continued. But they can, and should, use vendors to execute components of the plan.
“Bottom line, digital transformation is like being in shape. Staying in shape is a constant activity that changes as you age, with different measures of success and different activities, but always toward the same purpose,” Johnson said.
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Related Article: Learning From Digital Transformation Failures
Strategic Technology Application Pays Off
NGOs often hesitate to invest in technology due to budget constraints and past negative experiences, political strategist Kateryna Odarchenko told Reworked.
However, she noted the positive impact the appropriate technologies can have on their effectiveness. Here she cites email campaigns to streamline fundraising, CRM systems to improve donor management, and social media to boost engagement.
Cost-effective solutions like open-source software and cloud-based platforms offer flexibility and scalability, she added. Strategic tech investments can lead to increased impact, data-driven decision-making and overall better fulfillment of the NGO mission.