3 Ways Cloud Collaboration Benefits Nonprofits

If you’re running a non-profit organization and your team isn’t collaborating in the cloud, you’re missing out. Cloud collaboration is a powerful way to bring teams together to work on larger goals in real-time – even nonprofits.

Collaborating outside of the cloud has some benefits. For example, you won’t have to create an account or pay for services. However, the benefits of cloud collaboration far outweigh the cons.

Without the cloud, collaboration is awkward, slow, and frustrating. Each person has to brainstorm in a silo and share their document with others. Then, they have to wait for everyone to read their ideas and find a way to discuss which ideas to keep. Once the team agrees on which ideas to keep, they need to create a new document.

The more team members you have, the more documents float around, and it becomes hard to keep track of the contents. Real-time cloud collaboration is a game changer.

Cloud collaboration offers many benefits that stem from the advantages of real-time collaboration. Here are just several of those benefits.

1. Instant collaboration in real-time

Sharing files quickly, easily, and securely makes collaboration easier. With cloud collaboration, team members can exchange links to documents and they can collaborate in real-time on a number of files.

Real-time collaboration has become the standard in team collaboration tools. It’s no longer acceptable to pass around Microsoft Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. Everyone expects to log into a cloud account and start collaborating immediately.

In addition to integrating with real-time collaboration solutions like Google Docs, Box for non-profits provides non-profits with all the same high-tech features corporations have been enjoying for years. For example, you can share links to your documents so you never have to upload files more than once. Those links can be set to expire after a certain period of time to keep your files secure.

The best part about using Box is you can apply for a donated or discounted account if you have a TechSoup membership.

Other cool cloud collaboration tools include:

• Google Workspace. This is a basic collaboration suite that includes applications like spreadsheets, word processing, and presentations.
• Microsoft 365. This tool is just like Google Workspace but uses Microsoft’s programs.
• Slack. This tool is great for everyone, but it’s engineered to support programmers.

2. You’ll save money

Non-profit organizations have a reputation for trying to get things done as cheaply as possible, ideally for free. While there’s nothing wrong with trying to save money, many nonprofits use paid high-tech tools to get their work done.

Many cloud collaboration tools cost money, and they are worth every penny. However, there are also free options, especially if you don’t need much storage space. Regardless of what collaboration tools you use, you’ll save money over using traditional methods.

Traditional collaboration is so time consuming that all of your employees will spend far too much time looking for files, editing files, and uploading files. This will cost you more money in payroll dollars than you need to spend.

Cloud collaboration makes team collaboration efficient and reduces the amount of time your team members spend on minutia.

3. Secure file storage and sharing options

Cybersecurity is a big risk for non-profit organizations, as many fall victim to data breaches perpetrated by hackers looking for donors’ financial information. Cloud collaboration tools from a secure provider will keep your data secure in several ways.

Depending on which application you use, you could get access to one or more of the following features:

• Files are encrypted on the server
• Files are password protected
• Shareable links can be set to expire
• Shared links can be set to not allow downloads
• Only specified users can access each file

Nonprofits benefit from the cloud just like major corporations

When it comes to business structure, nonprofits are just like any other organization: team members are paid to perform specific tasks and responsibilities to achieve the organization’s overall goals. Within that team structure, collaboration is required.

If you have a tight budget, hesitation to get into cloud collaboration is understandable. However, many non-profit organizations are spending between $1 million and $10 million on IT software, including cloud collaboration tools. They know they don’t have a choice if they want to succeed.

Start using cloud collaboration tools for your non-profit organization today, and you’ll see the difference in the way your team connects. They’ll be happier, more efficient, and projects will move along quickly.

Ultimately, the swiftness of your team will help you reach your goals of making a difference in the world, whatever cause you happen to be supporting.