The Top 3 Causes of Fundraising IT Project Failure (and 5 Ways to Manage Change)

Undergoing a fundraising technology upgrade or transition can be a tricky proposition. There are common traps many organizations fall into that complicate matters. The good news is there are ways to combat them.

"The most successful IT initiatives within any organization are those that are tightly linked to the mission and current strategic initiatives," said Alex Wilkinson, director of professional services at IT nonprofit NPower, during his webinar, "The Art of Technology," provided by NPower, the Nonprofit Technology Network and Idealware. "… The first question on the plate before starting any technology project is how does it fit into the goals of the organization, and how will we know that we've done enough to meet those goals?"

Step one is to state the objective, why your organization is undergoing this IT project. For example, over the next two years we need to …

• extend our presence on multiple channels;
• acquire new major donors; and
• reach new audience members.

Then, Wilkinson advised, ask yourself: What could go wrong, and will you know if you are in trouble?

"Every project has risk — the risk of running out of money, the risk of losing a key person on the team who is your sole source of expertise on a particular topic, etc. How can you identify the areas of risk in advance so you can be better prepared to cope with them?" Wilkinson asked.

Top 3 causes of IT project failure
Wilkinson has studied the many causes of IT project failure and ultimately determined there are three that occur more than any others.

1. Poor estimation and scheduling. Incorrectly estimating how long it's going to take and how much it's going to cost can throw a major wrench in the project. Problems with scheduling can occur during the implementation. It can result in running out of money, going over budget and dragging out a process much longer than anticipated. Wilkinson gave the example of a client that experienced too much indecision during the project, resulting in an extra year and a half for it to be fully implemented.

The best way to manage that is to meticulously watch the budget and timeliness. Make it a priority to meet deadlines and manage costs.

2. Ineffective management of stakeholders. Everyone must be on board, from buy-in at the top to the users all way down the chain. Know the stakeholders and communicate with them often so everyone is on the same page.

3. Insufficient attention to risk management during the project. "Risk management is something that you do not just do at the beginning of the project, but throughout it," Wilkinson said.

Never stop asking what might go wrong, and continuously assess risks along the way.

How can you manage change?
"During a project, things are going to come at you from all different directions. Some people will not be available you hoped would be. Something is harder than anticipated. You might have changes in personnel," Wilkinson said. "Key to a successful IT project is to be ready for changes and have a good way to manage them. Don't fight them. Expect them, but find a way to make sure they don't derail your efforts."

He shared these five ways to manage change during a fundraising IT project.

1. Get executives engaged, not just involved.
2. Seek project leaders with specific, relevant experience supported by a decisive team. "You need someone who as been through to something like this before," Wilkinson said. "If you're all doing it for the first time, chances are you'll run into more problems you can't solve. On the other hand, you also need that person to be supported by a team that's willing to make decisions because there are a lot decisions that come up and must be made. You need to make decisions to move forward."
3. Use third parties to fill gaps, and capture their knowledge. "Where you have gaps in expertise, you can rely on third parties — Raiser's Edge, Tessitura, Google Apps, Microsoft. But don't just let them do the job and walk away. Have a strategy for capturing what they know and what they did so that knowledge remains within your organization," Wilkinson said. "Make them show you how they did it so you know how to do it."
4. Expect change, and manage it conscientiously.
5. Satisficing works — perfect is the enemy of good. The term satisficing originally came from Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Herbert Simon. It means finding satisfactory solutions, something that fits pretty well, rather than searching for the perect solution. "If you want to get something exactly the way you want it and nothing else will do, chances are you're going to get stuck," Wilkinson said.