Not-for-Profit Navigator
With Nicole Aebi-Moyo - SalesFix For Purpose Practice Lead
How much does your organisation budget for IT each year? More importantly, how did you arrive at that figure? For many in the For-Purpose sector, the process is less “strategic planning” and more “fingers crossed.”
This month, I sat down with Tammy Ven Dange, a specialist in helping non-profits navigate the murky waters of digital transformation, to discuss why IT projects so often blow out, and how to present a budget to your Board that actually reflects reality.
The "Shopping List" Fallacy
In the home building or renovating world, we expect budgets to be flexible. We know that once you strip the wallpaper, you might find structural issues. Yet, in technology, there is a strange expectation that costs should be fixed from day one.
“It’s very easy to just take the quote from the vendor and present it to the Board,” Tammy notes. “But that quote is often full of gaps and ambiguity.”
When organisations hand over a vendor proposal without accounting for internal costs, they are setting themselves up for a “train wreck.” A vendor quote is rarely the total cost of ownership. There are lots of other costs you should be considering including:
- Internal Staff Time: This is the most neglected item. “Internal project costs should be no less than the costs of the vendor,” Tammy warns. If your team is trying to implement a CRM on top of their full-time jobs, they will burn out, and the vendor will start making expensive assumptions because they can’t get the info they need.
- Data Migration: It’s never as clean as you think and the complexity of migrations is often overlooked.
- The “Hidden” Change Management: Training and communication are just the basics. The real cost is in role redesign: what happens when a system makes a task redundant or fundamentally changes a staff member’s daily life?
But the biggest, usually neglected cost, is integration.
Intergration: The Silent Budget Killer
One of the quickest ways to create “silos of information” is to gloss over integrations. Many organisations check if a system can integrate, but they don’t ask how.
“You need to consider the ‘system of truth,'” says Tammy. If a donor asks to be removed from a mailing list, which system wins? If you don’t integrate the processes alongside the data points, you’re just moving a mess from one bucket to another. Furthermore, integrations aren’t “set and forget.” They require ongoing investment to handle errors and API updates.
Managing the Board: Tell Them Now or Tell Them Later
Boards hate surprises, yet the sector’s “fixed price” culture often leads to a cycle of endless change requests.
The Red Flags to Watch For:
1. Bottom-Up Pressure: If middle managers are the ones reaching out for help while senior leadership is hands-off, the project is likely doomed.
2. Generic Partners: Choosing a partner who doesn’t specialise in the NFP sector means you end up paying to train them.
3. Zero Contingency: Technology projects are harder to estimate than building or renovating. If you don’t have a contingency fund, you aren’t being honest with your Board.
“Better to tell your Board up front what the true cost is than to tell them six months later that you’re running behind and the budget has already been spent.”
What About AI?
With the buzz around tools like Agentforce, many are asking if “AI” needs its own line item. Tammy’s advice is refreshing: Start with the problem, not the solution.
“Implementing AI is not a strategy,” she says. If you have a business case to solve a specific problem and AI happens to be the best tool for it, include it. But don’t let the technology wag the dog. The same applies to policies—don’t write an “AI Policy” in a vacuum; ensure the use of AI is incorporated into your existing data and ethics frameworks.
The Verdict: Don't Start from a Blank Page
Most NFPs lack a dedicated CTO or IT specialist on their Board. This leads to strategic decisions being made in the dark.
If you find yourself staring at a blank spreadsheet, reach out to your peers. The NFP sector is famously generous with advice. Ask your counterparts at other organisations what they spent, what they missed, and which partners actually understood their mission.
Not sure where to start? Check out our True Cost of IT Project Checklist:
1. The "Beyond the Vendor" Internal Costs
A common trap is assuming the vendor’s invoice is the total cost. Tammy suggests your internal investment should roughly equal the vendor’s fees.
- Dedicated Project Lead: Have you backfilled a staff member’s role so they can focus on this? (Adding a CRM rollout to a full-time job is a recipe for burnout).
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Have you budgeted for the time your team needs to spend in workshops to explain your processes?
- Data Cleansing & Migration: Who is cleaning the “dirty data” before it moves? If it’s your team, do they have the hours allocated?
- Who can support your change management needs, and not just deliver some training?
2. The Intergration Architecture
Don’t just ask “Can it connect?” Ask “How will it live?”
- Middleware Fees: Is there a third-party tool (like Zapier or Boomi) required to make systems talk?
- The “System of Truth”: Have you mapped out which system “wins” when data conflicts?
- Ongoing Maintenance: Who fixes the integration when an API update breaks it in six months?
3. Deep Change Management
Training is only 20% of the battle. The rest is cultural and structural.
- Role Redesign: Have you looked at how job descriptions will change? (e.g., Does a staff member now have 5 hours of manual entry removed? What do they do instead?)
- Hybrid Work Considerations: How will you manage the “watercooler” learning and informal support for staff working from home?
- Executive Sponsorship: Is a Senior Leader (not just a middle manager) visibly driving this project?
4. Risk & Contingency
Technology is more complex than a building project—it needs a safety net.
- The 20% Buffer: Have you added at least 20% contingency for “unknown unknowns”?
- Vendor Specialisation: Is your partner a sector specialist, or are you paying to teach them how a non-profit works?
- Licence “Shelf-Ware”: Have you checked if licences start charging the day you sign the contract, or the day you go live?driving this project?
Strategy Tip: The "Back to the Sofa" Test
If your budget is tight, ask: “Will this investment turn $1 into $2?” If it’s for fundraising, focus on revenue generation. If it’s for service delivery, focus on removing the single biggest manual pain point for your staff.
If you need any assistance understanding anything in this edition of NFP Navigator please reach out at [email protected], I am always happy to help.
Until next time,
Nicole
Useful Resources
- Webinar for those considering migrating from NPSP to Agentforce Nonprofits (previously called Nonprofit Cloud). It’s in the middle of the night in Australia but the recording is worthwhile: Webinar link here!
- Information about what is already underway through the Community Sprints (the last one was virtual, the next one is in Sydney in February)
- Want more helpful Salesforce How To Videos? Complete this survey to influence what videos get made next!
Coming Up in 2026
- Melbourne User Group (Virtual) – Supercharge your assessment process with Discovery Framework 25 March 2026
- Melbourne Non-Profit User Group (Virtual) – Agents For Change for NPSP 2 April 2026
- World Tour Melbourne: 24 June 2026 (TBC)
- True Blue Blazing: 20 October 2026. Watch this space for date announcements and more.
Australian Salesforce user groups
If you use Salesforce and you’re not part of a user group, you’re missing out! There’s over 30 groups in Australia and New Zealand alone, and many now meet online so there’s no excuse for not joining in and finding out more.