You might think the most important thing at your nonprofit is your mission. But you're actually mistaken .
The data your nonprofit produces every single day that comes in the form of spreadsheets, proposal documents, and databases filled with the contact information of your constituents is. And when you really think about it, all that data is your mission.
Producing that word document furthers your mission.
Each number dialed from a spreadsheet or CRM database that's being made to a donor is your missions.
Without all that information at your fingertips in a convenient place, your work can not, and does not, get done.
Because nonprofits deal with donor, volunteer, partner, sponsor information, and market and social data, a sustainable backup solution is essential to maintaining these resources over time. If something catastrophic were to happen to your nonprofit's data, it would spell disaster for you, your constituents, and your capacity to complete your mission.
Here are a few steps your nonprofit can take to initially assess your data protection plan.
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How much time goes into maintaining your backup system?
Depending on the size of your organization, maintenance of your backup system should require less than 60 minutes per day.
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How do you backup your data?
From on-site servers and CDs, to Cloud Based Backups, and everything in between (i.e., external hard drives and flash drives), the source you backup to matters.
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Do you have backups for your backups?
Nonprofits are looking to cloud services, such as Microsoft SharePoint, Google Drive, and DropBox to backup their backups, but some organizations don't stop there.
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Reassess your backup plan every year.
As your nonprofit grows its data, donor base, volunteer base, connects with new sponsors, and gains new partners, you will likely reassess the relevant tools and resources your nonprofit has when it comes to maintaining these relationships and information.
