“ I asked one question,” says Bryan.‘ Who pays their bills early and on time?’ She gave me a list.” That list included several nonprofits. When Bryan launched his own company with his boss’ s blessing in 2003, nonprofits became foundational clients.
That strategic beginning eventually reflected a personal ethos.“ I try to lead very intentionally and make sure that what I do professionally doesn’ t ever conflict with my personal mission and my personal core values,” Bryan says.“ When a client is actively doing good work and is actively benefiting the community, it’ s very easy to get behind that customer and support them and feel good about the work that you do.”
For Josiv Krstinovski, CEO of Parsippany, New Jersey-based KRS IT Consulting, the original motivation was more personal. Nonprofits had supported his family while his father battled cancer, and he wanted to give back.“ Something that I saw firsthand with nonprofits is that they do support a lot of people in need,” Krstinovski says.“ That kind of inspired me to help and protect a lot of these organizations.”
Supporting nonprofits requires understanding them, says Nimer Saikaly, president of San Diego, California-based Ciprus Consulting.“ Early on, we saw a disconnect. Many nonprofits were underserved by IT providers who didn’ t understand the unique balance between mission, compliance, and constrained budgets. We made a conscious decision to specialize in supporting mission-driven organizations because we genuinely care about the work they do.”
Unique Tech Challenges
What’ s more, MSPs say many nonprofits don’ t realize how badly cybercriminals want the sensitive data they tend to hold, and how easily bad actors could shut down their operations. As a result, they often have a lax security posture characterized by inadequate security controls and outdated systems and equipment.
“ And a lot of the time, because they have such an older system, they’ re afraid to upgrade, maybe invest in something that could be a larger expense for them,” Krstinovski says.
Adapting to Nonprofit Needs
Whether good intentions or good payment history leads an MSP to nonprofits, it takes specific strategies to successfully serve them.
For starters, there’ s no getting around the tight budgets. Some MSPs offer separate nonprofit pricing, but there’ s more you can do. Krstinovski has found success helping nonprofits navigate vendor discount programs they often don’ t know exist.“ Microsoft, for instance, has a lot of discounted programs in terms of licensing that they’ re entitled to,” he says.“ There ' s also instances where Microsoft will give them free grant licenses that they can apply for at no cost.”
Stuart Bryan President, I-M Technology
While every industry has its pain points, nonprofits present unique challenges that require specialized understanding. The issues go beyond just limited budgets.“ Nonprofits often face a trifecta of challenges: limited budgets, lean internal IT staff, and rising compliance demands, especially in areas like cybersecurity and data privacy,” says Saikaly.
Higher levels of employee churn create a greater need for speedy onboarding and offboarding, says Bryan. Nonprofits also struggle with data sprawl, having information scattered across multiple platforms and systems without a cohesive strategy. They end up using a chaotic mix of tools,“ a local server, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, an email client, a variety of spreadsheets, a homebrew Access database, a nonprofit fundraising platform, plus various state, local, or federal portals that they must report results back into,” says Bryan.
This fractured approach creates serious operational challenges for nonprofits.“ How do you prove that you’ re doing what you said you did? How do you communicate that with your donors or your donor prospects?” Bryan asks clients.
Krstinovski’ s team also developed a hardware-as-aservice model designed for nonprofits after one client needed 30 new computers but lacked the upfront capital.“ We were able to help procure, purchase, and basically add the 30 computers to their plan. Every three years we’ ll go in and either replace them, or they’ re free to keep the computers after the three-year mark,” Krstinovski says.
It’ s also important to tailor your positioning, says Bryan. He advises getting nonprofit leaders to see your MSP as a technology board member who can have conversations about
Nimer Saikaly President, Ciprus Consulting
Josiv Krstinovski CEO, KRS IT Consulting
MSPSUCCESS. COM | 27