Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?
Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford?

In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions.

October is Cybersecurity month! Community IT Chief Technology Officer Matt Eshleman walked through our revised Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits in a webinar designed to get your nonprofit prepped to face cyberliability insurance requirements and ever-evolving threats.

Learn the Community IT approach to cybersecurity and how even small changes will protect your organization against threats big and small.

2024 Updated Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits – Download

Matt shares updated advice on security improvements that provide protection against the most common attacks. You will learn about AI and cybersecurity, best practices in staff training, how to qualify for cyber insurance, and why you need written IT documentation and governance policies. Do you have an approach to compliance? Do you know if your staff are following your cybersecurity policies and procedures?

With the rise of automated and realistic AI tools and more sophisticated methods of identity and email verification, your nonprofit can’t afford not to prioritize cybersecurity. It may be difficult to qualify for business insurance if you don’t complete certain checklists of cybersecurity precautions. But if you don’t know where to start, it can be tempting to delay indefinitely.

This Playbook gives you a simple structure to understand how to think about cybersecurity risks and costs for your nonprofit. Matt’s presentation gives you tips you can put in place quickly and train your staff on immediately. You can download the new Playbook for free here.

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers, accounting, development, and nonprofit IT personnel – and as with all our webinars, it is appropriate for a varied audience.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

Presenter:

As the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT and our resident cybersecurity expert, Matthew Eshleman is responsible for shaping Community IT’s strategy around the technology platforms used by organizations to be secure and productive. With a deep background in network infrastructure, he fundamentally understands how technology works and interoperates both in the office and in the cloud.

Matt is a frequent speaker at NTEN events and has presented at the Inside NGO conference, Non-Profit Risk Management Summit and Credit Builders Alliance Symposium. He is also the session designer and trainer for TechSoup’s Digital Security course.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Is your nonprofit struggling to understand cybersecurity fundamentals?
Are you unsure what level of protection you need or can afford?

In part 1, Matt discussed the cybersecurity landscape for nonprofits and some of the changes that prompted this update to the Playbook. In pt 2, Matt walks through the "foundational" suggestions and takes audience questions.

October is Cybersecurity month! Community IT Chief Technology Officer Matt Eshleman walked through our revised Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits in a webinar designed to get your nonprofit prepped to face cyberliability insurance requirements and ever-evolving threats.

Learn the Community IT approach to cybersecurity and how even small changes will protect your organization against threats big and small.

2024 Updated Playbook on Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits – Download

Matt shares updated advice on security improvements that provide protection against the most common attacks. You will learn about AI and cybersecurity, best practices in staff training, how to qualify for cyber insurance, and why you need written IT documentation and governance policies. Do you have an approach to compliance? Do you know if your staff are following your cybersecurity policies and procedures?

With the rise of automated and realistic AI tools and more sophisticated methods of identity and email verification, your nonprofit can’t afford not to prioritize cybersecurity. It may be difficult to qualify for business insurance if you don’t complete certain checklists of cybersecurity precautions. But if you don’t know where to start, it can be tempting to delay indefinitely.

This Playbook gives you a simple structure to understand how to think about cybersecurity risks and costs for your nonprofit. Matt’s presentation gives you tips you can put in place quickly and train your staff on immediately. You can download the new Playbook for free here.

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers, accounting, development, and nonprofit IT personnel – and as with all our webinars, it is appropriate for a varied audience.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

Presenter:

As the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT and our resident cybersecurity expert, Matthew Eshleman is responsible for shaping Community IT’s strategy around the technology platforms used by organizations to be secure and productive. With a deep background in network infrastructure, he fundamentally understands how technology works and interoperates both in the office and in the cloud.

Matt joined Community IT as an intern in the summer of 2000 and after finishing his dual degrees in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems at Eastern Mennonite University, he rejoined Community IT as a network administrator in January of 2001. Matt has steadily progressed up at Community IT and while working full time received his MBA from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University.

Matt is a frequent speake

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Best practices on improving data security, making the case for creating the policies, and the impact of AI on data security.

Carolyn speaks with guest Jeff Gibson from Build Consulting to answer questions about why data is important to nonprofits, how your data can get really widely distributed in different tools in different departments, and why it is important to do an audit and assessment to know what data you have.

Do you know where your data risks lie? Do you know you are in compliance with laws and your internal policies? Do you have a data policy? What do you need to know about data governance for nonprofits?

Jeff has over 25 years in nonprofit IT including as CIO Chief Information Officer, but recognizes that many staff at nonprofits work with data or use tools that create databases – but don’t have a data background or expertise with database management. That can create holes in your cybersecurity that cause real risks for your organization.

But it can be really difficult to see a need for specific data policies. It can be difficult to convince leadership to prioritize the time to do a data assessment and create data policies. And at small to medium sized nonprofits without resources for a compliance team, it can be hard to monitor compliance with your own policies and with legal requirements.

Jeff shared his experiences and insights into these difficulties and offered some tips on making the case for the danger of unmanaged data. If you are feeling anxious about your data security policies, this discussion on data governance for nonprofits will give you ideas on how to move forward.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

How do you track your subscriptions and licenses? Why is it important to know who has which subscription at your nonprofit?

Many clients come to Community IT experiencing difficulty tracking IT inventory. In addition to tracking physical hardware, laptops, and devices, nonprofits also can find it difficult to track licenses and software subscriptions to cloud-based apps and IT tools.

The rise in cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) models has led to ease of use. It is really easy to sign up for a subscription to many IT tools and platforms that can help productivity and benefit your nonprofit. But there are many advantages to tracking subscriptions, and disadvantages – financial and security – over leaving subscriptions and licenses up to individuals on your staff. Also make sure your nonprofit has strong practices for off-boarding staff and ending their subscriptions and licenses when no longer needed.

Director of Information Systems and Technology Pat Sprehe joins Carolyn in this podcast to discuss the reasons your nonprofit should care about licenses and subscriptions, and how to go about managing the ecosystem from an IT and budget perspective. Among other duties, Pat manages subscriptions and licenses for Community IT staff and is well aware of the challenges and issues.

Learn best practices to manage costs and ensure security for all your users, without stifling their entrepreneurship and self-management. With a little prioritization now, you can ensure your organization is protected from bad actors and can save on subscriptions and licenses.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

What do you need to do now to track your inventory? Why do you need to track inventory - and why isn't there a killer app for that yet?

A significant number of clients come to Community IT without any inventory tracking at all. Besides being a financial risk this is a clear security risk - especially if you have no system in place to off-board staff who leave your nonprofit but keep their laptop and access to private files and business subscriptions.

Why is it so hard to track inventory if you are a smaller organization (under 100 staff)? Listen to CEO Johan Hammerstrom share the three categories of inventory you need to track, and where that information probably lives at your nonprofit. With a little prioritization now, you can ensure your organization is protected from bad actors and can account for all your laptops. Johan shares these IT inventory tips to help our community avoid headaches and security risks.

Some Key IT Inventory Tips:

There is no perfect software or app to track inventory for smaller organizations. You will have to track it yourself, it cannot easily be delegated and philosophically probably shouldn’t be outsourced. A spreadsheet can work for smaller organizations.

Three categories of inventory you need to track:

• Equipment as an asset that the organization has purchased. Need to track it as part of financial accounting. Usually tracked by finance team.
• Who has that equipment been assigned to? Which laptop went to which staff member? This can also be tracked by the finance or HR team, or the IT team.
• Who is logged in to that computer? Who is the end user and which apps and licenses are they using (that the organization is paying for). Where is it located, how is it logged into the internet, who is the last person to log in to it? Your IT team will be able to track this.

You should cross reference these three categories and reconcile them periodically.

You need a standard process for off-boarding staff and recovering equipment from them/deactivating their subscriptions and access.

Managing subscriptions is a related issue, and is equally important for your nonprofit to track, both for financial reasons (paying for subscriptions that are not being used, or paying for individual subscriptions when an enterprise subscription would be easier/cheaper/have more features) and for cybersecurity reasons.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Have you ever used a skills matrix in IT change management at your nonprofit?

In pt 1, Heather describes a typical IT Skills Matrix and how you create one, and responds to audience questions. In podcast part 2, she delves into identifying stakeholders and gives several examples of when and how to use a Skills Matrix to build and empower your team.

Do you know your super-users and early adopters? Your champions and ambassadors? Do you know who on your staff will happily and reliably use the tool exactly as trained vs your staffer who is always looking for new features and finding new shortcuts? Do you know who usually needs a little extra training and review sessions? Who is tech-hesitant, or even tech-phobic? How can you make your IT roll out a success for ALL your users? Can using an IT skills matrix make a difference?

Join Build change management expert Heather Ritchie in an interactive, free webinar to learn about this simple and effective tool. She shares a spreadsheet template, talks through real life scenarios and examples from her work, and explores the benefits and challenges of creating a staff skills matrix.

A skills matrix is also a useful tool to increase the value of training and enhance your conversations about professional development. Where are you investing in your staff skills? Where should you invest? Where do your staff want to learn and improve? What skills will help them and your nonprofit the most?

How can using an IT skills matrix improve new tech rollout?

Build Consulting download: IT Skills Matrix Template

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. Community IT believes strongly that your IT vendor should be able to explain everything without jargon or lingo.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic, and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Have you ever used a skills matrix in IT change management at your nonprofit?

In pt 1, Heather describes a typical IT Skills Matrix and how you create one, and responds to audience questions. In podcast part 2, she delves into identifying stakeholders and gives several examples of when and how to use a Skills Matrix to build and empower your team.

Do you know your super-users and early adopters? Your champions and ambassadors? Do you know who on your staff will happily and reliably use the tool exactly as trained vs your staffer who is always looking for new features and finding new shortcuts? Do you know who usually needs a little extra training and review sessions? Who is tech-hesitant, or even tech-phobic? How can you make your IT roll out a success for ALL your users? Can using an IT skills matrix make a difference?

Join Build change management expert Heather Ritchie in an interactive, free webinar to learn about this simple and effective tool. She shares a spreadsheet template, talks through real life scenarios and examples from her work, and explores the benefits and challenges of creating a staff skills matrix.

A skills matrix is also a useful tool to increase the value of training and enhance your conversations about professional development. Where are you investing in your staff skills? Where should you invest? Where do your staff want to learn and improve? What skills will help them and your nonprofit the most?

How can using an IT skills matrix improve new tech rollout?

Build Consulting download: IT Skills Matrix Template

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. Community IT believes strongly that your IT vendor should be able to explain everything without jargon or lingo.

Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic, and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.

Tiff Parker is an expert in Google Workspace support, having used Google Workspace herself throughout her career and developing a practice as an in-house expert to our clients who use Google Workspace. Carolyn asked Tiff for her tips on features to use and things to know about Google Workspace at the office.

The takeaways:

• Know the difference between My Drive and Shared Drives, and set up Shared Drives for anything that you will want access to after a staff member leaves your organization. Step by step instructions to set up Shared Drives can be found in the Google knowledge center and can be done by “non technical” staff. Be thoughtful about creating the Shared Drives architecture and assigning access. Train your existing and new staff on your expectation for saving and collaborating on files using Shared Drives.
• Google uses the acronym “2SV” for second factor verification. Similar to Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA,) you can use any authenticator (including Google’s) or have a text or call sent to your phone. Whatever you use, the important thing is to REQUIRE 2SV for any account that your staff log into.
• Use Google Groups to save money on licenses and make it easier for teams or committees to collaborate. You can set up Google Groups with a single email address such as “contact@yourdomain” and all the members can see and respond. Groups has a lot of great use cases at nonprofits.
• Google Calendar has an option for “rooms” that you can use for many resources you may want to be able to reserve, like projectors and other AV equipment if you are still using a physical office.

Thank you, Tiff, for these useful tips! If you have more Google Workspace questions, or have a great tip to share, get in touch!

Presenter: Tiff Parker joined Community IT Innovators as an IT Business Manager (ITBM) in October 2023. She brings over 17 years of experience working in nonprofit technology.

As an ITBM, she guides clients through implementation of effective technology investments and utilizing efficient IT services in direct support of their missions. She also assists clients with long-term planning, budgeting, and strategic goals.

The Community IT ITBM service provides an outsourced IT manager to clients at a reduced cost to hiring and having an IT manager on staff. These managers are a resource dedicated to matching technology solutions to clients’ business needs.

The ITBM makes recommendations on IT investments, training programs, maintenance, and licenses. They help the client be forward-looking, and act as a vendor-agnostic, trusted advisor with deep knowledge of the nonprofit IT software and platforms available. Because Community IT works in partnership with clients to manage long-term IT needs, the ITBM relationship with the client makes them a true asset.

Prior to coming to Community IT, Tiff was the IT Director for an environmental nonprofit where she was responsible for the overall vision, planning, implementation, management and support of their various information systems, data, policies, and processes. Tiff graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007. She holds the Microsoft 365 Fundamentals MS 900 certification.

_______________________________
Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.com
• on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening.