By Christopher Miller, Chief Revenue Officer, ATB Technologies
For many nonprofits, technology has historically been viewed as a back-office expense: necessary, but secondary to the mission. That mindset is becoming increasingly risky. Today, every part of a nonprofit’s work depends on technology: fundraising, donor engagement, volunteer coordination, program delivery, financial reporting, cybersecurity, compliance, and impact measurement.
Board members are being asked to make difficult decisions in an environment of rising demand, tighter funding, staffing constraints, and increasing expectations for transparency. In that environment, technology is not simply an operational line item. It is mission infrastructure.
The Technology Challenges Nonprofits Are Facing
Nonprofits often operate with lean teams, aging systems, limited internal IT capacity, and competing priorities. Staff may rely on disconnected tools for fundraising, finance, email, events, case management, and reporting. Over time, this creates data silos, manual workarounds, inconsistent reporting, and security gaps.
The result is more than inefficiency. It affects mission performance. When data is difficult to access, leaders struggle to understand what programs are working. When systems are not integrated, teams spend time reconciling spreadsheets instead of serving people. When cybersecurity is underfunded, donor trust and community relationships are put at risk.
AI Raises the Stakes
Artificial intelligence is quickly moving from curiosity to capability. Nonprofits are beginning to explore AI for grant research, donor segmentation, content creation, volunteer communications, impact reporting, and operational automation. Used responsibly, AI can help small teams do more with limited resources.
But AI also introduces new questions boards cannot ignore. Is organizational data accurate, secure, and governed? Are staff using AI tools consistently and ethically? Are sensitive donor, client, or beneficiary records protected? Are policies in place to manage privacy, accuracy, bias, and accountability?
AI adoption without a technology strategy can create more risk than reward. AI adoption with the right foundation can improve productivity, strengthen decision-making, and free staff to focus on higher-value mission work.
Recent nonprofit research reinforces the ROI opportunity. In the 2025 State of AI in Nonprofits benchmark, 85.6% of nonprofits reported they are exploring AI tools, yet only 24% have a formal AI strategy. Nearly half of respondents believe AI can significantly improve productivity and efficiency, while 60% expressed strong interest in using AI to improve grant writing and fundraising. Other nonprofit technology research points to the same business case: only 9% of nonprofits describe themselves as highly data-driven, 41% cite lack of process automation as a major issue, and 35% struggle with time-consuming manual reporting. For board members, these numbers show a clear opportunity: AI ROI is not just about replacing tasks; it is about reclaiming staff time, improving fundraising capacity, strengthening reporting, and making faster, better-informed decisions.
Why an MSP Is the Right Partner
This is where a managed service provider, or MSP, becomes a strategic partner—not just an IT vendor. The right MSP helps nonprofit leaders assess current systems, reduce technology sprawl, strengthen cybersecurity, modernize cloud platforms, improve backup and recovery, and build a roadmap tied directly to organizational goals.
For boards, that partnership matters because it creates visibility and accountability. Instead of reacting to problems after they happen, leadership gains a proactive plan: what needs to be fixed, what should be modernized, what risks must be reduced, and where technology can expand capacity.
An MSP can also help nonprofits adopt AI responsibly. That includes preparing data, selecting appropriate tools, setting usage policies, training staff, securing access, and ensuring AI supports—not replaces—the human judgment and relationships at the center of nonprofit work.
The Board-Level Question
The question for nonprofit boards is no longer, “Can we afford to invest in technology?” The better question is, “Can we afford not to?”
Every dollar invested in the right technology foundation can help improve staff efficiency, protect donor trust, strengthen reporting, increase fundraising effectiveness, and expand mission reach. For organizations asked to do more with less, technology is not a distraction from the mission. It is one of the most important ways to serve it.
Board takeaway: A thoughtful technology strategy, supported by the right MSP partner, gives nonprofits the secure, scalable, and intelligent foundation they need to serve more people, prove greater impact, and move their mission forward with confidence.
About the author: Christopher Miller brings both technology leadership and more than two decades of nonprofit board and community service experience to this conversation. His governance experience includes serving as President of the Board of Directors for University City Children’s Center, a Board Member for The Core Collective, formerly St. Vincent Home for Children, and a Board Member for SouthSide Early Childhood Center, among others. Through this work—especially with organizations focused on children, education, underserved families, and community development—he has seen firsthand how mission-driven leaders must balance limited resources, operational complexity, governance responsibility, and long-term community impact. That perspective shapes his belief that technology strategy, cybersecurity, data readiness, and responsible AI adoption are not simply IT decisions; they are board-level investments in mission capacity.