Community IT offers free webinars monthly to promote learning within our nonprofit technology community. Our podcast is appropriate for a varied level of technology expertise. Community IT is vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Something on your mind you don’t see covered here? Contact us to suggest a topic! http://www.communityit.com
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Does your organization struggle to match your IT to your actual business needs? Learn how to right size your IT and get rid of FOMO. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a natural human condition. And when it comes to technology, shiny new tools and platforms can seem very shiny. Add in tech giants’ large marketing budgets and vendors who pressure you to …
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The pace of new AI tools and uses on the market is like a rocket. Does your nonprofit have questions about cybersecurity, opting out, or best practices when using AI? Microsoft released a new AI Governance Framework for Nonprofits joining many institutions putting out guidelines and studying the impact of AI on nonprofits and the ways nonprofits ar…
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Are you a new board member hoping to help your nonprofit navigate IT management? Do you know what you need to know about IT, cybersecurity, and change management as a board member? Where is your nonprofit on the scale of IT management maturity? In this podcast Marketing Director Carolyn Woodard, who has served as an IT Director at nonprofits in her…
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Whether or not your nonprofit faced Crowdstrike impacts, the aftermath of a national or worldwide incident is a great time to gather your cybersecurity team and run the exercise: what will your organization do during the next outage or cyber attack? Nonprofit Cybersecurity expert Matt Eshleman shares his thoughts in this podcast on the importance o…
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In part 2, we discuss Single Sign On (SSO) implementation and roll out, and answer questions from the webinar audience. In part 1, our guests Steve Longenecker and Phil Oswald Christano define SSO and go over what it does and doesn't do. We discuss the unfortunate fact that each app interacts with SSO differently so you have to enable it for each a…
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If you have heard about Single Sign On (SSO) and wondered what it can do for your nonprofit, this webinar explains the concept and examines the ways that SSO can help your organization be more productive and work more safely online. In part 1, our guests Steve Longenecker and Phil Oswald Christano define SSO and go over what it does and doesn't do.…
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What do the acronyms SFP, DKIM, and DMARC mean, and why do you need to prove your email is legit? If you have been hearing these terms lately about your email or your cybersecurity liability insurance checklist, and don’t know your DKIM from your DMARC, you aren’t alone! Carolyn sat down with CEO Johan Hammerstrom to demystify the lingo and learn a…
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What does it mean to be a learning organization and how can you grow learning practices at your nonprofit? In pt 1 Karen defined a Learning Organization and explored struggles to embrace learning at your nonprofit. In pt 2 Karen discusses the categories of learning technologies that can help nonprofits organize their learning management, and gave u…
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What does it mean to be a learning organization and how can you grow learning practices at your nonprofit? In pt 1 Karen defines a Learning Organization and explored struggles to embrace learning at your nonprofit. In pt 2 Karen discusses the categories of learning technologies that can help nonprofits organize their learning management, and gave u…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Vince Grady, the new Community IT Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who is 8 months into the job. Vince and Carolyn discuss his roundabout path to the CFO role, and how a diversity of backgrounds is common at Community IT and valued as one of our strengths – not all our employees have followed a typical path and…
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Listen to this conversation with Carole Melvin from Your Part Time Controller (YPTC) and catch up on the current thinking on preventing financial fraud as scams seem to multiply all around us in our jobs at nonprofits. Learn what new frauds and scams are evolving and how to protect yourself and your nonprofit. Some key takeaways: Cultivate a health…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Rob Schamberg about his long service on the Community IT Board helping steer the company through the process to become employee-owned through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and to his recent retirement from the Board. Rob describes his career from his days as a college grad who loved technology and…
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Pt 3 delves deeper into implementation, roll out, and overcoming barriers to updating or creating IT governance policies at your nonprofit. In this podcast follow up to their webinar, Community IT Senior Consultant Nura Aboki and guest Jeff Gibson from Build Consulting spoke with moderator Carolyn Woodard and shared their experiences and insights i…
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Pt 2 covers implementation, overcoming barriers to this project, and Q&A. Pt 1 Covers policy definitions and priority policies, a process to create or revise your policies, and 2 polls. For templates: Free Resources for Building IT Policies at Nonprofits has a ton of links for you. Community IT Senior Consultant Nura Aboki and guest Jeff Gibson fro…
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Pt 1 Covers policy definitions and priority policies, a process to create or revise your policies, and 2 polls. Pt 2 covers implementation, overcoming barriers to this project, and Q&A. For templates: Free Resources for Building IT Policies at Nonprofits has a ton of links for you. Community IT Senior Consultant Nura Aboki and guest Jeff Gibson fro…
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What are the main ways AI impacts nonprofit cybersecurity risks? Social engineering, trust, and data risks are the three big areas where AI will have impacts on cybersecurity at nonprofits that you need to be aware of. Whether or not your organization is using AI, these are areas where hackers are definitely using AI to devise new methods of attack…
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How to Protect Your Organization Against New Threats Following the 2024 Nonprofit Cybersecurity Incident Report, Carolyn sat down with Matt Eshleman, our Chief Technology Officer and cybersecurity expert, and José Antonio Peña-Rosales, our Director of Support Services, to talk about what users can do to stay safe and share some cybersecurity update…
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Community IT CTO and cybersecurity expert Matt Eshleman delivers our report on trend lines and took questions live in this popular webinar. In pt 2 Matt goes into the report data and pulls out new and disturbing attacks, and finishes up with the best ways to protect yourself, especially from Attacker-in-the-Middle MFA attacks. In pt 1 he explores a…
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Community IT CTO and cybersecurity expert Matt Eshleman delivers our report on trend lines and took questions live in this popular webinar. In pt 1 we explore a systematic approach to cybersecurity for your nonprofit, talk about the big picture trends, take a couple of audience polls on what type of incidents are common, and demystify some lingo. I…
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How can your nonprofit avoid common headaches with the free Google Workspace implementation as you grow? So many small nonprofits start out using the free Google Workspace platform you can set up and administer yourself. Google makes it easy! But as you grow from a one- or two-person nonprofit to a larger team you may be wondering if Google Workspa…
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Ethics, AI Tools, and Policies. How is Your Philanthropy Using AI? Part 1 of this podcast introduced basic AI concepts and definitions and gave some practical examples of nonprofits very intentionally using AI to further their mission. It ended with results of a poll of the audience members and discussion on how nonprofits are using AI tools - indi…
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Ethics, AI Tools, and Policies. How is Your Philanthropy Using AI? Community IT was thrilled to welcome two respected leaders, Sarah Di Troia from Project Evident and Jean Westrick from Technology Association of Grantmakers, who shared their informed perspective on AI in philanthropy to share this AI Framework with our audience. You will not want t…
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How to Protect Your Inbox and Your Sanity Are you getting more unwelcome email lately? From junk emails, to annoying advertising, to malicious phishing, it can feel like the tools that keep our inboxes spam free aren’t working as well lately. Johan Hammerstrom, our CEO, answers Carolyn’s questions about email safety. How do you know which unsubscri…
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Do you know if you are in technology debt or investing at the right level in your nonprofit IT? Senior Consultant Nura Aboki sat down with Carolyn Woodard recently and discussed his work as a senior consultant and the strategic responses he sees as the most successful across his clients. You can benefit from these tips no matter the size or technol…
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Join Matt Eshleman, a cybersecurity expert, in a short presentation on AI, new AI tools for nonprofits, some use cases, things to watch out for, new cybersecurity fraud and scams enabled by AI, and ways to protect your organization. In this video, you will learn to Learn about AI and what nonprofits need to know about AI Use cases for AI at your no…
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Guest speaker Tim Lockie from The Human Stack in a workshop focused on smaller nonprofits struggling to manage IT. In pt 1, Tim describes the tactical issues nonprofits face in trying to work with tech tools. In pt 2, Tim walks through the different mis-alignments that leadership and "boots on the ground" staff can have, and ways to overcome them. …
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Guest speaker Tim Lockie from The Human Stack in a workshop focused on smaller nonprofits struggling to manage IT. In pt 1, Tim describes the tactical issues nonprofits face in trying to work with tech tools. In pt 2, Tim walks through the different mis-alignments that leadership and "boots on the ground" staff can have, and ways to overcome them. …
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Excerpts from CEO Johan Hammerstrom's appearance on a panel hosted by NXUnite on strategic nonprofit tech decision making. Full video and transcript available on our site: https://communityit.com/panel-dialing-in-being-strategic-about-nonprofit-tech/ Nonprofit organizations often grapple with limited resources and outdated technology, limiting thei…
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Today Carolyn interviews Jenny Huftalen, Director of Client Services on her new role and long history with Community IT. Jenny has been providing Account Management services for Community IT’s partner organizations since 2007. Now as Director of Client Services, she is responsible for ensuring those partner organizations are receiving the right com…
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How to Communicate to Create a Great Relationship Community IT gets this type of question a lot from nonprofits in our community: My MSP doesn’t talk to me about what they are doing and why their rates have gone up. How can I talk to them to understand what they are doing, when I don’t have a technical background? Johan Hammerstrom, our CEO, addres…
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Part 2 explores cybersecurity, Google Workspace v Office365 for nonprofits, and hybrid work considerations. In Part 1 our panel discussed AI and the impacts of new AI tools and considerations on nonprofits. We also released a free new AI Acceptable Use Policy Template for nonprofits. Join CTO Matthew Eshleman, Director of IT Consulting Steve Longen…
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How is your organization using AI? What policies do you need? Join CTO Matthew Eshleman, Director of IT Consulting Steve Longenecker, and IT Business Manager Team Lead Norwin Herrera, moderated by Carolyn Woodard from Community IT, in part 1 of a lively and specific discussion of all things nonprofit tech for 2024 and beyond. Part one focuses on th…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Bill Evans, who is retiring as CFO after 14 years. After a long career at Verizon where he held both operations and finance roles, Bill realized he was ready for a new challenge, and started looking around for a nonprofit where he could assist with his finance expertise as a CFO. Community IT is a 100% emplo…
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Robin Harris is a Cloud Technologies Specialist at Community IT. She primarily works with clients who are moving files into SharePoint, from a server, from another cloud-based file sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive, or creating a file sharing database for the first time. Today she shares some tips from her years of helping many clients w…
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What topics should we expect to be important next year? In a New Year’s Eve tradition, Carolyn asked Community IT senior staff to weigh in on the most important and/or under-reported tech stories that impact nonprofit technology. While many of these stories are not under-reported, widely reported mainstream tech stories often have particular or une…
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Matt Eshleman, Community IT CTO and cybersecurity expert, sat down with Carolyn recently to discuss what he's hearing about and expecting from AI in the upcoming year. In his role as CTO he interacts with all of our clients and also plays a foundational role in adopting new technologies internally at Community IT. Carolyn wanted to know what questi…
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Carolyn Woodard sat down with Senior Consultant Nura Aboki recently and asked “What’s the most pressing question you are seeing from your mid-market clients around nonprofit IT needs?” Nura quickly answered: Policies. Astonishingly, many larger nonprofits he works with either don’t have basic IT policies for Acceptable Use and Business Continuity, …
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Erik Fernandez, who is an IT Business Manager at Community IT and has been with us for nine years. IT Business Managers are a unique aspect of account management at Community IT. They have senior technical expertise but also business and strategic knowledge. ITBMs function as a general strategic IT advisor; …
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Manage Printers in a Nonprofit Office So many of us are working from home, but when you do come in to the office, there are some IT networked items you need, like A/V and printing. The big challenge with printers in our hybrid work environment is how to make them easily accessible to staff when they come into the office with their portable laptop. …
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In part 2, Join Gillian Knight from Healthy Communities Foundation for a case study presentation on one of the tools they decided to use for their grant-making process, Asana. She also takes audience Q&A on the process they used to increase equity in their reporting requirements and process. After an assessment and listening, they identified techno…
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Join Gillian Knight from Healthy Communities Foundation for a case study presentation on the process they used to increase equity in their grant-making process and reporting. After an assessment and listening, they identified technology tools that could help them refine their work flow and decrease the reporting and evaluation burden on their grant…
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“Managed services” can mean different things to different people, especially when you are just embarking on a quest to find a provider. To understand what you need, what a provider is offering – and whether they’ll be able to deliver – Community IT Innovators developed a list of basic questions to ask. Download the white paper here: 12 Questions No…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Pat Sprehe, who recently was promoted from managing the IT Business Manager team to Director of the internal Information Systems and Technology at Community IT. This is a new position and an example of the ways at Community IT if you see a need, there’s a lot of flexibility to create a role. Pat has worked h…
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Is your data safe? All your data? Join Community IT CTO Matt Eshleman and Build Consulting Partner David Deal for a presentation on data cybersecurity for nonprofits. You may have invested in your basic cybersecurity, but how do you know if your data is as secure as it needs to be? Do you know all the tools you use that store crucial data and how t…
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Is your data safe? All your data? Join Community IT CTO Matt Eshleman and Build Consulting Partner David Deal for a presentation on data cybersecurity for nonprofits. You may have invested in your basic cybersecurity, but how do you know if your data is as secure as it needs to be? Do you know all the tools you use that store crucial data and how t…
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Cybersecurity expert and Community IT CTO Matt Eshleman walks us through the strategy behind creating a strong cybersecurity culture at your nonprofit. Whether you are a large organization, small start up, comfortable with technology or not sure what you need, cybersecurity is something that everyone at your nonprofit needs to think about. This pod…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Luke Casey, one of our IT Business Managers. ITBMs are kind of a strategic planner, IT consultant, and tech expert rolled into one. Luke has 18 years of experience in IT in both the public and private sectors, from starting in the Help Desk to working his way up through Team Leadership positions, System Admi…
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Join Community IT CEO Johan Hammerstrom and nonprofit AI expert Sarah Di Troia for a conversation about using Artificial Intelligence with ethics both within your organization as staff do their jobs, and with your community as you work with your partners, volunteers, and funders to achieve your mission. Part 1 covers basics about AI and the ways no…
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Join Community IT CEO Johan Hammerstrom and nonprofit AI expert Sarah Di Troia for a conversation about using Artificial Intelligence with ethics both within your organization as staff do their jobs, and with your community as you work with your partners, volunteers, and funders to achieve your mission. Part 1 covers basics about AI and the ways no…
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In today’s interview, Carolyn catches up with Robin Harris, who has been promoted to become a Cloud Technology Engineer, working on complex migrations to SharePoint file sharing. Robin shares her career path and how her managers at Community IT tapped her for this role based on the way she was interacting with clients and her experience. She works …
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