How Technology Can Reduce Funding Barriers in the Nonprofit Sector

There are significant disparities in funding for nonprofits led by people of color. According to a 2020 study, BIPOC-led nonprofits receive an average of 24% lower revenues and have access to 76% less unrestricted net assets.

Clearly, it’s time to shift our collective thinking about what it means to be a society that provides equal opportunity.

Recently, Resilia Founder and CEO Sevetri Wilson wrote for Forbes about technology's role in reducing these funding barriers for the nonprofit sector. 

At a time when nonprofits are working to address major issues like Covid-19 and racial injustice, technology is necessary for leveling the playing field and ensuring that equity exists for organizations of all shapes, colors and sizes.

Grantors that are preparing to deploy capital should ask themselves this question: Are we doing our best to create an equitable capital allocation process? It's important to look for technology solutions that can alleviate barriers to entry for nonprofits, but education is a crucial part of this process. 

For example, organizations often think (incorrectly) they lack access to the resources that can help them track and report outcomes. A recent report conducted by BDO and The Nonprofit Times found that the top three reporting challenges cited by nonprofits are no consistent framework for collecting and sharing data, a lack of human resources and the inability to gather information on the impact of programs.  

This is why part of the mandate for grantors should be to identify these types of nonprofits (often led by community organizers from underrepresented groups or people of color) and equip them with the right technology so they can begin to track important benchmarks. 

Read the full article on Forbes here.