DharmaTech Case Study – “Restructuring and Expanding Wild Utah Project’s Information Technology”

Introduction

Information technology is the network of computers and software that allows organizations such as Wild Utah Project to create, store, and share digital information in pursuit of their conservation work. This technology includes photographs, documents, maps, scientific analysis, publications, e-mail, and more – all of which is used by conservation groups to affect change through communication.

Nonprofits in general are not harnessing the full power of this technology. In DharmaTech’s experience, most nonprofits do not invest in the technology to meet all of their needs, due to a lack of resources, expertise, skills, and/or vision. Others spend more money than they need to on proprietary systems and software that are designed for larger organizations in the for-profit world. These proprietary systems often do not integrate with existing software and systems, do not fully address the organization’s needs, and are difficult to manage and maintain.