HOW IT WORKS
A Personalized Guide and Road Map for Digital Transformation in Charities
Our self-serve platform is designed by experienced charity and technology professionals who understand the unique needs and challenges of smaller charities. Through our detailed assessment, we’ll build a customized and curated experience for you to help prioritize, plan and understand digital transformation as it applies to your organization — completely free.
Designed to Kick-Start Change
The Charity Growth Academy application was designed and developed to mimic a personal consultation with our experts. You will be guided through a series of questions about your organization, provided with customized foundational knowledge to get started, and supported with curated courses and resources to dig deeper. This can be done at your own pace, on your own timeline.
Built for the Tech Curious and the Tech Savvy
We know that lots of people working in charities are “accidental techies” — those who have taken on technical work out of curiosity or necessity. That’s why the recommendations are easy to follow and build plans around. The addition of curated resources will help your team build the skills you need to drive change within your organization.
How it Works
Tell Us about Your Organization
Take our detailed assessment, and based on what we learn about your organization, your challenges and your goals, the application will customize your free Action Plan.
Receive your Custom Action Plan
Recommendations are customized based on what you tell us in your assessment about how your organization works and where you are in your digital journey.
Invite Colleagues, Collaborators, and Leaders
Each organization will have an admin who can invite collaborators who can work on the Action Plan, and viewers — such as Board members and consultants — who can view the content, access resources and support your organization’s journey.
Learn with Courses and Resources
- We’ve created original courses and downloadable resources designed specifically for charities and that address fundamental digital practices resources to build on your knowledge and help achieve your goals
- These free resources are available to your whole organization to help build a learning culture
- Access an extensive third-party resource library that will make it easy to find courses relevant to your organization.
Kick Start Change and Track Your Progress
- Check off Action Plan tasks as you complete them
- View and share your progress to motivate you and your team.
Designed to Make it Easy to Take it Step-by-Step
We understand it can seem like a daunting task, so we’ve made Charity Growth Academy all about making progress over perfection.
Customized Recommendations and Action Plans
Based on your initial assessment, Your Action Plan is customized for your organization and ready for you to work through at your own pace.
Work Alone or Collaborate with Your Team
Invite Colleagues, Team Members and other collaborators such as your Board, volunteers, senior leaders, or consultants.
Track Your Progress
You and your team can check of the tasks that you’ve completed, see your progress from your dashboard, and work synchronously and asynchronously.
A Critical Tool to Access Funding and Plan Strategically
Leverage your Action Plan to prioritize your digital needs and apply for funding, or as a tool to advocate to your Board for longer-term resource allocation.
We’ve grouped your recommendations into categories, and provide guidance to allow you to focus on the top priorities and channel your efforts.
- Business and Mission Clarity
- Data Governance
- Fundraising
- Leverage Additional Cloud Tools
- Leverage Core Operating Platform
- Optimize Digital Communications
- Technology Governance
Sort Recommendations by Category, Complexity, Time to Complete, and Cost
To allow you to tackle what is manageable, each recommendation has a legend to help prioritize your efforts and inform planning.
Designed for Smaller Charities
- We use language designed for program managers, not IT managers
- We give you essential information about recommendations including price, time to complete, and complexity
It’s Easy to Find What You Need
- Find handy tips and extensive FAQs throughout the application that provide context and make it easy for first time users
- Book free office hours with our team to ask questions or give feedback
- Tell us what you think at any point with feedback forms and survey so we can keep improving
Exportable Recommendations
You can download the Action Plan recommendations to print, include in Board reports, integrate into strategic plans, or leverage for funding applications.
Short-Term and Long-Term Success
Your Action Plan includes a full long-term plan and actionable small steps to take to start seeing immediate benefits.
Focus on Your Priorities
- Easily hide recommendations or actions items that aren’t the right fit for you
- Pin the top recommendations you want to tackle first to keep the team or yourself focused
Self Serve Platform
You can:
- Manage your account yourself
- Invite team members
- Update your data
- Track your progress
- Follow the recommendations
- Take courses
- Leverage white papers and resources
Getting Started – What to Expect
STEP 1 • 3 MINS
Determine if you are eligible for the program
- Review the criteria checklist here – if you are great, proceed to the next step
- If Charity Growth Academy isn’t the right fit for your organization right now, we’ll tell you why and offer tips on this page to help you get ready
STEP 2 • 2 MINS
Set up Your Personal Account
You will need to provide email addresses, create a password and provide a few details.
STEP 3 • 2 MINS
Create or Find Your Organization
To ensure your team isn’t duplicating efforts, you can search for your organization and join your team if it already exists or create your organization’s profile.
STEP 4 • 10–20 MINS
Complete Your Assessment
- We’ve designed a detailed questionnaire that will help us create your customized Action Plan. It is completely tailored to you based on the answers you provide.
- To save you time, we’ve built in logic that ensures we only ask you relevant questions
- You can save your progress if you have to take a break or consult with others in your organization
STEP 5
Receive your Free Action Plan Instantly
- Once the assessment is completed, the application will create your custom Action Plan
- You can invite other team members or get started on your tasks
- The resources and learning modules will help you along the way. You can pin the most important recommendations for you or your team and start your journey towards digital transformation
Our goal is to help charities see the possibilities of technology enablement and how to make change happen. We do this by providing the information needed to get started and to plan long-term — and most importantly, we do so in an accessible way that considers the realities of working in a charity today.
LIZZ BRYCE, CHARITY GROWTH ACADEMY LEAD
GET STARTED
Want to find out if you qualify for this free opportunity?
We are currently running the program and have a self serve application running helping organizations like yours. Take our 5 minute assessment to see if your organization qualifies, and if it doesn’t we’ve provided the resources to make sure you can.
