Nonprofit business process assessment increases efficiencies for improved collaboration, cybersecurity, and revenue potential
Sponsored by SIM RTP – Society for Information Management
Rewriting the Code is a nonprofit organization that empowers and equips university through early-career women with the technical skills and knowledge essential for success in the technology industry. The organization provides a peer-to-peer network of women in tech, offering support, mentorship, and education that helps pave the way for sustainable careers and professional advancement. With a community of over 33,000 college and early-career women in tech, Rewriting the Code is committed to preparing the next generation of tech talent to learn, innovate, and lead.
As Rewriting the Code continues to identify more growth opportunities, the organization would like to ensure they maximize people, processes, and technology– the three primary areas that power an organization. With initial goals of improving cross-team collaboration and operating efficiency, they also emphasized the need for better planning and organization to reduce stress and improve project execution. Over the past four years, the organization has grown from a team of 3 to 20 people. To meet the needs of a growing team, Rewriting the Code wanted clarity and consistency in cross-departmental operations, including software integrations.
Sponsored by SIM RTP– Society for Information Management, Apparo matched Rewriting the Code with a skilled volunteer team from SIM RTP, Moran Technology Consulting, and Collins Aerospace to document current processes and technology across their organization. Through this Community Impact Project, volunteers reviewed current state processes to identify gaps, pain points, risks, and inefficiencies. Based on these findings, the volunteer team provided a prioritized 2–3-year roadmap of recommendations that will improve operating efficiencies at Rewriting the Code and allow the organization to amplify their mission.
Upon implementing the recommendations, the organization anticipates increased efficiencies in cross-team collaboration that will boost staff output and productivity while reducing stress levels. They anticipate greater strategic planning to ease reactive work, resulting in a supported, efficient, and more accomplished team. With this more strategic approach, Rewriting the Code’s data and technology team can re-prioritize cybersecurity and better protect the team and their data. In addition to these benefits, the team reports that with gained operating efficiencies, they expect potential for increased revenue thanks to more effective donor management and program execution. The organization anticipates that through developing playbooks supporting clarity around program ownership and offerings, the team will experience improved onboarding processes and abilities to pitch their work to potential funders. With the ability to consolidate data, program development efforts will be refined based on member feedback. The nonprofit participants reported a cathartic experience, feeling passionately about where they needed change and support in their work and are excited about upcoming process improvements.
Business Process Assessment Project Reflections:
- “We’re always trying to help more women, and so the better we can do what we’re already doing, the more women we can serve, and the more opportunity there will be to add new aspects to our processes to reach and serve more women who may benefit from our mission.” – Sammi Hermanski, Rewriting the Code
- “When we’re working more efficiently we will have freed time for other important things like cybersecurity that don’t currently get as much time or attention as they deserve. Our team has greatly appreciated Apparo and the volunteers’ time, it has been a great exercise and experience for us that got us thinking about better ways to do our work. We came out of this feeling heard and very pleased with the outcomes that we have.” – Angela Smith, Rewriting the Code
- “This was my first engagement with Apparo and I really enjoyed being a part of this team. The team came together to create the very best suggestions and recommendations for the organization, but most of all I have gotten to love this nonprofit. Being able to see how we can help create efficiencies and witnessing how this can impact the community of women served down to their career trajectories made me really appreciate being able to be a part of this team and work with Rewriting the Code and Apparo.” – Anna Reyes, Collins Aerospace