Headed by the state’s Chief Service Officer, Josh Fryday, CaliforniaVolunteers is the state agency tasked with reaching out to engage and mobilize all Californians in service, volunteering and civic action as part of initiatives to address and resolve the state’s most pressing issues.
California Volunteers also administers the state AmeriCorps with over 80 programs in California providing critical services to more than 160,000 Californians annually.
The entity is also the administrator for Citizen Corps and the Cesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning and is designated as the state agency in charge of managing volunteers in times of disaster.
In addition, CaliforniaVolunteers has developed and is maintaining the largest online statewide volunteer matching network in the nation on CaliforniaVolunteers.org, and provides guidance on policy development to support the nonprofit and service fields.
CaliforniaVolunteers is overseen by a bipartisan 25-member commission appointed by the governor. The first lady of California serves as the honorary chair of the commission.
How Will IoT Technology Benefit Non-Profit Organizations?
The Internet of Things is the process of connecting everyday objects and appliances to the internet, thus creating a network built into our day-to-day lives. This data-driven technology allows us to streamline tasks and more accurately quantify human action through the data that are collected. But how does this benefit nonprofits? Nonprofits live and breathe data and human action. Nonprofits are always in search of new ways to know their donors and beneficiaries better in order for them to resolve the problem they were created to solve. The Internet of Things, and the nonprofit technology it enables, is the apparent answer to that search. Let us take a look at how the Internet of Things will revolutionize the nonprofit sector.
Using the internet of things technologies, CIOs at nonprofit organizations can establish and forge more meaningful connections with current and potential donors. Similar to how a for-profit company strives to create a buyer persona based on market research to sell as many products as possible, nonprofits, on the other hand, create donor personas based on information that is publicly available to make the best pitches to prospective donors. Investments in the internet of things (IoT) technologies that enable the collection and analysis of relevant data such as in-kind donations, interventions, and on-demand programs could lead to more strategic fundraising efforts likely to attract, engage, and retain donors based on how specific groups respond to certain data points in real-time.
Nonprofits can benefit from the advances in the Internet of Things made by for-profit companies, which have utilized it to engage more customers, optimize day-to-day operations, and proactively managed maintenance—all while providing real-time data to empower these companies to be more agile in making business decisions. Nonprofits who are looking to engage donors can start by exploring and identifying what IoT data might be relevant to their target audiences. From there, these organizations can often leverage existing technologies for collect, communicate, consume, and connect data that can be customized based on priorities and budget envisions, for example, a U.S.-based, mid-sized nonprofit working in developing countries to provide support to children living in poverty by offering medical care and educational services, while also making investments in the community through interventions such as ground access wells.
To entice new donors and create meaningful and lasting donor relationships, the nonprofit can take advantage of the Internet of Things in the following ways:
- A sensor can be installed on the wall to keep track of when and how much water is drawn on a given day or overtime. This data can show the donors the tangible results of their gifts, working out the amount of water withdrawn to the people served. The sensors can also collect well maintenance data with specific details on whether new parts or additional maintenance are required.
- In rural and other disconnected areas, Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) can support IoT collecting solutions such as those used to collect information on well water usage. LPWANs can also generally extend beyond a cellular signal and last for months on a small battery, allowing for longer-term IoT data collection.
- Enabling existing IoT capabilities provided by already implemented cloud applications will allow users and developers to develop and build on familiar interfaces and coding/configuration requirements. This is especially important for nonprofits that have recently undergone a digital transformation requiring intensive training and change management, as well as adding on to an existing application suite will promote more streamlined implementation and smoother user adoption.
- Donors can make use of the nonprofit’s mobile application to learn when the well was used, how much water was withdrawn, estimation of how many people have benefited, and whether any maintenance was required. They are able to share these updates on social media or with contacts in their phones to drive up additional support by demonstrating the need for and the impact of their donations.
To sum up, nonprofits can leverage IoT solutions to satisfy donors’ passion for data-driven decisions and instant feedback as they try to increase their impact to attract a new generation of donors. This will help them to see for themselves the impact of their donations and bring them closer to the communities and constituencies they serve. Elcomp, an industrial automation company Malaysia established itself as one of the leading Industrial Automation Solutions Provider for the Northern Region of Malaysia. Armed with over 38 years of industry experience, Elcomp is more than able to fulfil the demand for industrial automation, manufacturing process automation and information technology. They strive to work towards continuous improvement and working together with customers for successful outcomes. This includes adopting new ways and incorporating state-of-the-art technology to provide efficient and professional services.
