I keep coming back to one simple thought: mission moves through technology now and in the future.
That is true for a food pantry on the east side of Columbus. It is true for a youth program in Newark. It is true for a small nonprofit trying to hold things together in Dayton. The mission still starts with people. The mission still lives in relationships. But the mission now travels through email, case systems, payment tools, grant portals, training platforms, meeting links, websites, and phones.
That means technology is not some extra layer sitting off to the side. It is part of the ground people walk on every day. It affects how fast a family gets help. It affects how clean the data is. It affects whether staff trust their systems. It affects whether a board can make a good decision with real information in front of them.
A lot of nonprofit leaders know this in their gut and Many still feel stuck. Sage’s 2025 Nonprofit Technology Impact Report says manual work still burdens operations and that only 9% of nonprofits see themselves as highly data-driven, even though 85% say metrics matter. That gap is not small. That gap changes what an organization can handle in real life.
I think about this like traffic in Central Ohio. If you miss a turn near the outer belt, both sadness and angry boil inside. A missed turn in technology feels the same way. One weak system slows down everything behind it. A bad software choice drags staff time. A weak password habit raises risk. A clunky donor database makes follow-up harder. Technology shapes behavior because people work inside the system they have, not the system they wish they had.
That is one reason I push back when people say technology is neutral. It is not. It pushes people. It rewards some habits and punishes others. It makes some work easy and some work hard. Scholars in technology and society have been saying for years that technology and social life are tied together. The nonprofit sector feels that every day because technology changes organizational behavior, service delivery, outreach, and reporting at the same time.
This is where the mission piece matters most. A nonprofit does not use technology just to look modern. It uses technology to carry the mission farther, faster, and with less friction. If the system is strong, staff can focus on people. If the system is weak, staff spend their energy wrestling the tools. The mission gets tired before the day is over.
Paulo Freire’s work still helps here. Freire treated learning as something people do with each other, not something dumped on them from above. That matters in the digital world, too. A healthy technology strategy helps people understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how the tools fit the work. A bad strategy makes people feel small, confused, and dependent on outside experts who never explain the map.
So who really understands technology in a way that helps an organization do good? It is not the person who knows the most jargon. It is the person who can connect tools to outcomes. It is the leader who can look at security, data, workflow, and mission at the same time. It is the advisor who can sit with an executive director, a board treasurer, or a program lead and explain what matters in plain English. That is the kind of technology leadership nonprofits need.
In my view, that leadership has to be practical. It has to be human. It has to fit the size of the team. A small nonprofit in Columbus does not need a giant enterprise playbook. It needs someone who knows how to choose the right level of system, the right level of protection, and the right pace of change. It needs somebody who can stop waste before it spreads.
Here is the hard part. If a nonprofit does not harness technology well, the mission does not stand still. Momentum moves somewhere else. People go where the process is clearer. Partners go where communication is easier. Funders lean toward groups that can show outcomes quickly and cleanly. That shift may not feel dramatic in the moment. It still changes who gets heard, who gets trusted, and who gets the next opportunity.
That is one reason technology belongs in board conversations, leadership conversations, and budget conversations. It is not just an IT topic. It is a mission topic. It is a trust topic. It is a capacity topic.
I write this as Micheal Cudgel from HAZ Technologies, LLC. I have spent years watching good organizations do amazing work while carrying systems that make the work harder than it should be. I have also seen what happens when technology finally lines up with the mission. Staff breathe easier. Leaders see clearly. Decisions get better. The work moves.
That is the point. In the 21st century, a nonprofit’s mission flows through technology. If we want the mission to move with strength, honesty, and care, then we have to treat technology like part of the work itself. Because it is.
Resources
Connected Nation. “Bridging the Digital Divide: How Digital Skills Training Supports Black Communities.” February 7, 2025. https://connectednation.org/blog/bridging-the-digital-divide-how-digital-skills-training-supports-black-communities.
Freire, Paulo. *Pedagogy of the Oppressed*. New York: Continuum, 1970.
Giving Gap. “About Us.” Accessed May 24, 2026. https://givinggap.org/about-us/.
McNutt, John, Chao Guo, Lauri Goldkind, and Seongho An. “Technology in Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.” In *Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations*, 2018.
Miami Foundation. *The 2024 State of Black Philanthropy Report*. 2024. https://miamifoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-State-of-Black-Philanthropy-Report-Final.pdf.
NAACP. “Bridging the Digital Divide and Creating Sustainable Solutions for Connectivity in the Black Community.” 2024. https://naacp.org/resources/bridging-digital-divide-and-creating-sustainable-solutions-connectivity-black-community.
Sage. *2025 Nonprofit Technology Impact Report*. 2025. https://www.sage.com/en-us/-/media/files/sagedotcom/master/gated-assets/intacct/ebooks/nonprofit-technology-impact-report-2025.pdf.
World Economic Forum. “Here’s Why We Need to Democratize Access to Technology.” January 9, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/01/here-s-why-democratize-access-technology-davos2023/.
