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Having mentioned the use of computers and the benefit which they can hold in regard to cost reduction, increased productivity, and in assisting an agency in staying organized, it seems appropriate to touch on the question of what types of systems are the most useful. Of course, this question will depend to a great extent on the type, size, and scope of the nonprofit and its core mission. For example, an organization that deals with large amounts of clerical data concerning clientele, mass mailings, and financial records would most likely benefit from a network of PCs which would allow the staff and management to access and update records as needed. For the organization that is larger in nature and deals with more than just their local area, it would be advisable to have a computer system that perhaps is connected to a larger network so as to ease the retrieval of statistical data and provide simplicity in the sharing of information between distant offices. In any case, it is becoming increasingly necessary for today's management to have a strong grasp of what a good computer system can do for the organization they manage.
Whether or not a nonprofit utilizes a computer system it is imperative that the management and board view the daily functioning and fiscal health of the organization in primarily economic terms, while the mission of the agency is viewed, exclusively, as the advancement of human welfare. Here we have the fusion of human service and business.
The extremely successful business management guru, Peter Drucker, wrote in the Harvard Business Review that in his opinion businesses could learn a great deal from the commitment that nonprofits have to their missions (in McLaughlin, 1995), particularly as this applies to leaning from the use of computers in nonprofit management. In the for profit world, businesses change and modify their mission statements at will to suit the latest trend or whim, but the nonprofit on the other hand has a mission that is not only a social commitment, but a legal one as well.
