Like podcasts? Find our full archive here or anywhere you listen to podcasts: search Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Pandora, and more. Or ask your smart speaker.
Join us for our series featuring interviews with Community IT employees. In this series, we talk about nonprofit technology career paths, career resources, skills, and certifications. We will also touch on mentoring opportunities as you start out on your career and ways to give back if you are further along. If you are wondering what it is like to work at a place like Community IT, you can learn about it here.
In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Tiff Parker, an IT Business Manager at Community IT. They talk about her background, how she got into a technology career, and what brought her to Community IT in this role. Tiff reflects on her early interest in GIS Geo Information Systems mapping, her years as an “accidental techie” at a nonprofit with increasingly senior roles and responsibilities as she gained experience and expertise managing nonprofit IT, and her move from nonprofit IT Director to her role now providing technical and strategic guidance to multiple clients.
The Community IT ITBM service provides an outsourced IT manager to clients at a reduced cost to hiring and having an IT manager on staff. These managers are a resource dedicated to matching technology solutions to clients’ business needs. To do this well requires an ongoing conversation with the client to continually understand their business needs, and then effective communication with client staff and leadership about the ways specific technology solutions can meet those business needs and how to budget for technology.
The ITBM makes recommendations on IT investments, training programs, maintenance, and licenses. They help the client be forward-looking, and act as a vendor-agnostic, trusted advisor with deep knowledge of the nonprofit IT software and platforms available. Because Community IT works in partnership with clients to manage long-term IT needs, the ITBM relationship with the client makes them a true asset.
“I’m an IT consultant and I work specifically with nonprofits. I help them leverage technology to meet their mission. …I really love working with the clients. I have a wide variety of all different sizes, different areas they focus on … I might see their name pop up on the news and think “Hey, I’m helping them with their technology.” It’s that nice connecting feeling of helping other people accomplish their great work.”
Tiff Parker
Tiff Parker joined Community IT Innovators as an IT Business Manager (ITBM) in October 2023. She brings over 17 years of experience working in nonprofit technology.
As an ITBM, she guides clients through implementation of effective technology investments and utilizing efficient IT services in direct support of their missions. She also assists clients with long-term planning, budgeting, and strategic goals.
The Community IT ITBM service provides an outsourced IT manager to clients at a reduced cost to hiring and having an IT manager on staff. These managers are a resource dedicated to matching technology solutions to clients’ business needs. To do this well requires an ongoing conversation with the client to continually understand their business needs, and then effective communication with client staff and leadership about the ways specific technology solutions can meet those business needs and how to budget for technology.
The ITBM makes recommendations on IT investments, training programs, maintenance, and licenses. They help the client be forward-looking, and act as a vendor-agnostic, trusted advisor with deep knowledge of the nonprofit IT software and platforms available. Because Community IT works in partnership with clients to manage long-term IT needs, the ITBM relationship with the client makes them a true asset.
Prior to coming to Community IT, Tiff was the IT Director for an environmental nonprofit where she was responsible for the overall vision, planning, implementation, management and support of their various information systems, data, policies, and processes.
Tiff graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007. She holds the Microsoft 365 Fundamentals MS 900 certification.
Carolyn Woodard has served many roles at Community IT Innovators, from client to project manager to marketing. With over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit world and marketing, including as a nonprofit technology project manager and Director of IT, Carolyn knows the frustrations and delights of working with technology professionals, accidental techies, executives, and staff to deliver your organization’s mission and keep your IT infrastructure operating.
Carolyn is excited to help manage Marketing at Community IT Innovators and is always looking for new ways to tell stories and reach people. She has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University and received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Williams College. She thinks the best thing about being with Community IT Innovators is the people.
Carolyn Woodard: Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators Voices Series. My name is Carolyn Woodard, and I’m your host. Tiff, would you like to introduce yourself?
Tiff Parker: My name is Tiff Parker. I’m an IT Business Manager here at Community IT, and I work with the portfolio of clients to help them with strategy, budgeting, road mapping, projects, service delivery, etc. So happy to be here.
Carolyn Woodard: That was a great explanation of what an IT Business Manager does. It’s sometimes a little bit difficult to explain because it’s a position that really only exists at Community IT. I always say it’s kind of like an account manager, but so much more.
So, you joined Community IT as an ITBM. So, what was that like?
Tiff Parker: I’ve been here for about a year and a half now. Joined in October 2023. I’m really excited to be here because I get to apply my strategic knowledge and my prior experience working in nonprofits, and also my technical skills, to really help deliver value for our clients and help them get to where they want to be with their technology.
Carolyn Woodard: So, if I can ask, where did you acquire those technology skills in your career?
Tiff Parker: Yeah. So, I started, I guess, as what you could call an accidental techie. That term has been thrown around a lot.
My background is actually in geographic information systems and mapping, but I ended up working at a nonprofit doing some internship for mapping, and I had a really great mentor that said, I think you’d really be good at this technology stuff. So, they started to train me up in there. I got some practical real-world experience there.
But then I also connected with the broader nonprofit technology community. So, NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, is one group that I really connected with. They had a lot of really great resources that I could take advantage of to learn about technology, but also from the unique position of nonprofits.
From there, it just kind of developed. I continued my nonprofit tech career, working my way up to an IT Director, and then I joined Community IT.
Carolyn Woodard: So, perfect background. But it’s so interesting that we do have several people at Community IT who didn’t study computer science and didn’t start out thinking, “I’m going to be a technology person and get all the certificates and end up working for nonprofits.” A lot of people, I think, came into it the way you did, of just having an affinity for it and being in a situation where you could learn more about how technology and nonprofits work.
Tiff Parker: And definitely, and over the course of time, I moved from being an accidental techie to being a more intentional techie. I worked on really beefing up my knowledge and background and my technical skills.
Carolyn Woodard: I wanted to ask about that because I do feel like several years ago, maybe a decade or two ago, when I was starting, accidental techie really was what a lot of nonprofits were relying on to be able to have a website, have an online presence, be on social media.
And then those people ended up often taking over IT at the nonprofit, which requires a very different type of skill set.
Can you talk a little bit about that? You said you started out with the geospatial mapping. But how do you learn the IT administration and maintenance for email and document storage and all the kind of not exciting parts of IT that we do the support for?
Tiff Parker: Well, I think as the role of technology in nonprofits has grown over time, the usage of it, I think the importance of it, it’s not just a thing that you have to have. It’s actually strategically important and pretty mission critical if you’re going to be successful.
So, I was lucky to work with a nonprofit that really prioritized technology during those years. W-We always joke in nonprofits; we wear many hats. So being able to just dig in there and figure things out was important, because a lot of nonprofits can’t afford to have a dedicated technology professional. We’re really relying on people that want to step up and learn those systems.
I think for me, it was kind of a right place, right time kind of situation. And then like I said, I just looked for training opportunities and other educational opportunities to really fill in those technical skills.
Carolyn Woodard: And then one thing that the IT Business Managers also bring to the table, as you were saying, is the more strategic thinking and maybe a little bit more even business experience. As you said, you were an IT Director, so you know about the budget, how to reconcile the IT that your nonprofit needs with what you can afford.
Can you talk a little bit about that? How do you get that kind of experience?
Tiff Parker: I think really it’s just important being inside of the nonprofit and really understanding it, because they’re very unique entities. You have fundraising, department of communications, your operations – so really just getting experience to see how all of that works together and how technology supports all of those functions.
After some experience with that, I think marrying the knowledge of nonprofits with technology and those technical skills, that’s where it all comes together.
Carolyn Woodard: That makes a lot of sense. And I feel like that is something that Community IT, because we have only worked with nonprofits for our entire existence as a company, we have gotten to know really well all of those constraints, like the fundraising, the budgeting, the strategic planning, so we can really help nonprofits from that standpoint. And you are just such a great addition to the team of having that deep background in nonprofits before you joined us.
Tiff Parker: Finding those opportunities to save money is also critical too. All of the software donations, the discounts, those grant programs are also really critical to really getting those technology initiatives moving forward.
Carolyn Woodard: I think so, and I think Community IT compares well to other managed services providers that maybe don’t work with a lot of nonprofits, or maybe it’s a larger organization and they have a couple of people on their team who have some expertise in nonprofits. But it can be really hard for them to understand, “why can’t you just buy this? Why can’t you just do this thing that I’m telling you you need to invest in?”
It’s well, we’re a nonprofit. We have these other responsibilities and constraints as well.
So that can make it challenging.
I think nonprofits also often find these unique workarounds or opportunities where they can make that investment and do something maybe that is going to help them in the end.
Tiff Parker: Absolutely. I think there’s a general thing of how do you do more with less. Being creative, and using the tools that you have access to, and really also making sure that you’re making intentional decisions around technology is necessary.
Because again, there’s also frequently different organizational priorities. Technology projects can be worldwide. Bringing everybody together and getting them behind that vision of the future, I think is also really critical.
Carolyn Woodard: Do you have any advice for nonprofits in this challenging time that we’re facing right now?If you had a new client coming to you tomorrow, do you have two or three things that you would tell them that you want to make sure you have an order as we’re planning for IT and implementing IT?
Tiff Parker: I think with all of the current funding constraints that are happening right now, it’s really critical to take a look at where you are currently spending.
Are there services that are duplicative that you can maybe consolidate? Are there other alternatives that you can look into?
That would be my first one; what can we consolidate? We’ve got three different meeting software. Can we pick one and standardize on it?
I think that’s a really big opportunity. Then with those savings, if you’re able to redeploy those, really focusing on cybersecurity at this point right now too, I think that would also be a big recommendation as well.
Carolyn Woodard: That’s great to hear. I know sometimes we have clients who come to us and they’re paying for licenses for people who have left the company who aren’t employed anymore. And it’s so looking for those types of savings as well. Just making sure that do an audit, do an assessment, and make sure that the tech that you’re paying for is the tech that you’re using.
Tiff Parker: Absolutely.
Carolyn Woodard: Can you tell me a little bit more about your background? I know a lot of people who work at Community IT, as you said, kind of fell into this type of a job. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Tiff Parker: Well, that kind of changed over the course of time. But when I was in college, I finally settled on geography and geographic information systems. I was planning on going into natural resource management, specifically spatial analysis, that type of field.
I think that also really helped with those transferable skills into my new role in technology. So being kind of analytical, being able to kind of see the big picture, but also drill down into the little picture as well on the ground level. But, I was originally going to go into environmental mapping specifically.
Carolyn Woodard: Well, I’m so glad you’re at Community IT. I already said that what an IT Business Manager does can be hard to explain because it’s something that we’ve created – because we saw a need with our clients, that we needed to have someone who could talk about the technology AND the business needs.
Community IT itself can be a little bit hard to explain. If you’re in an elevator or at a cocktail party, and someone asks you what you do, what do you tell them?
Tiff Parker: I basically tell them I am an IT consultant that works specifically with nonprofits, to help them leverage technology to meet their mission.
Carolyn Woodard: And what’s the best thing about your job?
Tiff Parker: I really love working with the clients. I’ve got a wide variety, all different sizes, different areas that they focus in. I really enjoy working with the clients and I might see their name pop up in the news and say, oh, hey, I’m helping them with their technology.
It’s that nice connecting feeling of I’m helping other people accomplish their great work.
Carolyn Woodard: Well, thank you so much for your time today, Tiff. I really appreciate it.
Tiff Parker: Sure thing.
We hope you enjoyed this Community IT Voices interview with Tiff Parker, IT Business Manager. Community IT is the right place for you if you find fulfillment in helping others succeed and want to work for a company that serves nonprofits.
Our employees stay and grow with us, and over half of our staff have been with us for over a decade. Community IT is an employee-owned company with a positive, sustainable workplace that promotes professional development, a nonprofit IT career path, and a healthy work/life balance. We have been 100% employee-owned since 2012. Check out careers with us here.
Are you worried? Learn from Nuradeen Aboki, Senior Consultant at Community IT, and plan your next steps in IT to rise to new challenges.
Fill out the form below to request a quote. We’ll be in touch shortly to discuss your needs and take the first step toward better nonprofit IT.