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How do you maintain a cohesive, supportive nonprofit culture when the office is now spread across dozens of different locations? In this episode, Carolyn Woodard sits down with Saba Gebru, Vice President of Support Services at Community IT, to discuss the intentional work required to foster teamwork in a remote and hybrid environment.
Saba shares how Community IT transitioned through the pandemic and emerged with a deeper understanding of why social connection isn’t just extra—it’s essential for better service delivery.
When technicians feel supported and connected to one another, our clients benefit from the collective knowledge of the entire firm, not just a single individual. We also discuss how to keep team building from feeling mandatory by aligning activities with mission-driven values, such as local volunteerism and servant leadership.
Building a strong team culture is an ongoing process, especially in the remote era. If you haven’t recently checked in with your staff about what they need to feel connected, consider making it a priority in your next departmental meeting. Start the conversation by asking for feedback on what types of optional social or volunteer activities might resonate with their values.
Saba Gebru is Vice President of Support Services, having previously served for seven years as the Director of Service Operations at Community IT. She leads the Support Services Department which is responsible for providing technical support to all Community IT partner-clients.
Saba is responsible for the strategic development of the Support Services Department and provides leadership to the director and managers. She is also responsible for the capacity, capability, and availability of staff resources across the Support Service Department.
Saba is passionate about coaching and mentoring staff.
Saba has over two decades of experience in IT service delivery, managing and overseeing IT departments, and supporting and coaching staff. She brings a deep understanding of nonprofit needs to her development of the Support Service Department team ethics and a passion for service delivery. She is particularly cognizant of the need for her teams to calmly address stressful situations, investigate and address technical problems, and quickly get IT tools back up and running smoothly.
Before Community IT, Saba worked for nine years at the Ethiopian Community Development Council and the Enterprise Development Group managing, overseeing, and leading both organizations’ IT departments.
Saba has a BS in Computer Information Systems. She is a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and certified in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). She has AI 900 Azure Artificial Intelligence certification. She was happy to have this conversation with Carolyn about team building remotely.
Carolyn Woodard is currently head of Marketing and Outreach at Community IT Innovators. She has served many roles at Community IT, from client to project manager to marketing. With over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit world, including as a nonprofit technology project manager and Director of IT at both large and small organizations, 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. 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 was happy to sit down with Saba to learn about Community IT’s commitment to team building remotely.
Community IT has been serving nonprofits exclusively for twenty-five years. In fact, we celebrate 25 years of Community IT this month and all year. We offer Managed IT support services for nonprofits that want to outsource all or part of their IT support and hosted services. For a fixed monthly fee, we provide unlimited remote and on-site help desk support, proactive network management, and ongoing IT planning from a dedicated team of experts in nonprofit-focused IT. And our clients benefit from our IT Business Managers team who will work with you to plan your IT investments and technology roadmap if you don’t have an in-house IT Director.
Being 100% employee-owned is important to us and our clients. It is an important aspect of our culture as a business serving nonprofits exclusively for 25 years. Your Nonprofit IT Budgeting strategy is important to Community IT. Unlike most MSPs, Community IT considers budgeting and strategic management a major part of our services to our clients.
We constantly research and evaluate new technology to ensure that you get cutting-edge solutions that are tailored to your organization, using standard industry tech tools that don’t lock you into a single vendor or consultant. And we don’t treat any aspect of nonprofit IT as if it is too complicated for you to understand.
We think your IT vendor should be able to explain everything without jargon or lingo. If you can’t understand your IT management strategy to your own satisfaction, keep asking your questions until you find an outsourced IT provider who will partner with you for well-managed IT.
More on our Managed Services here. More resources on Cybersecurity here.
If you’re ready to gain peace of mind about your IT support, let’s talk.
I would be happy to polish this transcript for you. I have removed the time stamps and filler words, updated “gonna” to “going to,” and refined the phrasing to reflect a more professional, executive-level conversation while keeping the dialogue verbatim.
Saba Gebru:
I was thinking, “Oh, everybody is going to talk about AI, you know.”
Carolyn Woodard:
Well, if you have something non-AI, I think people who are thinking, “Okay, enough with AI,” would like to hear something else too.
Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators Technology Topics podcast. I am Carolyn Woodard, your host. Saba, do you want to introduce yourself and tell us what you do?
Saba Gebru:
Yes, thank you, Carolyn. My name is Saba Gebru, and I am the Vice President of Support Services here at Community IT. I joined Community IT a little over 18 years ago. Time flies! I have an outstanding team. We provide direct support to our clients, solving technical issues and making sure they have a great experience when they work with us. My role is to make sure that the team has everything they need to support our clients.
Carolyn Woodard:
Today we wanted to talk about teamwork—working together as a team and team building. I know that sometimes team building can take on a negative quality, like, “Oh, I had to go to a team building exercise and it did not make me feel like more of a part of the team.” I think you have a lot to share about the ways you have helped our support teams come together. You were managing these teams when we transitioned to remote work.
Can you talk a little bit about what you and Community IT learned from that experience?
Saba Gebru:
Yes. As you know, people were working remotely until, all of a sudden, remote work became crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone was thinking it was just going to be two weeks, but it ended up being years. It changed a lot of things, including service delivery.
We were able to help our clients transition—specifically those who needed that support to work remotely. We also had a team that provided on-site support at that time, so we had to make adjustments so that team could also provide remote support to our clients.
Additionally, the whole world had to learn to run meetings and team activities remotely while learning tools like Zoom or Teams for the first time. That was interesting. There were challenges because the remote demand was unplanned and unexpected, but we were able to figure things out and help our clients find the right environment so they could work remotely.
Carolyn Woodard:
I know we had been recommending and moving a lot of our clients from on-site servers to cloud tools previously. That investment in the cloud provided a lot of value because those clients were able to work remotely more easily.
I feel like one thing that happened was that because we were also learning how to have Zoom meetings and work as a team, it helped our clients because we were going through it too. We could support them in implementing those remote meeting tools.
At Community IT and on your team, we prioritized spending time together. That was a big change. How did it become apparent that we needed to focus on social time and building personal relationships, especially when we were all working remotely?
Saba Gebru:
We have always made a point to be intentional about creating opportunities for our team to connect and have fun together. It was always on our minds. We plan activities that everyone can enjoy to spend time with one another. I think that helps.
Another important part of our culture at Community IT is to support one another, both within the team and as a company. We prioritize individual development while also fostering an environment where the team can collaborate. It is about learning from each other and building relationships. We have always been intentional about it; we just had to do more work to get used to doing things in Zoom and Teams.
Carolyn Woodard:
It is definitely a company value. I often say in webinars and podcasts that one advantage of using a managed services provider is that you aren’t just getting one individual who knows one thing. The person who is your point of contact or the person on the help desk has a whole team of people with their collective experiences behind them. They benefit from checking in with each other about best practices, and the client benefits from that as well.
I have noticed that we reach out to each other frequently when we have questions or feel at a loss about something. One of our company values is balance, which manifests as work-life balance. We understand employees are whole people and we do not expect them to be working 110% of the time.
How do you keep company social time from feeling mandatory?
Saba Gebru:
Thank you, Carolyn, for asking that. It is a great question. As you mentioned, work-life balance is one of our values. It is important for us to stay true to our values and make sure our staff experience them, whether we are working or participating in a social activity.
We make sure that social activities are optional and inclusive. They are optional, but we include everyone who wants to be part of them. We encourage staff to participate, and when planning an activity, we make sure the timing allows staff to be part of it. It is also important to get feedback—ask the team and always talk to them. This allows us to keep our company culture positive and supportive, ensuring social times are enjoyable without feeling mandatory.
Carolyn Woodard:
That is difficult because you have people on your team who are on call and must be available to answer phones. I love that you are always planning things at times when people are able to join.
We have already mentioned examples of staff who are forced to participate in office parties or gift exchanges with people they hardly know.
How do you communicate the plan for spending time together as a team?
Saba Gebru:
That is a thoughtful question. Sometimes team building activities can feel like something you have to do, especially if there is pressure to participate. This is something we are always mindful of here at Community IT.
What helps is communicating the purpose clearly to the staff. We often create activities specifically to enhance team connection, which is very helpful. If someone is not able to attend or does not want to be part of the activity, that is perfectly fine. We respect that and we do not single out anyone who chooses not to participate.
We understand work is not the only thing going on in people’s lives, so we want to be mindful and supportive. As I mentioned, we try to hold these activities when most of our team members are able to participate. We try to create a high-trust environment where someone can freely say they are not able to attend. We are flexible and try to meet staff where they are.
If the purpose is clear, if we have open conversations, and if we are getting feedback, the general goal is to create a valuable opportunity for our team members to build connections and support each other.
Carolyn Woodard:
I have heard advice that if you have someone who can never do something on the weekends, you should make sure your activities aren’t always on the weekends. It is good to have variety in when and what you do together.
I know your team does volunteer work together as a way to build those relationships and a sense of belonging. How did that focus come about? Why do you choose volunteering?
Saba Gebru:
Volunteering is a great way to give back to our community in the DC area and elsewhere. It cultivates team building at the same time. As you know, Community IT is dedicated to supporting nonprofit organizations. Our mission is to help nonprofits accomplish their missions through the effective use of technology.
Recently, my team volunteered at a nonprofit organization whose mission is to combat hunger and poverty through job creation and training. We had a great time in the kitchen packing and preparing fruits and vegetables for distribution to people experiencing food insecurity. We were able to spend quality time together and contribute to a nonprofit that depends on volunteers to meet the needs of their community. It is a great way to give back; we were able to make a difference, have a team activity, and show that servant leadership is important in life.
Carolyn Woodard:
I saw the photos and it looked like everyone was having a good time. Do you have any rules about social activities, such as not talking about work? Or do people naturally talk about their lives, families, and hobbies?
Saba Gebru:
We do not have a set rule, but if someone is talking about work, we might say, “No, let’s just have fun.” During the volunteering, we were in groups and mixed with other volunteers. It was nice to be together alongside another organization that was also volunteering. It was interesting to see another nonprofit and to work with different people. It is about connection and reminding each other that we are there to work together and volunteer.
Carolyn Woodard:
I have a final question about your experience. Do you have any tips for managers listening who might want to encourage a team building program for their team, or for staff who want to encourage their leadership to do more social activities, whether remotely or in person? What would be your advice?
Saba Gebru:
To foster strong team collaboration, it is important to have an open dialogue. Ensure team building activities are optional and not mandatory. The most important part is to communicate clearly what the purpose of the activity is. In most cases, the goal is to foster relationships and connect with each other.
When possible, align the team building activity with the company’s values or mission, as that often resonates with people. Lastly, gather feedback. Talk to the team and ask them what they like to do, then make that happen when possible. That creates an enjoyable and inclusive activity because the purpose is clear and the activity is meaningful.
For staff, if you have an idea for a team activity, be honest and share your ideas. Explain why they might be related to the mission or values of the organization, or how they foster a meaningful sense of belonging. That helps leadership see the value of the activities staff are suggesting.
Carolyn Woodard:
I think all of that is so important when people are working remotely—or perhaps were hired remotely—because it can be difficult to meet other people in your own company. I love that we have these opportunities for people to make stronger connections. Sometimes you have to rely on the people you work with, so it is good if you know them and aren’t calling them out of the blue for help.
Saba, thank you for your time today and for your leadership on that team. I really appreciate it. Thanks again.
Saba Gebru:
Thank you, Carolyn, for having me, and thank you for being with us at Community IT.
As advocates for using technology transparently to work smarter, we’re practicing what we recommend. This transcript was edited lightly with the assistance of AI for clarity, and is not a verbatim transcript. The content was reviewed, edited, and finalized by a human editor to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash
Wednesday March 25th at 3pm Eastern join Hugo Castro and Gozi Egbuonu to learn how to make the transition.
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