What Does a Fractional CIO Do?

As part of fractional executive services, a fractional chief information officer (CIO) provides an organization with executive-level technology leadership at a fraction of the cost and on an as-needed basis. The affordability and flexibility of fractional CIOs can be especially valuable to nonprofits operating on a limited budget with fluctuating needs.

In the 2022 Not-For-Profit Industry Trends Report, nearly half of respondents reported having growth as one of their top goals yet experienced challenges with scalability. Nonprofit organizations want to do more—to impact more people with their mission and grow their teams—but they’re having trouble getting there. Why? For many organizations, technology presents a complicated and sometimes intimidating obstacle. In fact, the most common challenges cited by nonprofit leaders include:

• A lack of process automation
• Inefficiencies caused by multiple, conflicting systems
• Time-consuming reporting that can only be done manually
• Inability to gain real-time insights into key metrics and performance
• Difficulty measuring outcomes 

Organizations are aware of where technology is falling short of their needs, but they are often unequipped to overcome these challenges themselves. Fortunately, nonprofits can rely on fractional CIO services to leverage the experience of a senior technology executive to jumpstart their tech upgrades. 

What Does a Chief Information Officer Do?

A chief information officer (CIO) ensures that technology works for an organization’s mission—not against it—by overseeing its internal technology and processes. Information security, customer and donor experience, leveraging data, and more fall under the responsibilities of a chief information officer.

Examples of what a CIO would do for a nonprofit organization include:

• Data Security: To collect donations efficiently and regularly, nonprofits need to collect sensitive information like donors’ credit card information. If a hacker were to gain access to this information, it would harm donors financially and ruin the reputation of the nonprofit. CIOs take on the role of ensuring that an organization’s data is secure from outside threats. This involves implementing and managing firewall programs as well as training staff and volunteers on safe data practices.

• Donor Management: Having a lot of donors is a good thing. Afterall, which organization couldn’t use more money to work toward their mission? However, with more donors comes more information to keep track of and more relationships to maintain. It’s the responsibility of the CIO to set up or upgrade databases to ensure that donor information is organized and readily accessible. This can include choosing between on-site and cloud-based systems—or a combination of the two—to house data like contact information, giving history, and when the best time to reach out is.

• Internal Processes: What exactly happens when an organization plans an event? Where are the planning documents stored, and who has access to them? Where are quotes from vendors recorded, who is in charge of what, and how do you track progress? CIOs take a serious look at how your organization functions and how technology can be used to make processes more efficient. For example, they may suggest transitioning from keeping track of everything in an Excel sheet to Google Sheets or a project management program like monday.com.  

A CIO isn’t just responsible for the technology in your organization, but also the people that implement it and use it each and every day. Therefore, the ideal CIO has strong leadership and interpersonal skills and can inspire the organization’s IT workers to reach new levels of success. 

What Is a Fractional CIO?

A fractional CIO provides the same services as a CIO but only on a part-time or short-term basis. A nonprofit organization may hire a fractional CIO to oversee a specific project, to offer consulting or training several hours a week, or to provide interim CIO services in between full-time CIOs. So, what does a fractional CIO mean for nonprofits? This option means that nonprofits can better leverage technology to make their processes more efficient and ultimately dedicate more resources toward their mission. Less breakdowns, less missing information, less decisions that could’ve been more informed—all at less cost with a fractional CIO.

At Computers in Ministry, we partner you with an experienced CIO so you can benefit from these services without breaking the bank. 

How Much Does a Fractional CIO Cost?

The average CIO salary ranges from $100,000 to $200,000, but you can often work with a fractional CIO for only 10% to 50% of that cost (depending on experience and contract length). Due to their temporary and/or part-time contracts, fractional CIOs offer their services at a highly discounted rate compared to a full-time CIO. That’s good news for nonprofits operating on an all-too-tight budget. 

Still unsure if a fractional CIO is worth it? It’s also important to consider the cost of continuing operations without a technology expert onboard:

• Inefficient processes
• Vulnerable data
• Uninformed decision making
• Outdated technology

How can you be sure you’re getting the most out of your investment? By partnering with Computers in Ministry to leverage technology in service of your mission.  

Take Charge of Your Technology with CIM

Advancing technology is hard to stay on top of, but you don’t have to do it alone. At Computers in Ministry, our mission is to help you achieve your mission. We do that by getting technology out of your way. When it works like it’s supposed to, you won’t even notice it. What you will notice is that work gets done more quickly and accurately. For organizations that are looking to transform their use of technology, we offer full-service fractional CIOs to guide you through each step of your upgrade:  

• Leadership
• Strategy
• Development
• Planning
• Integration
• Implementation

Whatever your technology needs are, we’re to help. Contact us today to see how we can support your mission.