Charity CIOs explain why they chose the third sector

Computing speaks to a group of IT leaders at various charities to find out why they chose the industry, and what their unique challenges are

Working in the charity sector can be a rewarding experience, with an opportunity to strive for organisational goals other than profiteering, and no shareholders to please.

It can also come with a host of other problems, especially for IT leaders who are sometimes tasked with delivering an awful lot, with not very much.

Computing caught up with several IT leaders at some of the UK's foremost charities to find out what it's really like.

Nick Harris, head of IS service delivery at Oxfam, worked for an Anti-Virus vendor before moving to the charity sector. He heard about the opportunity through a chance conversation with a head-hunter.

According to Harris, it was the scale of the role, and the opportunity to make a positive difference to society that drew him in.

"The large scale of the new role (over 120 staff), global working opportunities and involvement in new initiatives was very tempting; likewise was working for an organisation with a sense of purpose that benefits around 20 million people worldwide as it strives to end poverty.

"While running Global Service operations I have held and attended IT global workshops in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Lebanon, Armenia, Thailand and Kenya which also led me to meet some of the beneficiaries of our work. It's a unique and challenging role," he adds.

Terence Willis, now interim head of IT at the Church of England, but previously the CIO of Age UK, also cites the opportunity to do good as a major factor behind his time in the sector.

"After caring for both of my parents during their later years I wanted to try and give something back. However, I must admit the role I took at Age UK wasn't wholly planned it just seemed to be there at the right time - serendipity you might say.

"Working for a Charity definitely felt more fulfilling especially when I could see the benefits my contribution made. Getting involved with fundraising (I volunteered and ran a Marathon) at a personal level made me appreciate the cause much more."

For John Gillespie, CIO at Amnesty International, the move was motivated by the fact that the organisation needed his skills.

"I use to work in consulting for Deloitte, and I did a short pro-bono project for Amnesty. They were embarking on a massive change programme and clearly needed a lot of help. I felt I could make a real difference.

"Also after six years in consulting telling others how to run their operations it was time to do it myself," he says.

Kevin Antao, IT Operations Manager at Amnesty International explains that for him it was about the need to feel that his work is valuable.

"Throughout my 25 year career, there was always a question about the value of the work that I was delivering in the corporate sector.

"My own career spanned financial services, oil and gas and management consultancy industries, and whilst it was enjoyable I felt distant from the end product or deliverable.

"Moving to the not-for-profit sector for Amnesty enabled me to more directly contribute to the human rights agenda, if I get my deliveries right I feel I can make a real difference."

Spot the difference

So that's why people choose to move, but what do they find when they arrive? A Nirvana of satisfied employees doing good work, or a mess of under-invested and poorly optimised systems and processes?

Harris admits that restricted budgets does indeed provide challenges.

"Working for a charity creates challenges around maintaining the IT estate to ensure it's kept up to date and secure with much more limited budgets. Care must be taken to ensure sufficient investment to migrate away from legacy systems and maintain the staff base."
However, the lack of huge budgets doesn't mean the technologies are necessarily from the bargain basement.

"The IS technologies are pretty similar; we have embraced cloud technologies to reduce risk of running legacy on site systems and help our staff to work more effectively wherever they are on the globe. Majority of our systems have moved to Azure, BOX, O365 and Workplace and, we are currently migrating to Salesforce."

Terry Willis, interim director of IT, Church of England

Willis adds that choices are trickier when profit isn't the be all and end all.

"In the commercial sector money is the primary driver, be that increased market share or profit. That can make choices easier in some respects as you are primarily judged on performance and ROI.

"But in the not for profit world the biggest challenges are often juggling the conflicting interests of how to choose the right technology investments for good. Ethical arguments can derail projects and reputational risk is always at the top of the agenda."

Harris adds that keeping staff engaged is also of paramount importance, especially without the carrot of large salaries to offer.

"It is true that working in a charity requires different skills; working for an anti-virus company was extremely pressurised and time critical; the charity sector still has pressures but in different ways. With lower pay scales and less resources, communication and staff engagement is far more important.

"Giving staff opportunities to second into different roles, work in different countries and be involved with projects keeps them engaged, but it's not an easy undertaking as every pound we spend is donated, and so we must deliver the most value we can. As a result resource levels are low with demand high."

Gillespie points to the fact that the focus is on doing good for the charity's beneficiaries rather than the bottom line as the principle difference between the sectors.

"The main difference is the absence of a bottom line to measure ourselves. Like all charities and the public sector we do things because it is the right thing to do for our beneficiaries. That makes it harder to compare one initiative with another.

"Efficiency and effectiveness are hard to measure when your job is fighting for Human Rights across the globe. One of the consequences is complex and sometimes frustrating governance structures that try and answer those questions.

"On the other hand I have very motivated colleagues undertaking unique and interesting work. My colleague on the desk behind me has spent the afternoon discussing our plans to campaign about Myanmar at the next UN Human Rights Council. You don't get that in many offices."

Kevin Antao, IT Operations Manager at Amnesty International

Antao also points to the differences in financial position, but explains that this isn't always a negative.

"Often the first conversation with my old corporate buddies is about money. This is both around personal remuneration and availability of budgets to perform your role. I've actually been pleasantly surprised on both accounts.

"On the personal level, yes you do take a sacrifice but once you have worked out what you need and how you will live, well it actually forces you to be less wasteful and more thoughtful about the world!

"As for budgets, whilst the multi-million dollar budgets that I owned and managed at corporates are no longer available, creativity and partnerships with managed service organisations along with brand that I am now part of enables me to find ways to deliver on our projects and aims.

"Paradoxically, access to senior stakeholders, budget opportunities and larger organisations is more available at my new not-for-profit organisation, as I can often leverage the brand to achieve my goals. It's just a different challenge and way of working," he explains.

Technology procurement for fun and not profit

It's accepted then that lower budgets presents some challenges. But how does that affect the technology purchasing process?

Harris states that there's little difference from the way purchasing is carried out in the commercial sector, though perhaps with more of an emphasis on checking any potential supplier's ethical credentials.

"It's pretty similar in terms of achieving the best value for the organisation and following the procurement process depending on the value of engagement. We have rigorous ethical checks of suppliers and partners to ensure that we are working with organisations that align ethically with Oxfam," he says.

Willis found procurement easier in the not for profit sector, as some suppliers were eager to cut deals as part of their corporate and social responsibility requirements.

"Depending on the charity cause, suppliers are more willing to provide support that when negotiations take place and use it as part of their CSR. There are also a myriad of government and local authority offers that can be leveraged to gain best value.

"And, of course donationware allows NfPs move to engage with volunteers at minimal cost. In commercial negotiations it's more adversarial and of course is tied to budgets for both the buyer and the suppliers. I would always ask when they suppliers end of year was as this would be when the best discounts where offered."

John Gillespie, CIO, Amnesty International

Gillespie underlines the need to ensure value for money.

"We have a really good procurement department who we work with closely, and I like to think we take a pragmatic approach employing the best approaches from the commercial sector. I like vendors who take the time to understand our needs and tune their offer accordingly and we will invest the time to do that.

"I also like a good charity discount. Finally we do insist on competitive tender process. We need to know that we are getting the best value in the market. We owe it to our supporters who fund us."

Antao finds procurement easier in the charity sector, as there is less of an option to use internal teams to build what he needs.

"I find it much easier to procure services in the not-for-profit sector. In a large corporate enterprise, I found it difficult to achieve the agility that I required to quickly work with unfamiliar partners in the spaces of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Data Science.

"Within the not-for-profit sector, there is little choice but to engage with these partners as the skills, capabilities and investments within the sector are not mature. This means that there is a more straightforward engagement and procurement process, with an openness to do business.

"That said, I do miss the corporate procurement department as they provided essential services that ensured that strong commercial agreements were in place, notably when things go awry. That means that I need to stay close to supplier relationships in my role."

Mind the skills gap

Ask any CIO to list their biggest challenges today, and most will cite finding the right skills in the top three, and it seems that the situation is no different in the charity sector.

Nick Harris, head of IS service delivery, Oxfam

"The challenge is finding staff with a good broad range of skills across collaboration, communication and technical, and willing to accept charity pay scales, which are much lower than equivalent roles in the commercial sector," says Harris.

"It is difficult across the board, especially within Infrastructure, Technical Design and Security teams. However those staff that join the organisation often stay for many years as the workload constantly varies, working across many international teams and with the unique nature of providing global IS support," he adds.

Gillespie sounds a similar note, again pointing the finger at the salaries on offer.

"It's hard. We do pay less than the market. On the other hand we are running current modern technology so it should reflect well on a CV, and it is an interesting and unique place to work. We have interesting problems and interesting colleagues and the opportunity to work with people from across the globe and travel occasionally.

"But if I have learnt one thing it is that it is worth waiting for the right person. If we look hard enough and long enough we can find people who want to work for us as much as we want to work with them."

And Willis fears that Brexit will only make things harder for everyone.

"Finding people with the right skills is very hard, and not just in London - the regional hubs also face the same issues of attracting quality staff with the relevant Agile and Digital skills. The dreaded Brexit will only add pressure on this situation," he says.

Antao finds recruitment both harder and easier.

"It's strangely both easier and harder than my previous corporate organisations. On the plus side, the brand, use cases and environment here make it an immediately attractive proposition for most candidates.

"Skilled practitioners, particularly experienced hires at mid-career points like myself are drawn to the organisation and a strong integrity means that lots of skilled data scientists for example are desperate to apply their skills in the not-for-profit versus corporate setting.

"But it is also very hard. The recruitment drives that I have conducted notably in business intelligence or cyber security sphere mean that we are competing with corporates for the same skills, and there is a gap between the market expectation and what we can offer.

"Patience, creativity and resilience are needed in recruitment, as the right candidate always emerges, but you do need to spend time exploiting your/the organisation's network, finding different resource pools and always being on the lookout for new talent."

Any IT leader looking for a new challenge, or one who perhaps feels tired of the relentless drive towards corporate growth, could do worse than look to the charity sector for their next leadership role.

Computing's IT Leaders Summit will be held on 16th October in Central London.

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