Three Ways That Nonprofits Can Benefit From Organizational Chart Software

Nonprofits face a unique set of challenges in managing their workforce, from dealing with limited budgets and resources, to attracting and retaining top talent. To succeed in their mission, nonprofits need to be organized, efficient, and effective.

Organizational chart software helps achieve these objectives.

Here, we’ll explore the top three ways your nonprofit HR team benefits from organizational chart software and how an automated approach to workforce charting can help you achieve your mission.

What is organizational chart software?

Organizational chart software is a tool that shows a visual representation of your organization’s structure, including the hierarchies, roles, and responsibilities of your workforce. It typically includes boxes representing individual staff or job titles connected by lines to show relationships between roles and the flow of authority.

Organizational chart software is more than just an illustration of staffing relationships, however. Modern charting tools are customizable, automated, and equipped with seemingly endless data fields for custom criteria, providing HR teams rich insights into workforce analytics.

To understand how this technology benefits nonprofits, let’s first look at an overview of what modern org chart software is capable of.

Key capabilities of organizational chart software

Modern organizational chart software offers a wide range of capabilities that help HR teams reduce repetitive tasks and operate more strategically, including:

• Customization. Use templates or custom structures and layouts. Customize appearances with your own color schemes, logo, and branding. Implement custom views for certain teams or add custom filters to see metrics and criteria important to your objectives.
• Automation. Create new charts, or update existing ones on-the-fly, by utilizing your HRIS data or external data feeds. Charts automatically update as employee data changes.
• Collaboration. Export, share, or invite multiple users to work on the same chart. Seamlessly share custom charts with managers of other teams and collaborate on complex organizational structures simultaneously.
• Integration. Connect your organizational chart software with your HRIS, payroll, and even project management software. Have critical workforce information available in the tools you use most.
• Analytics. Run reports on employee performance, skill sets, or benefits enrollment. Compare compensation metrics by diversity criteria, and make data-driven decisions about recruiting and hiring from within. Track staffing changes over time and identify trends or potential issues.
• Security. Protect sensitive information with state-of-the-art data encryption and access controls.

You won’t find these features with free or DIY charting tools. Only the top organizational chart software is equipped with features that provide nonprofit HR teams with actionable insights into their workforce planning objectives.

Now that you understand a little more about what org chart software can do, let’s look at the three ways it can aid in your nonprofit HR responsibilities.

Visibility: Visualize the organizational structure

Visuals of your organizational structure are a powerful tool — if you understand what they can do for you. Here’s how visualizing your org structure can benefit your nonprofit:

• Clarify roles and relationships. Larger nonprofits often have complex structures with multiple departments and geographic locations. Organizational chart software can help to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each employee to ensure everyone is aware of their duties. This helps HR better understand how each person fits into the bigger picture. Org charts also help you visualize relationships between teams so you can facilitate greater collaboration and engagement opportunities to build a more connected workforce.
• Optimize personnel placements. Nonprofits often have limited resources and need to make the most of their staff’s skills and expertise. Organizational chart software helps to identify skill gaps where extra training or hiring may be necessary. It also helps identify staff who may have specialty skills required for a new project or recommend them for promotion. This enables nonprofits to optimize their personnel placements and ensure they have the necessary skills to achieve their mission.
• Build trust with donors. Nonprofits need to build strong relationships with their donors. Organizational chart software can help demonstrate fund allocation to interested donors. Donors can then easily observe underfunded teams, unfulfilled initiatives, and visualize where their donations assist with the organization’s mission. This aids in fundraising efforts by increasing transparency and accountability and, ultimately, building trust with your donor base.
• Strengthen your volunteer program. Consider the benefits of being able to visualize all of your volunteers on one or more org charts. Extract lists of volunteers interested in certain activities or easily identify those who have specific skills. See their volunteer history and when they’re available to help with projects. Both your internal team and volunteer leaders can benefit from org charts by seeing who they can enlist for help. Volunteers are an invaluable resource but their true potential often goes untapped at nonprofits. Org chart software helps your nonprofit use volunteer resources more effectively while enhancing the volunteer experience.
• Plan “what if” scenarios. Nonprofits are frequently affected by tax code changes, political agendas, and economic recessions. It’s not uncommon for an organization to need to restructure or downsize its staff due to reduced funding. With organizational chart software, HR analysts can seamlessly visualize multiple “what if” scenarios and plan for the unexpected with just a few clicks of their mouse.

Insights: Be more efficient

Organizational chart software can be a valuable tool for nonprofits looking to increase the efficiency of HR processes by delivering the insights they need, when they need them.

Many HR teams are responsible for employee management, recruiting, training, compensation and benefits, employee relations, and more. At nonprofits, HR teams have fewer resources to do these tasks, often leading them to use ill-suited tools and processes.

Organizational chart software, on the other hand, streamlines these tasks with automation, integrations, and analytics. For example, here are some ways org chart technology makes HR teams more efficient:

• Save time on everyday tasks. HR teams at nonprofits are often stretched thin from limited resources and need to make the most of their time. They are prime candidates for modern org chart software that can automate tasks like data entry and analysis. Plus, because org chart data are fed from your HR system directly, they always reflect the most recent personnel changes. This can save HR leaders a significant amount of time and effort, allowing them to focus more on strategic tasks. When you can easily share org charts with other team members, it reduces the lift (and stress) of grant proposal applications, board meetings, and compliance requirements. Automated org charts means you’re always prepared to fulfill chart requests.
• Budget strategically. Nonprofits need to manage their resources efficiently and make the most of their funding. Organizational chart software gives HR teams a clear view of resource allocations. They can see areas for cost reduction and resource optimization. Org chart automation software can also raise budgetary concerns. Imagine seeing how underfunding a team results in poor performance or how a manager with too many direct reports drives high turnover. These are the patterns that help determine staffing, fundraising, and campaign goals for the coming fiscal year.
• Generate actionable analytics. Quickly visualize organizational charts along with any criteria from your HR system. Gain actionable insights into staffing hierarchies, spans of control, compensations, vacancies, and more. Run reports on contractors to see what skills are being outsourced. Calculate headcount by department to identify areas where staffing levels may be too high or too low. Overall, automated workforce analytics allow HR teams to make informed decisions and achieve results faster.

Vision: Take better care of your team

With the time saved by using organizational chart software, nonprofit HR teams can focus on building stronger relationships with employees, providing more personalized support, and enhancing their overall employee experience. This leads to higher levels of job satisfaction, reduced turnover, and a more positive workplace culture.

These benefits are true at most organizations, but particularly important for nonprofits because they’re competing for talent with for-profit companies who have more resources. Here are some other ways nonprofit HR teams benefit from org charting with regards to talent management:

• Detailed talent information. Nonprofits often face challenges in attracting and retaining skilled employees due to limited resources and lower salaries compared to for-profits. With org chart software, you can seamlessly view your workforce’s skills and skill gaps, allowing you to more effectively allocate staff to certain projects or to budget for more training.
• Improve onboarding. New employees can use your organizational charts to familiarize themselves with your nonprofit’s structure and the roles and responsibilities of other employees. They’ll gain a clearer view of where they fit into the organization and identify teams they might collaborate with. This can help prevent confusion, increase accountability, and get staff up and running faster.
• Accurate data. Rest easy knowing your org charts and lists have the most up-to-date and accurate information. Because organizational chart software is integrated with your HR system, any personnel changes — new hires, promotions, departures, etc. — get updated automatically, ensuring everyone is aware of the latest staffing changes.
• Easier performance management. Now you can track performance and review data for all employees. Organizational chart software lets you view performance data on staff so you can quickly visualize who is flagged as at-risk, who would benefit from feedback or extra support, and who deserves extra recognition.
• Strategic workforce planning. Recruiting and hiring is time consuming and expensive, as is an improperly allocated staff member or a department operating with substantial skill or resource gaps. Nonprofits who use organizational chart software benefit from more strategic workforce planning. They aid in assessing talent gaps and budgeting for professional development. Org charts can even be used to monitor diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Overall, org charting helps nonprofits strategically plan for future staffing and resource needs.

For resource-constrained nonprofits, the time saved by using organizational chart software is invaluable. Instead of task-taking, nonprofit your HR team could focus on strategic initiatives, like improving employee engagement or developing new hiring strategies for candidates interested in mission-based work.

With cloud-based org charting at their fingertips, nonprofit HR teams can visualize their organizational structure clearly, operate more efficiently, and result in more effective talent management. Ultimately, these benefits lead to better organizational performance and a more engaged workforce.

Nonprofit charting with OrgChart

Kick manual charting to the curb and learn how a comprehensive workforce planning tool like OrgChart can help your nonprofit save time and achieve mission-critical success.