Keeping Donor Data Secure: How Non-Profits Should Embrace Cloud Data Protection

In many ways, non-profits take the brunt of it all. They’re focused on attacking some of the world’s toughest problems – usually with small budgets and minimal resources in hand.  Yet, they are responsible for carrying out some of the most meaningful missions out there. 

In the midst of all this, like any business, a non-profit’s data contains critical information.  And because of the structure of their organization, this information is shared across states, nations, and time zones. They need to safely keep track of donors, donations, grants, fundraising, programs and their outcomes, and so much more.

Considering they have to run a tight ship, many non-profits are turning to Google since the company offers them discounted or free Google Apps, Adwords, & YouTube products.  In fact, there are companies such as Cloud for Good that focus entirely on helping non-profits implement cloud-based products (ex. Google, Salesforce) ensuring that their cloud transitions run smoothly.

Non-profits are similar to any other business organization in that a loss of data or any other data failures could have serious consequences for the business. Unfortunately, a study TechImpact and JPMorgan Chase performed showed that up to 80% of nonprofits do not have adequate data backup and protection.  But as The Non-Profit Times outlined, there are at least 5 practices for non-profits to keep their data safe:

1. Backup, backup, backup
2. User ID & password security
3. Audit trails
4. Physical security
5. User security awareness training

As non-profit organizations transition more data to the cloud to take advantage of some amazing (and low cost!) SaaS solutions, it’s crucial to emphasize a backup plan. The misconception that data in the cloud is backed up and secure could prove exceptionally dangerous for a non-profit. Given all the important work non-profits perform on a daily basis, losing donor or fundraising information should (and can) be prevented.

For non-profits, a cloud-to-cloud backup solution is a great place to start in addition to implementing other security technologies and processes.