Technology Expenses

Guidance for Field Technology Purchases

The goals for including an additional approval step for field software purchases are the following:

• To avoid redundancy and waste.

• To surface common needs where National may be able to provide a unified solution.

• To help ensure the sustainability and continuity of key field systems.

• To minimize the fragmentation or loss of mission-critical data.

Here is some general guidance on software purchases:

1. Domain Names: In most cases, paying for custom domain names is not considered a good use of resources. National has the ability to provide custom subdomains of braverangels.org (e.g. tidewater.braverangels.org) where websites are needed.

2. Web Hosting: In most cases, web hosting is considered an unnecessary expense. Unless a strong case can be made otherwise, Google Sites (owned on a Braver Angels Google account) provide a great starting-point for most website needs.

3. National Can Help! Before assuming you need new software, please reach out to our tech team to brainstorm a solution to your needs that leverages the tools we already have.  BA National makes Google Workspace accounts available to all field leaders, ambassadors, and core volunteers.  If you don’t have one of these accounts, reach out to Field Tech Support to request one. The toolkit available in Google Workspace is extremely powerful and flexible, and includes Forms, Sites, Docs, Sheets, Groups, and much, much more. We also have a talented team of tech volunteers who can help you create lightweight automations and software solutions to meet your needs.

4. Keep it Simple and Maintainable: Remember that those who inherit what you build or buy are likely to be mere mortals.   Avoid purchasing software or creating processes that require a lot of specialized knowledge to maintain. If you build custom systems around software, please document your process well, and in a place that is shared with your team.

5. Alternatives to National Software Implementations: If important data is being held in a software you want to use that is similar to, but separate from, the software National is using, please take some time to weigh the tradeoffs between your team’s preferences and the challenges that arise when folks decide to “go their own way.”  We’d love to discuss it with you, too (please contact the tech team!), so that we can better understand the challenges you’re facing and explore adapting our National systems--if you’re experiencing a pain point, others may be too. It may still be worth it, but we’d love to understand why using a different platform is worth the tradeoff.  

6. Sustainability: Please work with National’s infrastructure wherever possible, so that key assets, data, and subscriptions are tied to user accounts that Braver Angels can access and control in the event your volunteer staffing changes and someone else needs to step in.  Ensure all important account identities are tied to Braver Angels email addresses (e.g. avoid using ad-hoc consumer email accounts). For any questions, we’re here to help.