Nonprofits face a growing demand for digital solutions that help them expand their missions. Here’s how low-code platforms can help them do just that.
Low-code software development is often praised for facilitating the rapid delivery of enterprise apps at a time when digital transformation must be agile and continuous. However, although nonprofits share these same challenges when it comes to digital innovation, they also face some unique challenges of their own.
Chief among the challenges is the fact that NGOs and nonprofits rarely have the same degree of financial backing that major enterprises have. Hiring talented software developers to build applications from scratch, in a way that incorporates privacy, security, and data sovereignty by design, is often far beyond what their budgets allow.
At the same time, the philanthropic space is entirely built on trust. Donors and regulators alike expect complete transparency into how and where their budgets are spent. What they do with donor information is another key area, especially in the case of nonprofits that operate across borders, where concerns about digital sovereignty factor in. These factors are much harder to address if digital innovation results in heavy overspending, lengthy delays, or vendor lock-in.
Low-code promises to make software development more equitable, but the truth is that most low-code development platforms (LCDPs) are tailored for business use. These platforms tend to serve specific target markets, such as sales and marketing teams in traditional enterprises – areas that have very different needs and priorities when it comes to nonprofit organizations.
Fortunately, open source is a natural fit for low code, as well as a natural fit for nonprofits. By empowering data equity and sovereignty, open-source low-code platforms give nonprofits the opportunity to leverage the inherent benefits of low code, albeit without the risks of sovereignty and vendor lock-in concerns.
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