NKCAC chosen to participate in Virtual CIO project

Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission is one of only ten organizations in the greater Cincinnati area to be chosen to participate in a special IT infrastructure pilot project, dubbed the Virtual CIO. Northern Kentucky University’s Institute for Nonprofit Capacity (INC) and College of Informatics’ IMI are partnering with United Way of Greater Cincinnati (UWGC) and the Leadership Council of Human Service Executives to support the IT needs of local human service nonprofits through the Virtual CIO Pilot Project.

INC just completed a voluntary survey on the IT structures and needs of Leadership Council member agencies, selecting 10 agencies to participate in a new Virtual CIO Pilot Project. Over the next several months, faculty and students from the College of Informatics will conduct onsite assessments of the IT infrastructure, data security, capacities of email, web status and database management and conduct a general overview of IT support and staff skills. According to executive director, Florence Tandy, "Our reliance on technology has increased dramatically over the past two years. This project, coming at this time, will be vital for our growth both as a social service provider and an employer. We are looking foward to improving our IT infrastructure as we learn from the experts at NKU."

The Virtual CIO Pilot Project represents the ideal leveraging of NKU’s informatics assets for the betterment of greater Cincinnati nonprofits. The selected agencies represent both Kentucky and Ohio organizations, whose budgets range from under $500,000 to over $5 million.

“At a time of unprecedented demand being placed on human services agencies, we are pleased to provide this critical support,” said Dayle Deardurff, INC director.

Survey results, obtained from 42 local agencies, indicated critical needs for IT support and guidance of local nonprofits. Noting the findings in UWGC’s recent 2009 Environmental Scan: Advancing the Common Good in a Time of Disruptive Change, it is clear that our community will see changes in client needs and demographics and a growing need for leadership on community issues from the nonprofit community. Robert C. Reifsnyder, UWGC president, “The foundation provided by a strong IT system will strengthen the capacity and planning skills of the staff and board of any nonprofit. Better data help to answer the ever present questions of what is really needed to succeed and where are we under investing.”

A report will be issued late this spring on the outcomes of the Virtual CIO Pilot Project. It is anticipated that the project will help to deepen our understanding of nonprofit IT needs and solutions, which in turn will lead to increased capacity and effectiveness.

For more information about INC, please see www.inc.nku.edu, or contact Dayle Deardurff, Director, at 859-572-7500. For information about NKCAC's role in the Virtual CIO project, contact Jennifer Belisle, Deputy Director at NKCAC, 859 655-2933.

 

About the College of Informatics
The Northern Kentucky University College of Informatics is one of only a few colleges in the country founded exclusively for the emerging field of informatics. The term informatics embraces the modern concept of information in all its aspects: information management, infrastructure, processing, presentation, dissemination, design and analysis. It is deeply integrative in approach. In practice, it ranges from the development of information technologies in the service of specific fields, to broader scholarly investigations of the representations, processing and communication of information in its full social context. The college offers courses and programs that cover the entire spectrum of informatics, from the bit-level to the conceptual, from the practical to the theoretical, from the basic to the advanced, from the traditional to the cutting edge. To learn more about the College of Informatics, visit http://informatics.nku.edu.

About the IMI
The IMI in the College of Informatics at NKU is a prototypical institution, showing how academic and business organizations can work together for regional good. The IMI enhances student success and supports the mission of informatics through community engagement and managed co-ops. Visit http://imi.nku.edu for more information.