Not-for-Profit Industry Business Reference Architecture
Business capability maps, value streams, and strategy maps for the not-for-profit industry.
- You need to improve your organization’s understanding of business capabilities and how IT can support the delivery of essential services.
- You work for an organization that wants to sharpen their alignment and focus on organizational outcomes and value by using automation and cost-effective methods that produce the most reliable and high-quality outcomes.
- You don’t know where or how to begin, or how to engage the right people, model the business, and drive the value of an architecture.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Using an industry-specific reference architecture is central, and has many benefits, to organizational priorities. It’s critical to understanding, modeling, and communicating the operating environment and the direction of the organization but, more significantly, to enable measurable top-line organizational outcomes and unlock direct value.
Impact and Result
- Build your organization’s capability map by defining the organization’s value stream and validating the not-for-profit industry reference architecture.
- Use business capabilities to define strategic focus by defining the organization’s key capabilities and developing a prioritized strategy map.
- Assess key capabilities for planning priorities through a review of business processes, information, applications, and technology support of key capabilities.
- Adopt capability-based strategy planning by ongoing identification and roadmapping of capability gaps.
Not-for-Profit Industry Business Reference Architecture
Business Capability Maps, Value Streams, and Strategy Maps for the Not-for-Profit Industry
Analyst Perspective
In the age of disruption, IT must end misalignment and enable value realization.
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An industry business reference architecture helps accelerate your strategy design process and enhances IT’s ability to align people, processes, and technology with key business priorities.
Not-for-profit organizations require a unified and validated view of their business capabilities, which aligns initiatives, investments, and strategies to provide value to their constituents. Monica Pagtalunan |
Executive Summary
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Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
Info-Tech’s Approach |
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You need to improve your organization’s understanding of business capabilities and how IT can support the delivery of essential services. You work for an organization that wants to sharpen its alignment and focus on organizational outcomes and value by using automation and cost-effective methods to produce the most reliable and highest quality outcomes. You don’t know where or how to begin, or how to engage the right people, model the business, and drive the value of an architecture. |
You don’t have a clear path for capturing the right information, engaging the right people, linking to the needs of the business, and aligning with IT. The business and IT often speak in their own languages without a holistic and integrated view of mission, strategies, goals, objectives, business processes, projects, and measures of success. The business and IT often focus their attention within silos and miss the big picture needed for a synergistic approach and successful outcomes. |
Build your organization’s capability map by defining your organization’s value streams and validating the not-for-profit industry reference architecture. Use business capabilities to define strategic focus by defining your organization’s key capabilities and developing a prioritized strategy map Assess key capabilities for planning priorities by reviewing business processes, information, applications, and technology support for key capabilities. Adopt capability-based strategy planning by regularly identifying and roadmapping capability gaps. |
Info-Tech Insight
Using an industry-specific reference architecture is central to, and has many benefits for, organizational priorities. It is critical for understanding, modeling, and communicating the operating environment and direction of an organization and, more significantly, for enabling measurable top-line organizational outcomes and unlocking direct value.
Industry Overview: Not-for-Profits
The not-for-profit industry consists of organizations that are operating under the 501c(3) or equivalent designation and were specifically established for the betterment of the public or a specific group, rather than for profit generation or shareholder dividends.
These organizations can address a wide range of needs, such as social, educational, cultural, or humanitarian needs. Despite their critical roles in society, not-for-profit organizations face tight budgets and limited resources, which puts technology-related challenges as low priority.
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Country |
Designation |
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U.S. |
501c(3) |
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Canada |
Registered Charity |
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UK |
Registered Charity |
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Australia |
Deductible Gift Recipient “DGR” |
Source: BKD, 2022
Value Stream for Not-for-Profits
Fundraise
Service Recipients
Develop Programs
Deliver Programs
Challenge Overview: Not-for-Profits
Many not-for-profit organizations find themselves in a mode of surviving rather than thriving, with increased demand but lack of resources.
IT can play a pivotal role in addressing this challenge by implementing a business reference architecture.
The business reference architecture acts as a strategic tool that can foster organizational alignment, identify gaps, discover solutions, enforce collaboration, mitigate risks, and prioritize investments. It must be leveraged to prioritize technology, while remaining attuned to an organization’s unique challenges, goals, and objectives.
58% of nonprofit organizations experienced a budget shortfall
65% of nonprofit organizations experienced an increased demand for programs and services
77% of nonprofit organizations plan to add new programs and services
71% of nonprofit organizations are hampered by staffing shortages
Source: BKD, 2022
Business Value Realization
Business value defines the success criteria of an organization as manifested through organizational goals and outcomes. It can be interpreted from four perspectives:
- Profit generation: The revenue generated from a business capability with a product that is enabled by modern technologies
- Cost reduction: The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with a product that is enabled by modern technologies
- Service enablement: The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations from products and capabilities enhanced with modern technologies
- Customer and market reach: The improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets
Value, goals, and outcomes cannot be achieved without business capabilities
Not-for-profit business capability map
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Business capability map defined… In business architecture, the primary view of an organization is known as its business capability map. A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation, rather than how. Business capabilities:
A business capability map provides details that help a business architecture practitioner direct attention to a specific area of the business for further assessment. |
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Glossary of Key Concepts
A business reference architecture consists of a set of models that provide clarity and actionable insight and value. Typical concepts that are used to develop these models are defined below.
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Term/Concept |
Definition |
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Business capability map |
The primary visual representation of an organization’s key capabilities; this model forms the basis of strategic planning discussions |
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Capability |
An ability that an organization, person, or system possesses; capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve. |
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Capability assessments |
A heat-mapping effort that analyzes the strength of each key capability, based on people, processes, information, and technology |
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Industry strategy map |
A visualization of the alignment between an organization’s strategic direction and its key capabilities |
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Industry value chain |
A high-level analysis of how an industry creates value for the consumer as an overall end-to-end process |
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Industry value streams |
The specific set of activities that an industry player undertakes to create and capture value for and from the end consumer |
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Strategic objectives |
A set of standard strategic objectives that most industry players feature in their corporate plans |
Source: The Open Group, 2009
Tools and templates to compile and communicate your reference architecture work
The Not-for-Profit Industry Business Reference Architecture Template is a place for you to collect all the activity outputs and outcomes you will complete, for use in the next steps.
Download the Not-for-Profit Industry Business Reference Architecture Template.
Info-Tech’s methodology for reference architecture
| 1. Build your organization’s capability map. |
2. Use business capabilities to define your strategic focus. |
3. Assess your key capabilities for planning priorities. |
4. Adopt capability-based strategy planning. |
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Phase Steps |
1.1 Define your organization’s value streams. 1.2 Develop a business capability map. |
2.1 Define your organization’s key capabilities. 2.2 Develop a strategy map. |
3.1 Review your business processes. 3.2 Conduct an information assessment. 3.3 Identify technology opportunities. |
4.1 Consolidate and prioritize capability gaps. |
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Phase Outcomes |
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Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
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| “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.” | “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.” | “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.” | “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.” |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
Guided Implementation
What does a typical GI on this topic look like?
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4 |
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Call #1: Introduce Info-Tech’s Industry reference architecture methodology. |
Call #2: Define and create value streams. Call #3: Model Level 1 business capability maps. Call #4: Map value streams to business capabilities. |
Call #5: Model Level 2 business capability maps. Call #6: Create a strategy map. Call #7: Introduce Info-Tech's capability assessment framework. |
Call #8: Review capability assessment map(s). Call #9: Discuss and review prioritization of key capability gaps and plan next steps. |
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
A typical GI is six to nine calls over the course of one to four months.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Build your organization’s capability map
- Call 1: Introduce Info-Tech’s industry reference architecture methodology.
Guided Implementation 2: Use business capabilities to define your strategic focus
- Call 1: Define and create value streams.
- Call 2: Model Level 1 business capability maps.
- Call 3: Map value streams to business capabilities.
- Call 4: Model Level 2 business capability maps.
Guided Implementation 3: Assess your key capabilities for planning priorities
- Call 1: Create a strategy map.
- Call 2: Introduce Info-Tech's capability assessment framework.
Guided Implementation 4: Adopt capability-based strategy planning
- Call 1: Review capability assessment map(s).
- Call 2: Discuss and review prioritization of key capability gaps and plan next steps.