It’s getting more difficult for non-profit organizations to minimize their operating expenses when asking rents on older loft buildings in places like South Midtown NYC – historically shunned by traditional businesses and coveted by non-profits – have surged over the decade. The gap between Class A and Class B properties has narrowed considerably as well. That narrowing can be attributed to the increase in the number of TAMI, or technology, advertising, media, and information, tenants that have made the Midtown South area their home due to the comparatively lower rents and the loft-style spaces.
Since every dollar counts towards achieving an organization’s social mission, spending money on space for file cabinets, bankers’ boxes and other forms of paper storage is not an option. The most cost-effective remedy: document scanning and cloud document management.
How to Gain Space without a Bigger Office or Capital Expense
Non-profits have traditionally avoided the investment in document scanners, capture software, and other technology needed to go paperless. What many are now realizing is that you don’t need to make a capital investment to scan documents and to experience all the process automation and space savings it has to offer. Experienced document scanning companies can quickly and accurately scan all of your employee files, donor records, invoices, grant applications, board minutes, legal documents, and all other records – for just pennies a page. No longer needing the space once taken up by a sea of paper can help your non-profit reduce rent or relocate to a better grade building.
Perry Davis, President of Perry Davis Associates (PDA) adds:
“In the fundraising consulting advice we provide, we always list various sources of support – public funds, foundation grants, individual gifts, social media campaigns, gala dinner income, etc. However, we almost always begin by suggesting that the non-profit organization improve their financial condition by cutting expenses. Perhaps there are programs that are no longer useful but are drawing resources; vendor contracts can be renegotiated.
Most importantly, there may be fixed expenses that need not remain fixed. The opportunity for non-profits to save money by improving office space costs and efficiency should always be top of mind. Storage costs are real and reducing or eliminating them will free up space, and make your office more efficient. But above all, the reduction will have a dramatic impact on the bottom line and thus on the beneficiaries of your services.”
Reducing Costs with Improved Efficiency
Once scanned, where do all of these digitized documents go? The cloud offers many capabilities without the capital expense. Cloud document management software offers you the most cost-effective way to securely store, access, and share electronic documents anywhere, anytime. This instant access helps improve efficiency within your organization and enables mobile access, remote access, and collaboration.
How to Further Offset Rising Operating Costs
Once all of your documents are scanned and managed in the cloud, your non-profit can cut costs and improve efficiency even further by scanning all incoming records and/or capture information with electronic forms and processing them with workflow automation – an add-on module of cloud document management software. This can help streamline invoice processing, grant applications, and new employee/volunteer onboarding and signal to current and prospective donors that you run a smart and efficient operation.
Hoping to save your non-profit some money on rent? Contact us to learn more about how document scanning, cloud document management, workflow automation software, and e-forms can help.