Business Intelligence Network - The Vision for BI and Beyond

Jim Thie, vice president and CIO at Habitat for Humanity International, has a list of challenges unique to nonprofits, whether they're trade associations or charities: managing volunteers around the world, supporting new ways of raising money, expanding capabilities without increasing overhead and, of course, meeting organizational mission.

And like many nonprofit CIOs, Thie has to carry out his IT agenda with an eye on the bottom line; budgets at nonprofits tend to be tighter than they are in the private sector.

Certainly, nonprofits' strategic use of IT tends to lag behind that of the private sector. But it's a myth that nonprofits don't understand the power of IT the way private companies do, Thie says. He's seen some for-profit companies "in worse shape" than nonprofits. "It's really about ... whether IT is focused on the business."