Monday Matters: Who Solves the Late-Night Problems?

This week’s Monday Matters arrived later than planned because of technical difficulties. That explanation is familiar to almost anyone who has worked for or volunteered with a small nonprofit. A website stops cooperating, a document will not open, an account becomes inaccessible, or a system that worked perfectly yesterday suddenly decides it has other plans. The work still needs to be completed because someone else will need it tomorrow morning.

In a well-resourced organization, an information technology department, an administrative team, or a paid vendor may be available to solve the problem. In many small nonprofits, the solution is a volunteer sitting at a computer late at night, searching for instructions, testing possible fixes, resetting passwords, reconstructing lost work, and trying to make certain everything is ready for the next day.

This is part of nonprofit work that rarely appears in an annual report. We celebrate the programs, performances, services, grants, and community outcomes, but we don't always see the hours required to keep the systems behind that work running. Someone maintains the website, troubleshoots the donation platform, learns the registration software, repairs the spreadsheet, formats the newsletter, and figures out why an important email did not reach its intended audience.

Frequently, that person is a volunteer.

Volunteer labor makes an extraordinary amount of nonprofit work possible, but “volunteer” should not be mistaken for “limitless.” The person solving a technical problem at midnight may already have worked all day, managed family responsibilities, or spent hours completing other organizational tasks. They may not have formal technical training. They have simply become the person who knows how to fix things, or the person willing to keep trying until the problem is solved.

That willingness is valuable, but it can also conceal an organizational weakness. When important work depends on one person being available after hours, the organization lacks a reliable system. It relies on a dedicated person to compensate for that gap.

Small nonprofits may not be able to hire a full technical staff, but they can still reduce the burden. Organizations can document passwords and procedures securely, give more than one person appropriate account access, budget for technical assistance, keep vendor contact information current, and identify backup plans before an emergency occurs. They can also recognize that technical and administrative work is real work, even when it happens quietly and without compensation.

Most importantly, nonprofit leaders should pay attention to the people who repeatedly rescue the organization. Competence often creates more work for the competent person. Each time someone solves a problem, it becomes easier to assume that person will solve the next one too. Appreciation matters, but appreciation without additional support, shared responsibility, or improved systems eventually becomes another way of asking someone to continue carrying an unreasonable burden.

The late-night technical problem may be resolved before anyone else begins work the next morning. The program continues, the message is published, and the deadline is met. From the outside, it may look as though nothing happened. That smooth continuation is not evidence that the organization’s system worked. Sometimes it shows that a volunteer gave up part of their evening to keep the system from failing.

Nonprofits depend on people who care enough to solve problems. Sustainable nonprofits also make sure those people don't have to solve every problem alone.