This is the second in a three-part blog series, Visualizing Impact: The Power of Technical Strategy, by Forum One’s Vice President of Engineering, Brian Graves. Read Part 1 here.

While a high-level technical strategy sets the direction, technical design and architecture are what bring the vision to life. Technical design governs how systems interact, how data flows across platforms, and how individual components work together to deliver seamless, effective solutions. For nonprofits and government agencies, carefully crafted architecture is crucial to ensuring efficiency, scalability, security, and collaboration across systems.

Clarity for Stakeholders

The output of technical design typically takes the form of architecture diagrams that serve as a bridge between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders such as executives and board members. Clear and actionable diagrams provide a shared understanding of how systems work together, which is essential for aligning decision-making with the organization’s goals.

For example, domain-driven design structures systems around the organization’s core functions. A government agency managing public health services might build architecture around domains like “citizen health records” or “emergency response.” This structure allows stakeholders to easily visualize how the technology supports their mission and ensures better justification for technology investments.

Optimized Resource Allocation

Nonprofits and government organizations often work under tight budget constraints, so maximizing the efficiency of their technology investments is critical. Thoughtful technical design helps identify inefficiencies, eliminate redundancies, and avoid over-investment in unnecessary technologies.

For example, in our work with NYU’s City Health Dashboard, we incorporated composable architecture patterns, which allowed for seamless adaptability. This architecture enabled us to easily add, remove, or modify components like the database and infrastructure without disrupting other parts of the system. This flexibility was key to ensuring that the platform could evolve as priorities shifted.

Scalability and Flexibility

One of the most pressing challenges for nonprofits and government agencies is scaling their operations to meet growing demands or fluctuating workloads. A well-designed technical architecture allows organizations to scale individual components or services without affecting the entire system. This is especially beneficial for handling peak times of activity, such as during fundraising campaigns or public crises.

Two prime examples of architectural patterns that provide scalability and flexibility are microservices and cloud-based infrastructure. In our work with County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, both were leveraged to vastly improve the platform’s scalability and flexibility, particularly during high-traffic periods when the rankings are released. 

Risk Management and Security

Data security is critical for organizations handling sensitive information, whether it’s donor data or citizen records. A well-designed system architecture can incorporate security measures from the ground up, ensuring that data flows are encrypted, access controls are robust, and systems are protected against vulnerabilities.

For example, microservices architecture supports security by isolating individual services, limiting the spread of potential breaches. If one service is compromised, it doesn’t jeopardize the entire system. Event-driven design can further enhance security by ensuring that data is only shared when predefined conditions are met, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

This proactive approach to risk management is essential for maintaining the trust of stakeholders and ensuring the organization’s long-term success.

Governance and Compliance

One of the most critical yet often overlooked aspects of technical design for government agencies and nonprofits is governance and compliance. These organizations are subject to stringent regulations around data privacy, security, and public accountability. To ensure compliance, a technical design must incorporate governance frameworks from the outset. This includes building systems that comply with federal standards such as FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act), GDPR, HIPAA, and other relevant regulations.

Moreover, clear governance models create accountability, define roles and responsibilities, and establish escalation paths, which are crucial for both internal and external audits. Embedding governance into the technical architecture ensures that systems remain secure, transparent, and legally compliant over time.

Sustainability

Designing sustainable digital products is increasingly becoming a vital part of any technical strategy. As organizations become more aware of their environmental impact, there is a growing need for digital solutions that are not only efficient but also minimize their carbon footprint.

Sustainability should be at the core of every digital product built. Through a thoughtful approach to technical design, energy-efficient infrastructure, sustainable coding practices, and resource-conscious architecture can be incorporated. For instance, an edge-based and containerized solution allows for caching content closer to the end user and scaling only the parts of an application experiencing high demand, which significantly reduces the environmental footprint compared to traditional monolithic systems.

Architecture as a Strategic Tool

A well-designed technical architecture is more than just a set of blueprints—it’s a strategic tool that allows nonprofits and government agencies to scale, optimize resources, enhance security, and improve collaboration. By leveraging modern architecture patterns like microservices, composable architecture, and event-driven design, organizations can build systems that are flexible and scalable, meeting current needs while being adaptable for future challenges.