It's Take Your iPad to Work Day

Remember your first day in your job? You arrived at the office, you were shown to your desk, you met your new colleagues, you found out where the coffee is, and someone from IT showed you your computer. A computer provided by your employer is as much a tool of the trade as your desk, the phone and the coffee, right?

Well, a new trend is emerging that challenges your work-supplied computer as being the only device you use for work. Known as "bring your own device," - or BYOD for short - it's where employees decide on the devices they wish to use for work. It seems that some employees don't like being told what device they're going to use for work, especially if work involves travel or weird hours, so they choose their own.

Often it's a device they already own - like a tablet or a netbook. Or a combination - the work PC when at the work desk, the iPad in work meetings, the Mac at home, the smartphone when on the move. It's a result of people owning devices for their own use, but which seem to be convenient work devices when they need to be too.

BYOD is driven not by IT departments - in fact it causes them headaches - but by individuals who want to keep in touch with what's going on at work, and because sometimes their devices are just more convenient to use.

So what does it mean for you as a fundraiser, your donors and your charity?

First, you
If you want to BYOD, you're going to need to be able to run a broad range of applications across many devices. You need e-mail that works equally well on your iPad and your work PC. A donor database that can be accessed from your smartphone and the office computer. Social-media tools that allow you to post, comment and share on behalf of your charity from anywhere.