IT, Overheads, and Funding in Nonprofits

The Financial Times recently published an article Charity in the Office, which highlighted the different perspectives — and difficulties — of securing funding for things like "technical training, HR management, or streamlined procurement systems."

It also mentions what many perceive as an over-emphasis on overheads by donors and funders, while ignoring the arguably more impactful investments in IT or training. Among many interesting observations, many nonprofits can relate to a comment by Gib Bulloch, director of Accenture Development Partnerships:

There’s a naivety in thinking that [donors'] £10 floats magically across the world and turns itself into food that goes in the mouth of a starving person... they don’t understand the fact that investing in people, technology, and systems may actually have more impact on poverty, health, and education than this race to the bottom on overheads.

Worse yet, because of this obsession, the article cites a report by Bridgespan which found that "while [nonprofits] stated [overhead] rates of 13 to 22 per cent, actual rates ranged from 17 to 35 per cent." How can we work past this perceived roadblock to IT grants, especially when pocketbooks are getting tighter everywhere?