Technology: The Smart Investment

TECHNOLGY: THE SMART INVESTMENT As a community of nonprofit professionals, we believe that technology allows nonprofits to work with greater social impact, and that nonprofits of all types and sizes can use technology strategically and confidently to fulfill their missions. ..... TOGETHER, WE'RE A COMMUNITY TRANSFORMING TECHNOLOGY INTO SOCIAL CHANGE. Budget Facts and figures for this report were segmented by budget size 5% SMALL ORGANIZATIONS MEDIUM ORGANIZATIONS Budget less than $1M Budget $1M - $5M The average technolgy budget is 5% of the organizational operating budget. LARGE ORGANIZATION VERY LARGE ORGANIZATIONS Budget $5M -$1OM Budget Greater than $10M How nonprofits see themselves Tech Adoption Levels: Which description represents your organizational approach to technology decision-making? STRUGGLING FUNCTIONING OPERATING LEADING We have a failing infrastructure, and our technology time and budget generally go towards creating workarounds, repairing old equipment, and duplicating tasks. We recognize that technology is an investment in our mission, and leadership integrates technology decisions with organizational strategy and includes tech staff in strategic planning. We have stable infrastructure and a We have basic systems in place to meet immediate needs. set of technology policies and practices. Leadership makes technology decisions based on standard levels according to industry/sector information. Leadership makes decisions based on efficiencies. 2.5% 38.6% 8.3% 20.1% 56.6% 43.6% 20.8% | 9.6% 3.8% WE ARE STRGGLING WE KEEP THE LIGHTS ON WE'RE INNOVATORS WE KEEP UP 26.0% 53.7% 50.0% 17.8% 3.0% 25.6% 20.2% While an organization's budget size does seem to correlate to their perceived tech adoption level, Leading Organizations can be found across all budget sizes. Does having a formal technology plan affect the organization's overall approach to decision-making? HAVE A TECH PLAN? TECH PLANNING AND ADOPTION LEVELS Yes 36% No 64% Not sure Not sure 2007 Yes Yes Yes 40% No 60% 2008 Struggling Functioning Yes 42% No 58% No No 2009 Yes 40% 2010 No 60% Not sure Not sure No 2011 Operating Leading YES 55% NO 39% No Yes Yes Not surprisingly, there is a clear correlation between Tech Adoption level and having a formal technology plan or strategy. Only 10% of respondents from Leading Organizations indicated they had no plan, compared to 60% of Struggling respondents who report not having a formal technology plan. Does measuring ROl affect the organization's overall approach to technology decisions? Nearly 44% of respondent organizations are considering ROI of technology projects or programs at least somewhat. However, only 7% are evaluating ROI rigorously or regularly. MEASURING ROI OF TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS/INVESTMENTS OMEWHAT (only informally) NO 37% 7% 7% 49% I DON'T KNOW YES (rigorous or regular analysis) TECH ADOPTION AND MEASURING ROI Yes (rigorous or regular analysis) Yes I don't know I don't know I don't know Somewhat Yes Yes (rigorous or regular analysis) (only informally) No (rigorous or regular analysis) (rigorous or regular analysis) Struggling Functioning Operating Leading Somewhat (only informally) No No No Somewhat Somewhat (only informally) (only informally) While nonprofits, in general, are not measuring ROI of their technology investments, there's a clear correlation between Tech Adoption and this practice. About 68% of respondents from Leading Organizations indicated that their organizations measure ROI at least somewhat, compared to only 33% of Struggling Organizations who are measuring ROI at least somewhat. TECH STAFFING LEVELS AND TECH ADOPTION AVERAGE NUMBER OF STAFF SUPPORTED BY EACH TECH STAFF AVERAGE NUMBER OF TECH STAFF STRUGGLING 0.84 44.03 How does having skilled tech-responsible staff at your organization relate to the organization's overall approach to technology FUNCTIONING 2.46 68.16 OPERATING 3.91 62.74 decisions? LEADING 5.27 42.95 There is a clear correlation between Tech Adoption level and the average number of tech staff reported by nonprofits in our survey, with the number of tech staff increasing as their Tech Adoption level increases. We also see that Leading Organizations have more tech staff per organizational staff, even among larger organizations. TECH TRAINING BUDGET AND TECH ADOPTION LEVELS Training LEADING $5,755.81 OPERATING FUNCTIONING $3,091.79 OVERALL AVERAGE STRUGGLING $1,597.97 $2,988.06 $640.00 There's a clear correlation between Tech Adoption and organizational investment in training as part of their technology budgets. TECH EFFECTIVENESS SCORE (OUT OF 30) While an organization may not have control over their annual operating budget, they can have control over their approach to technology decisions. Any organization can improve their Technology Effectiveness Score by focusing on their overall organizational approach to making technology-related decisions for their organization. It's all about smart, not just big, technology investments. 17.34 SMALL ORGANIZATIONS 18.52 MEDIUM ORGANIZATIONS ALL RESPONDENTS AVERAGE SCORE AVERAGE SCORES 18.27 LARGE ORGANIZATIONS 19 23 VERY LARGE ORGANIZATIONS 18.99 TECH EFFECTIVENESS SCORE AND TECH ADOPTION LEVELS AVERAGE FOR Struggling 13.89 Functioning 15.28 Operating 19.23 Leading 22.50 ALL RESPONDENTS 18.27 Compare your technology staffing and investments to our benchmarks at http://benchmarks.nten.org *Findings based on a 2011 survey conducted by NTEN and the NonProfitTimes with 975 respondents of nonprofit organizations NTEN Nonprofit Technology Network