State of Online Technology in the Social-Change Sector

Nonprofit-technology research organization dotOrganize recently released the report "Online Technology for Social Change: From Struggle to Strategy," which compiles insights from more than 400 social-change groups, technology providers, and nonprofit-technology capacity builders to examine the needs of organizers working to utilize new technologies. The study found that while organizations have begun to harness some of the Web's power over the last five years, nonprofits continue to struggle to make use of new and emerging technologies.

Below, you'll find a summary of key findings from dotOrganize's survey. To read the study in its entirety — including its recommendations for ways the nonprofit technology sector can work to help nonprofits meet their technology needs — please visit dotOrganize's Web site .

dotOrganize Study Findings:

Organizers View Technology as Important to Their Mission

Of those organizers surveyed, 95 percent indicated that they believe technology is important or essential to achieving their mission, and 40 percent say that technology is essential to their work. The remaining respondents (excluding the 5 percent who said they distrust or are uncomfortable with technology) believe technology is important, but feel uninformed or frustrated about what they need or how to get it.

Tools Interest Is Wide-Ranging

Technology needs differed across organizations. Beyond Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Access, users are spread out unevenly across more than 40 applications, with the majority of applications claiming no more than five to 15 organizations. However, nine out of the top 10 most-used or needed tools fell under the communications and fundraising categories, suggesting that these are the most fruitful areas for technology and resource development.

Organizers reported taking advantage of many online tools, such as email newsletters, online donations, interactive event calendars, and Web-based publishing; a smaller percentage also expressed interest in new online tools like podcasting, wikis, and integrated RSS feeds, as well as in tools that allow organizers to effectively and rapidly maintain, increase, and leverage existing data about constituents and potential constituents, such as barcoding, SMS/text messaging, and handheld synching.

Technology Fundamentals Remain Elusive

A surprising number of organizations are not taking advantage of basic online organizing techniques, such as collecting email addresses, sending out mass emails, posting news and information on Web sites, providing materials for download, and processing donations online.

Survey responses show that 39 percent of respondents still don't use email newsletters; 47 percent still don't accept donations online; 43 percent would like to, but are not providing materials for download; and only a small percentage of respondents are using newer Web 2.0 tools such as podcasting (3 percent), public wikis (4 percent), social networking tools, and SMS/text messaging (9 percent).

Interests Reveal Contradiction and Lack of Information

Organizers also expressed interest in some older technologies, despite the fact that many online strategists doubt their effectiveness. For example, nearly half of all respondents indicated more interest in using bulletin boards and online forums than in using social networking tools, which are often regarded as more useful than the former in generating peer-to-peer communication.

Respondents do not always want valuable newer technologies because they don't understand them, don't recognize their strategic value, or don't know they exist. This suggests that organizers may not have the information and resources they need to successfully integrate newer technology into their campaigns.

Organizers Are Frustrated with Their Current Tools

While organizers express a readiness to embrace emerging tools, a majority of organizers (59 percent) indicate that they feel frustrated with their current software's capabilities, training materials, and integration features. 45 percent feel uninformed or frustrated about what technology they need or how to get it; 61 percent complain that their tools don't share data with one another, and more than 50 percent report that their tools do not have all the features they need for successful daily operations.

Surprisingly, funding levels do not emerge as a strong factor in positive attitudes toward technology efforts: more than one third of respondents from organizations with annual budgets of over $4 million report either being frustrated or struggling with technology. Moreover, the study found that those organizations that spent the least money on software and online tools rated their satisfaction the same, on average, as those that spent the most.

Lack of Time, Money, and Expertise Prevents Adoption of New Tools

While the amount of money spent did not affect respondents' level of technology satisfaction, organizers across the board reported that money (57 percent), time (45 percent), and lack of staff expertise (34 percent) prevent their organizations from fully taking advantage of databases and online tools.

Respondents also repeatedly stressed the issue of training, citing lack of adequate training as a huge impediment to their successful use of technology. Many felt that their executive directors and CEOs do not necessarily prioritize what it takes to effectively implement new technologies in organizational budgets and staff schedules. Other factors that may contribute to a lack of training include high staff turnover rates, poor knowledge-management structures, and inadequate documentation of organizational systems.

The Heart of the Problem: Data Disarray

Data management is key to implementing and maintaining successful operations, yet many organizations report struggling with data disarray. One of the areas hardest hit is contact management: more than 50 percent of organizations use slips of paper, Excel spreadsheets, and personal contact managers (such as Outlook) to manage organizational data; 51 percent were managing more than four repositories of data about the organization's various constituents; and only 7 percent of respondents said that their systems share data easily.

Many organizers indicated they could use data better if they had more segmentation or tracking power. However, larger annual budgets have little relationship to the ease of data integration. Organizations with budgets over $4 million were nearly as likely as those with budgets under $100,000 to report maintaining separate systems without easy data integration.

Organizations with Dedicated Technology Staff Fare Better

Organizations with dedicated technology staff were much more satisfied with their systems than those who relied on vendors and out-of-the-box tools. Organizations with four or more technology staff are three times as likely to express satisfaction with their technology experiences, and are also able to compile supporter lists more quickly.

Although more respondents cite lack of money than lack of staff expertise as their primary obstacle to technology adoption, funding is not as reliable a predictor of technology success as the number of dedicated technology staff.

Technology Struggles Stunt Impact

Social-change organizations are struggling to master standard and emerging technologies, as well as to manage data silos and ill-suited tools. These challenges, which drain resources away from serving communities and constituents, result in lost time, poor constituent-relationship management, fewer supporters, and missed civic-engagement opportunities. The lack of convenient donation vehicles, combined with fewer supporters and poor tracking of information, means less money coming in the door.

Conclusion

Organizers are clearly struggling, despite their general enthusiasm for technology tools. Regardless of budget size, they feel strapped for time, money, and know-how. They believe that their software lacks the features they need and that they lack the training and support to use the software, and they're frustrated by the lack of integration between existing tools.

Fortunately, the world of organizing and technology is ripe for change. Social-change organizers have adopted enough new technology to know what works, what's missing, and most importantly, that the Web holds tremendous untapped potential. Organizers understand that online organizing tools can dramatically increase their capacity, and are demanding the know-how and tools to progress along that path.

Concurrently, trends in Web-based software development have created an ideal climate for collaboration and innovation. Open-source development models make software code available for others to view, amend, adapt, and implement with minimal licensing fees. Open application programming interfaces (APIs) enable separate applications to work with each other, and on-demand software, such as Salesforce.com or Democracy in Action, enables users to access tools that are hosted and maintained online. On-demand access is lessening the need for in-house technical staff and making a wider array of tools accessible and affordable for organizers.

A promising convergence is now on the horizon, as organizers embrace online technology and those technologies gain the diversity and flexibility needed to support this sector.