In April 2012 NTEN worked with Idealware to conduct a survey of nonprofits about their relationships with data, and what we found was a large dichotomy—either they were doing a lot with their metrics or not much at all.

In addition, we learned that internal factors--such as staff capacity, expertise, and budget--as well as external demands and stakeholders—including funders; local, state and federal governments; donors; clients; and community groups—also hinder an organization’s ability to make strategic use of data they have collected.

Download the complete report with more statistics and valuable insights and lessons gleaned from a survey of US nonprofits and focus groups with nonprofit staff, foundation staff, and nonprofit consultants:

> Download the complete report, "The State of the Nonprofit Data," here!

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) conducts an annual Community Survey to find out more about the individuals and organizations in the NTEN community: we want to find out how these individuals and organizations use technology in their work, gauge the impact of NTEN programs and services on their professional development and their organization’s missions, and track trends in the nonprofit technology community over time.

> Download the 2012 NTEN Community Survey Report

Flickr: marcp_dmoz

Technology aside, it’s clear that the advent of Cloud-based solutions has had an impact on the culture of our work as nonprofits. It’s changed the jobs we do, both within the IT department and in more mission-related positions, and how we’re able to do them. From collaboration to telecommuting and distributed workforces to sharing back office services, it’s changed the way we think about mobility and how we define “the office.”

The idea of Cloud culture is somewhat nebulous. Where do you draw the line between the technology or the benefits it can bring, and cultural changes as a result of that technology?

We asked a number of people—everyone from end users at nonprofits that have implemented Cloud-based solutions to IT people to shared back office service providers to consultants—and got a number of answers.

Most nonprofits have at least one thing in common, regardless of their missions: they need to provide a secure, reliable technology infrastructure that allows staff to carry out the day-to-day work. But budget and staff constraints often make it a challenge for organizations to find and provide optimal solutions to technology needs—especially smaller ones. 

Regardless of mission, nonprofits often have basic technology needs that overlap, including office productivity software, email platforms, accounting and payroll, data backup, and donor or fundraising databases. If parts of that infrastructure could be consolidated, could they streamline their efficiency and shore up infrastructure while freeing up resources for mission-related activities and staff?

We talked to a few organizations doing just that to see just what functions they’re sharing, and how it works. We identified three possible models for sharing back-office functions, explained in further detail below. You can read the case studies for four of the organizations we talked with in the case studies section of our site.

The results of the 2011 NTEN survey of the NTEN and The NonProfit Times communities regarding technology staffing, budgets, and practices are now available in this report.

> Download the Report for Free

CTOs for Good is a small group of chief technology officers (CTOs) at innovative nonprofits focused on scale and engagement.

In 2011, NTEN, with support from the Knight Foundation, convened the CTOs for Good forum and conducted follow-up interviews with the participants in order to document and share the group’s experiences and challenges.

The group addressed a number of issues over the course of the year, many of which are reflected in this white paper.

> Download the White Paper (PDF)

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) conducts an annual Community Survey to find out more about the individuals and organizations in the NTEN community: we want to find out how these individuals and organizations use technology in their work, gauge the impact of NTEN programs and services on their professional development and their organization’s missions, and track trends in the nonprofit technology community over time.

> Download the 2011 NTEN Community Survey Report

For many nonprofit organizations, as with the wider public and private business sectors, the last couple of years have been impacted by a general economic downturn. Did we see evidence of this in our annual Nonprofit IT Staffing & Spending survey conducted at the end of 2010? Well, yes and no.

Compared to previous years (this is our 5th year of conducting the survey), certain areas of investment did seem to drop. However, for the most part, investments in IT staffing and other areas stayed remarkably steady, and we even saw some year-over-year growth in some areas.

> Download the Report for Free

In the spring of 2010, NTEN contracted with Intentiō Consulting to develop a strategic plan. The primary component of the plan is the organization’s theory of change that provides a framework for NTEN to use in developing a strategically focused programmatic and operational plan for 2011-2014. The strategic plan is freely available to the NTEN community.

> Download the NTEN 2011-2014 Strategic Plan

There were four main elements of the strategic planning process:

1. Participation at the 2010 NTC
2. Stakeholder Input Collection 
3. Board and Staff strategic planning retreat in Portland, Oregon
4. Regular calls with the Strategic Planning Committee

This plan covers 2011-2014 and will be treated as a living document: it will be reviewed and revised as circumstances and context require. In particular, this plan is being developed during a time of great economic uncertainty for nonprofit organizations. NTEN will develop the corresponding implementation and operational plan in light of both its financial state and the broader economic state of the nonprofit sector.

> Download the NTEN 2011-2014 Strategic Plan 

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) conducts an annual Community Survey to find out more about the individuals and organizations in the NTEN community: we want to find out how these individuals and organizations use technology in their work, gauge the impact of NTEN programs and services on their professional development and their organization’s missions, and track trends in the nonprofit technology community over time.

> Download the 2010 NTEN Community Survey Report

The NTEN Community is made up of both dues-paying members (referred to as Members in this report) and program participants (Non-members), with just over 8000 individuals represented in membership and a total of more than 25,000 members and non-members engaging with NTEN programming and resources at the time the survey was conducted.

We received responses from 1,021 individuals in the spring of 2010. A majority of respondents were NTEN members (72% answered that they were members, 23% said they were not members, and 5% did not know whether they were members).