NTEN has been conducting an annual survey about technology (formerly known as "IT") staffing levels and salaries, as well as budget and planning practices of nonprofits, since 2006. We are happy to announce that the 2011 survey is underway – and that it is new and improved!

A while back, with the generous support of the Knight Foundation, a group of Nonprofit CTOs gathered in Miami to discuss the day-to-day challenges of nonprofit technology, share their success stories, and brainstorm solutions. We'll be posting highlights from this meeting of the minds on the NTEN blog. In today's installment, we tackle the CTOs' top five staffing tips.

[Editor's note: The following first appeared in the March 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete issue of NTEN's new quarterly journal for nonprofit leaders by subscribing to the journal for free!]

By Grant Howe, VP Research and Development, Sage Nonprofit Solutions

Want to create a more rewarding environment to retain and grow your techies? Reap some quick improvement with these easy four tips!

1. Say “Thank you”—often and for little things.

In technology roles, often the only feedback we get is negative and when something has gone horribly wrong. Thank people for jobs well done that no one notices but that are important and impactful.

Flicker photo: AsurrocaFor those of us who have to wear a Human Resources hat along with several others, hiring well is hard -- especially when you're hiring for technology positions and you don't have a tech background. Fortunately, Katrin found the amazing James and Cassie at CommonGood Careers. They wrote the IT staffing chapter in Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission, and they did a fabulous job.

One of the most interesting things I learned from James is that a bad hire is really expensive -- like two times the salary expensive. You want to make sure that you're doing it right the first time.

Luckily, James will be walking us through some of his secrets at the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference next month. If you just can't wait, here's an early listen of some of his wisdom:

I'm an Executive Director now, so I have a new-found (and acute) understanding of just how complex that role is.

At a small organization like NTEN, a leader has to be ready to do just about everything, from fundraising to janitorial services. I'd been at NTEN for five years before I took the ED job, so I was lucky enough to know what I was doing -- mostly. But there are giant swaths of the job description I've had to learn from scratch.

Fortunately, the technology part wasn't one of them, but I can relate to the nonprofit leaders out there facing crucial decisions about technology everyday, and who have little idea how all this stuff works.

That's why we're so excited about our book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders. The book was written by NTEN members for nonprofit leaders struggling to find technology sea-legs.

The book will come out in March 2009. You can pre-order your copy on Amazon or purchase a copy from us for only $30 with your NTC registration, starting next week. We'll drop it in the mail to you when it's released.

Flickr Photo: eszterHow much should you offer a new Help Desk Support Specialist? How many IT staff do organizations your size have, anyway? What are other nonprofits outsourcing when it comes to IT?

NTEN and The Nonprofit Times are making it easy for you to fill the gap between expensive benchmarking services costing thousands of dollars and going it alone. We’re surveying thousands of staff at nonprofits big and small to find out what it takes to make technology work for them and what qualified staff they need. In turn, we'll give you the hard numbers you need to invest in technology.

> Take the Online Survey (it's anonymous!)

If you make technology decisions for your nonprofit, please take this survey. Then pass it on to a colleague! This survey will find out:

Winning Workplaces, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help small and medium organizations "create great workplaces," is presenting a conference next month -- and NTEN members are invited.

Technology staffing -- along with IT staffing investment benchmarks and strategies for the nonprofit sector -- is one of NTEN's core issues. Our origninal research on the subject is probably what caught the attention of Winning Workplaces: the conference will address issues of employment retention, strategy, and investments unique to smaller organizations.

Because you're a member of NTEN, you're not only invited to attend the October 14th conference in Chicago, you'll also get a $100 discount on registration:

Are you paid what you're worth?

It's an interesting question. I think most of us in the nonprofit sector -- especially on the tech side of things -- know that it wouldn't be too hard to walk out the door and find a higher paying job. But does that mean you aren't being paid what you're worth?

Last week, we had an interesting exchange on the NTEN Discuss list about this and other salary related questions. It  began with a simple ask (paraphrasing here): "My boss wants to pay a network admin $40k a year. That's not reasonable, is it?" This led to a discussion about what tech staff make in nonprofits vs. for profits.

The answer is, as far as I can surmise, about 25-30% less.

Flickr Photo: c2k2eHow much does a nonprofit webmaster make every year? Are nonprofits actually paying to train their IT staff? And is anyone out there actually planning?

In order to shed some light on these questions, NTEN and the Nonprofit Times teamed up to create the Nonprofit IT Staffing Survey. We're pleased to release the second, and final, report from that survey, "Nonprofit IT Staffing: Budgets, Salaries, Training and Planning." This report will tell you what nonprofit IT professionals are earning, how much nonprofits are spending on IT, and how they are supporting IT through training, planning, and evaluation.

> Download the report for free!