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 Here

The new 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from NTEN and M+R was just released today! The new report might look slim and slick, but this scrappy guide is thick with valuable insights and key industry benchmarks for online messaging, fundraising and advocacy, based on a full year's worth of results from 31 of your nonprofit peers.

> Download the Full Report (It's Free!)

Report season is in full effect here at NTEN. We've recently released the 2009 IT Staffing and Spending Report and the 2010 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report (in conjunction with Common Knowledge & thePort). Next up: the 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study we're releasing with M+R Strategic Services.

One of the many things I like about my job is that I get to read these reports before everybody else; it makes me feel extra knowledgeable for about, oh, a week.

So, I can tell you that the 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study has so much great information in it, you should definitely attend the online launch we're hosting on April 29th. It will be your first chance to get the data yourself and ask the report writers your questions.

You should register for the online launch here.

Flicker photo: mattedgarIf I could sum up the last 10 years of my life in nonprofit technology in one sentence, I'd say that up to this point, technology has been about helping us better record and manage information.

Nonprofits have caught on to this. We're learning the power of information and are quickly developing the skills at adopting the tools to do it right. There's no better example than world of online communications: you're all tracking things like site visits, bounce rates, open rates, and click-throughs.

That's good. That's step one.

But we're also entering a new phase in the world of nonprofit technology. We're all about to become data analysts, turning those statistics into intelligence. We'll take raw numbers and turn them into fuel for decision-making.

Michael Cervino will talk about using your web stats to make better decisions at next week's Online Nonprofit Technology Conference. I got the chance to chat with him for a moment about what all this means:

We just released the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study with our fantastic friends at M+R Strategic Services. The report is chock full of amazing and interesting information you can use to make better decisions about your online campaigns.

To help folks get started, we hosted a release party. Get the recording to see how Children's Defense Fund and HRC use benchmarks to increase the performance of their online campaigns.

Or, for those of you who can't be bothered to open another link -- that's how I roll, so I feel you -- here are some highlights from this year's report:

Flickr Photo: MuffetAh, Spring: tulips, sun, clean, crisp air, and email metrics.

Today, we hosted and co-released the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study with M+R Strategic Services. During the live event and webinar, we learned a lot about how nonprofits are using email, and how stakeholders are responding. NTEN Members can get the recording of the webinar for free.

Convio also recently released a benchmarks report of its own clients. The reports don't cover exactly the same statistics, but it's interesting that the numbers they do have in common are very similar.

For all organizations in both reports, we found:

M+R Strategic Services and NTEN are excited to announce that we’re releasing an updated eNonprofit Benchmarks Study for 2008. We’ve analyzed online messaging, fundraising, and advocacy data from 21 leading nonprofit organizations.

Be one of the first to get your hands on a copy by joining us for the release of the report:

• In Washington DC: Thursday 4/24 from 3pm to 5pm Eastern
  
• Online at the NTEN webcast: Thursday 4/24 from 3pm to 5pm Eastern

Join us at the release event when we will:

• Cover key findings on fundraising and advocacy metrics
• Explore what the data tells us about industry-wide changes
• Provide key metrics to analyze your organization’s online program
• Hear from Amnesty International USA and Environmental Defense Fund on how they use data to measure success and fine tune their strategies.
• Take questions about the study and nonprofit online metrics