TechSoup Nonprofit Data and Digital Readiness Study

TechSoup and Logica® partner on reporting for data handling practices and digital readiness among nonprofits 

Like many industries and sectors around the world, nonprofit organizations were significantly impacted by COVID-19. One key impact might be something you didn’t expect: these organizations accelerated movement into cloud-based services and cybersecurity tools. Necessitated by pandemic-related restrictions, civil society groups began using cloud services more, but challenges remain from a digital adoption standpoint, according to a recent study by TechSoup Global Network. 

This particular study, which surveyed 11,758 Civil Society Organization technology decision makers in 135 countries and across 41 languages, was the largest project ever fielded by the organization to understand the data handling practices and digital readiness among nonprofits. The findings identified ways that organizations like TechSoup can help advance nonprofits’ digital transformation journeys and enhance sector impact. Logica Research supported the analysis and reporting on this important project. 

Some of the key findings, as reported in TechSoup’s project press release, included:

• Tech Budgets: IT budgets are typically low but expected to increase within the next 2 years. Most IT product and service decisions are made at the staff level, with a median purchase size of $375 requiring approvals. The number of employees working on an IT team is limited, and volunteers are frequently used. 
• Transition Ready?: A quarter of nonprofits have a defined strategy for achieving digital readiness. Top barriers to digital adoption, digital improvement and data management are cost and staff training and availability.
• Data Handling: Most organizations collect beneficiary, donor and finance data. Across data types, cloud-based data storage is now the most frequently used option.
• Killer App: Organizations rely upon spreadsheets in all aspects of data handling including, collecting, storing, and sharing data.
• Pandemic Pivot: The large negative impact of COVID-19 affected workstreams across the organization—prompting rethinking of how they work. Most program delivery, fundraising and marketing were negatively impacted, while internal communications improved. COVID-19 prompted digital adoption mostly in cloud-based apps, followed by hardware and desktop apps.
• Nonprofit Needs: The adoption of cloud-based services, cybersecurity tools and other digital resources could be accelerated by increased funding, access to IT consultants/staff to facilitate digital transformation, staff skills or training and increased awareness of digital tools available.

It is critical that we understand the opportunities and challenges that nonprofit organizations are facing around the world during these uncertain times, including their use of technology. The Logica® team was able to tap into our expertise in handling large datasets and telling visually-compelling stories. You can access a copy of the TechSoup Data Handling and Digital Readiness Global Study here.