Introduction
By conducting surveys and interviews over a nine-month period, the dotOrganize team has charted the state of online technology in the social change sector.
This report compiles insights from more than 400 social change groups, technology providers, and nonprofit technology capacity builders, examining the needs of organizers working to utilize new technologies, and offering recommendations for how to meet those needs more effectively.
While organizers have begun to harness some of the Web’s amazing power over the past five years, our research shows that they are still struggling in their effort to make use of new and emerging technologies.
They’re excited about the possibilities, but are unable to take advantage of them. Regardless of size and financial situation, they feel strapped for time, money, and know-how. They feel that their software lacks the features they need, that they lack the training and support to use the software, and they’re frustrated by the lack of integration between tools.
As a sector, we can make this situation better.
This report investigates ways to respond to these obstacles with enduring, community-driven solutions.
Ultimately, the dotOrganize project targets the technology needs of social change organizers working in grassroots groups, larger nonprofits, or as individual change agents. dotOrganize aims to assist these organizers in identifying and utilizing online tools as vehicles for their vision. The project also endeavors to support technology vendors, technology consultants, and funders in their efforts to serve organizers.
This report compiles insights from more than 400 social change groups, technology providers, and nonprofit technology capacity builders, examining the needs of organizers working to utilize new technologies, and offering recommendations for how to meet those needs more effectively.
September 26th, 2006 at 2:26 pm PST
Leda, it looks great! Nice work.
September 26th, 2006 at 4:04 pm PST
it’s like christmas!
October 4th, 2006 at 4:03 am PST
Awesome — can’t wait to take a look! This should prove to be really helpful research.
October 19th, 2006 at 10:34 pm PST
A tremendously important and highly readable report. Well done. That which you flag recommendations are valid outside of North America as well - as I point out here - http://tinyurl.com/ycynde
November 13th, 2006 at 1:17 pm PST
This is an outstanding and timely report. A must read for anyone involved in nonprofit and cause-related work. I am going to post a recommendation and link to the report on my blog (501cweb.wordpress.com), and recommending it to my grad students in nonprofit management. Thanks for the tremendous contribution.
November 15th, 2006 at 12:17 pm PST
Thank you all for the great feedback!
November 17th, 2006 at 1:48 pm PST
Hi
I\’m one of those \’strugglers!
hwoever - am pulling myself out of the stone age thanks to a project that is all about using info tech in community health!!!!
very happy to have this website as a tool to help me do so!
ok… my first assignments to myself for this afternoon are
1 - organize myself with instant messaging
2 - start a blog on this topic (info tech in health promotion)
3 - read your website!!!
best
Dot
November 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pm PST
Hey Leda,
I just got directed to this report and your site. Awesome! Thanks for this report! After a couple of years off tech work I’m back in the swing…hope things are going well.
-Max
December 19th, 2006 at 7:00 pm PST
Great report, love the tool-crib, and can’t wait for the AppsMash-Lab to start flourishing.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:48 pm PST
This is high-quality and uncompromised stuff, and it’s great to see it . Good luck, keep it coming… Roger