Many organizations simply don’t have the money to invest in online tools, period. Yet, these organizations still need technology support. As a sector, we need to create funding and service strategies that deliver technology to underresourced and volunteer-run organizations.

Conclusions

• 35% of survey respondents report allocating less than $500 for software and online tools each year, and a vast majority allocate between $500 and $5,000 annually. Because many nonprofits operate on relatively fixed budgets, this reality is not likely to change. As a group, their contributions to the social change sector are incalculable, and their struggles with adequate funding should not limit their access to reliable technology solutions.
• Moreover, volunteer-run groups, who do not posses nonprofit tax status, are some of the most influential and potentially effective contributors to progressive social change. These groups are often not formally organized, and they don’t possess a solid, centralized infrastructure. Yet, they arguably play a key role in cultivating a broad-based movement for progressive social change. They are organizing with their neighbors, in their communities, and they require support as much as foundation-sponsored organizations.
• Because technology providers that commit to offering low-cost services tend to work on slim profit margins, they do not have the extra people-power to fully service all of the underresourced groups in the sector. For example, low-cost technology vendors are the least able to issue free support contracts, even if they’d like to.

Recommendations

For years, many foundations and capacity building organizations have tried to address a shared question: “How can we provide adequate technology support to those groups with the greatest need?” The authors of this report do not claim to have the answers to this very complex problem. Offering specific recommendations for this particular set of conclusions does not seem appropriate.

Rather, we hope to forefront that this issue still warrants considerable attention, and highlight the kind of support organizers are asking for (see Findings Analysis).

While there are some great technology support services out there for nonprofits, many groups still experience a lack of adequate access, especially those groups outside the professionalized nonprofit sector. As one organizer puts it, “We used to talk about the digital divide. Now we talk about the organizational divide between groups with different levels of resources.”

As a sector, we need to develop new and innovative ways of approaching this ongoing issue. This may include strategizing about creative financial possibilities, multi-agency partnerships, and incentives that encourage providers to allocate resources toward this population.

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