NPowerPutting technology know-how in the hands of nonprofits

Funded by:  The Carnegie Corporation, the Cisco Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Surdna Foundation

In partnership with:  N-TEN

Project Details

NPower, in partnership with N-TEN, is spearheading a three-year evaluation to measure and understand technology's impact on nonprofit mission achievement and to identify which types of assistance and services best help nonprofits use technology to achieve maximum community impact. 

 

News

TechImpact Provider Survey Results Are In!

In late 2006 we surveyed technology service providers across the country as a first step in our research to better understand how technology assistance impacts nonprofit organizations.  

We wanted to understand:  

• Who is providing technology assistance to nonprofit organizations? Who do they serve?
• What services do providers offer? What approaches do they use to deliver technology assistance?
• Where are technology providers located?
• When do providers employ evaluation strategies to understand the effect of their work?
• How do providers implement strategies to foster key outcomes for organizations, and how do they successfully achieve those outcomes (e.g., improved efficiency and effectiveness)?
• How do providers measure the success of their projects?

We surveyed 540 individuals representing a range of individuals, technology firms and organizations, and management support organizations, and received 149 complete responses.   

What Did We Learn?

To view our results, click here: http://nten.org/research/techimpact/provider_results.  This link will take you to summary results and a link to the full, downloadable report from our evaluation team at TCC.  It also will show you how to join our TechImpact Affinity Group to further discuss evaluation issues.  Through the TechImpact website and Affinity Group, there are opportunities to comment on survey findings and the project.  We encourage you to look around and share your thoughts.

Background

In the field of nonprofit technology assistance, there are significant qualitative measurements of the impact of technology assistance on nonprofits as well as on the people served by nonprofits. However, there are few if any measurements or studies that quantitatively illustrate the impact of technology assistance. This project will research, in both qualitative and quantitative ways, how various types of technology assistance impact a nonprofits' achievement of their missions.

This study is made possible by the combined funding efforts of the Carnegie Corporation, the Cisco Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation and is designed to benefit all stakeholders in the nonprofit technology assistance sector.  In order to foster sector-wide participation in this evaluation, the project will be led by a steering committee representing the following interests: nonprofit technology assistance providers (NTAPs), nonprofit organizations, foundations and academia. Additionally, an advisory group will be convened to provide their insight and thought leadership, as well as to advocate for and promote this work.

The evaluation investigates at two levels - micro and macro.  At the micro level, designated nonprofit technology assistance providers will engage in services for twelve nonprofits, followed by periodic evaluations over the ensuing two years to monitor the impact over time of the technology services.  On a broader level, other technology assistance providers will monitor their own work using a set of consistent metrics and report that data back to the evaluators to inform a wider picture of the impact of technology assistance for nonprofits.

This ground-breaking evaluation aims to benefit all stakeholders in the nonprofit technology assistance sector by providing them with:

• Analysis of the best practices among nonprofit technology assistance providers
• Recommendations for the nonprofit technology assistance sector on models of assistance that yield the greatest return on investment
• Common metrics to measure the success of nonprofit technology projects
• Case studies of specific nonprofit assistance projects 
• Benchmarks advised for nonprofits to meet to ensure maximum benefit from future technology assistance.

Downloads

The following resources provide additional background for this evaluation.  They are only a small selection of the many resources available on this subject, and do not represent any particular endorsement by NPower or N-TEN.

Draft Research Evaluation Design
Prepared by William Vesneski, The Evaluate Group
Report by Blueprint Research and Design on NTAP Outcomes 
Prepared by Amy Luckey, Blueprint Research and Design, Inc.
Evaluation Report to the IT Resource Center
Prepared by TCC Group

TechImpact Project Year One

Prepared by TCC Group (an executive summary is coming soon)