Survey of Technology Use in the Voluntary Sector
One-half of Canadian non-profit organizations surveyed by Leverus have
been online for five years or longer, but that same amount of respondents
tell the company they allot less than 1% of their budgets to Internet-related
expenses.
Leverus reports that 56% of non-profit
organizations in Canada have had a Web site for five years or longer.
Leverus’ study determined that nearly 60% of non-profit Web sites
feature event calendars. Just 21%, however, have e-commerce functionality
and just 10% present customized products.
Leverus surveyed 2,000 non-profit organizations in 2002 and collected
benchmarks among 100 organization Web sites. The company also reviewed
reports on technology usage and IT trends in the US and Canada. Leverus
found that a mere 5% of survey respondents allot over 10% of their budgets
to Internet-related costs. Exactly one-half of non-profits in Canada
earmark less than 1% of their budgets to Net projects.
In the US, Consumer WebWatch reported in 2002 that 46% of Internet
users trust online charities and non-profits most of the time. Canadian
non-profits, US non-profits -- any such organization from around the
world -- could do well to leverage the perception held by the online
public for these types of organizations
