It’s common to hear examples of how technology has helped nonprofits achieve their missions. However there are few studies that demonstrate this impact in a measurable way. NTEN and NPower have teamed up to change this and to find out just how technology impacts nonprofit organizations and their causes.

The TechImpact Project is a three-year evaluation that through qualitative and quantitative analyses aims to get to the bottom of howtechnology affects nonprofits’ efficiency and ability to achieve their goals and missions. Additionally it will investigate which models of technology assistance yield the highest return on invest, and after evaluating the research, will develop a set of benchmarks nonprofits will be able use to maximize their benefit from technology.

Our specific goals are

• To analyze and better understand best practices for the sector
• To assess the impact of technology assistance on mission achievement
• To assess the impact of technology assistance on organizational efficiency
• To create a set of indicators to better understand the baseline capacity needed in a nonprofit organization to achieve maximum impact of technology assistance
• To build the evaluation capacity of the sector

Through this groundbreaking evaluation we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the role technology plays in helping nonprofits achieve their missions and improve their overall effectiveness. We will publish our findings on this website as they become available.

The TechImpact project is led by NTEN and NPower and assisted by its Steering Committee and Advisory Group, both of which are composed of people from various sectors in the nonprofit technology field. The independent consulting group TCC designed the evaluation process. This project was made possible with support from the Carnegie Corporation, the Cisco Foundation, the Mott Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

Other Resources

Some research has already been done on this topic. Below are two excellent papers on the impact technology has on nonprofits.

An Evaluation Report to the IT Resource Center (PDF)
TCC Group
August 25, 2004

From Improving IT Infrastructures to Achieving Social Good: Outcomes of Nonprofit Technology Assistance Providers (NTAPs) (PDF)
Blueprint Research & Design, Inc.
October 2003