You may remember us talking about the information technology staffing survey we conducted a few months ago. The results are in with some interesting findings.

• On average nonprofits have one staff member with some IT responsibility for every five organizational staff members.
• A digital divide exists between large and small nonprofits in technology spending and investment. A whopping 20 percent of the small nonprofits surveyed said they had no IT budget at all.
• Most nonprofits feel understaffed when it comes to IT.

We surveyed more than 1,000 people from nonprofits across the country and asked them about information technology at their organization - specifically about staffing, salaries, and investments.

Our results are both

This week we have two great webinars scheduled that will help you better utilize technology in your nonprofit. Do you write or send out your organization's e-newsletter? Are you involved in writing technology budgets or selecting software? Then you can't miss these webinars.

>> Choosing an e-Newsletter Tool
Wednesday, November 1, 11:00 am PST

This training will walk you through how to setup, send, and track e-newsletters. It will also discuss several reliable AND affordable tools that can help you better manage your mass emailing. Laura Quinn from Idealware will present the

No matter if you work in communications, finance, or just help select the software your nonprofit uses, we have a webinar this week that will help you hone your skills.

Have you noticed that your email newsletter open rates have taken a nose drive lately? Then attend Why Open Rates are Dropping & What It Means for You tomorrow at 11:00 am Pacific. You'll learn why this is happening and how you can better evaluate the success of the emails your nonprofits sends out.

Is it up to you to select which donor database your organization uses? Then come to

Want hard numbers that show what technology investment does for nonprofits? Want to compare your IT staff to teams at other organizations? Take this survey and help us find out how much nonprofits should spend on IT and what the pay off is. We'll release our findings on November 15.

Take the survey.

Ben Scott, Free Press

The internet. Not since the printing press has social life been changed so profoundly by an information technology. Few of us understand exactly how it works, but we all know we have to have it. Our homes have to have it. Our schools have to have it. Our businesses have to have it. Every elected official from the dog-catcher to the President is touting the benefits of universal access to high-speed internet service. Never mind that the dot.com bubble burst in 2001, everyone seems to accept with an eerie unanimity (in these

T.J. Rogers, NO/AIDS Task Force

I live and work in New Orleans and therefore my experience with municipal wireless has been rather unique. When I returned home after Hurricane Katrina, anywhere with wireless access became my office. I spent many days at a table littered with coffee cups, trying to get work done. I was hardly alone. Every patron in that coffee shop had turned it into a temporary office. Wireless access was everyone's lifeline to keep their business or organization going.

In the months following Katrina, New Orleans

Paul Lamb, Man on a Mission Consulting

The rush to establish municipal and community wireless or Wi-Fi networks continues unabated. According to a recent report from Muniwireless.com, more than 300 cities and counties in the United States have networks or a serious interest in implementing them. These public Wi-Fi networks offer many benefits, including reliable communication channels for law enforcement and emergency response units and low-cost or free broadband internet access to the

The Australian Government's Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has published an e-Strategy Guide for Nonprofits. While some of the information is specific to Australia, there is a lot of generally useful information and it has some simple, clearly written tutorials.