Cloud Technology and the NGO Community

By: techsoup
Fri, 14/09/2012 - 17:14

In 2012, BiGTech Donations Program, in partnership with TechSoup Global, conducted a survey of non-profits, charities, NGOs and social benefit organizations around the world to better understand the current state of their technology infrastructure, plus their future plans for adopting cloud technologies. With more than 10,500 respondents in 88 countries, we’re pleased to add this data to our ever-evolving resources for NGOs, foundations, and those who support them.

What Did We Find?

NGOs are using the Cloud. 90% of respondents worldwide indicated using some type of cloud technology, from “light” services like email and social networking to “heavy” services like databases and web conferencing.

There are barriers. Our survey found that lack of knowledge is the biggest barrier to additional cloud adoption, cited by 86% of the global respondents. Lack of knowledge was consistently cited as a barrier across geographies and organization sizes.

We also found that

• 79% of NGOs said the biggest advantage in adopting cloud technologies is administration-related, followed by cost and improved opportunities for collaboration opportunities.

• 53% of NGOs report they plan to move a significant portion of their infrastructure to cloud-based systems and services over the next few years.

How does your NGO compare? In the report, we broke down what cloud applications NGOs are currently using and plan to use in the future, on a global and regional level. If you’re wondering if your fellow organizations are using cloud-based tools like office and accounting programs, and collaboration software, our report has the answers.

And more! Find out about our key findings. Learn about the current state of cloud computing at NGOs around the world, what these organizations see as the challenges and advantages of cloud technology, and how your own organization’s technology stacks up.

Read the Report

Why We Conducted the Survey

We had three objectives in mind when we conducted this survey:

• Gauge how NGOs are responding to cloud computing in terms of current usage

• Measure what NGOs perceive as the barriers to, and advantages of, cloud computing

• Better understand these organizations’ plans for adopting cloud technologies

In short, our hope is that understanding NGOs’ perspective on the cloud will not only provide insights for NGOs but will also help BiGTech Donations Program, TechSoup Global, and others better support the NGOs in making informed decisions about whether cloud solutions are right for them.