NGO Hooked on Tecnology
How NGOs use online technology and social media
By Networks Asia staff | Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - 23:27
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world are becoming more empowered to use the internet to inspire philanthropy and create social change, according to the "2017 Global NGO Online Technology Report" which uncovers how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide use web, email and mobile communications, online fundraising tools, and social media.
The report details the key findings from a survey of 4,908 NGO respondents from 153 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Europe, North America and South America.
Compared to the 2016 survey, the report nearly doubled in the number of participants. Findings in the report include regional comparisons of how NGOs use the internet to build awareness and raise funds, as well as whether NGOs find specific online and mobile communication tools to be effective for their communications and fundraising strategies.
Globally, 92% of respondents have a website. Of those, 78% are mobile-compatible. Compared to the global average, fewer respondents in Asia have a website (84%.
Only 38% worldwide (35% in Asia) regularly publish a blog. More than 68% of survey respondents noted that their organisation uses the .org domain, compared to 9.2% that use the .com domain.
Email dominates as the preferred form of communication to donors, with 71 percent of respondents regularly sending email updates, whereas 15 percent regularly send text messages to supporters. Compared to the global average, more respondents in Asia regularly send mobile text messages (31 percent).
Sixty-sevent percent of respondents globally accept online donations while only 47 percent of respondents in Asia accept online donations.
While 95 percent of global respondents agree that social media is effective for online brand awareness, only 66 percent of respondents say that executive leadership supports prioritizing social media in their online communications and fundraising strategy.
Facebook leads as the preferred social media platform with 92 percent of respondents having a dedicated page, followed by Twitter (72 percent) and YouTube (55 percent).
In Asia, 86% of respondents in Asia have a Facebook page and 53% have a Twitter profile. Fifty-one percent of respondents in Asia have used social media to report live.
"The NGO Online Tech Report is groundbreaking in that it is the only annual research project dedicated to studying how NGOs use online technology on a global scale and reveals the technological gaps across regions," said Heather Mansfield, founder of Nonprofit Tech for Good. "As internet infrastructure continues to improve worldwide, we expect that future results of this survey will demonstrate that NGOs around the world are becoming more equally empowered to use the internet to inspire philanthropy and create social change.”
"We understand the global NGO community uses the internet to advance their causes, however the status of a region's internet infrastructure may impact their ability to communicate and spread their mission worldwide," said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry. "The report allows us to see the challenges, pain points and ultimately opportunities to support organisations online and give them a foundation to stay connected.”