2018 Global NGO Technology Report Released

The Public Interest Registry (PIR.org) and Nonprofit Tech for Good have released the results of their annual survey, the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report. The report details “how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide use web, email and mobile technology, online fundraising tools and social media, as well as manage data and security.”

There were 5,352 survey respondents from 164 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Europe, North America and South America.

Key findings globally:

92 percent of respondents have a website. Of those, 87 percent are mobile-compatible, a 9 percent increase from 2017
68 percent of survey respondents noted that their organization uses the .org domain, compared to 8 percent that use the .com domain
Email dominates as the preferred form of communication to donors, with 63 percent of respondents regularly sending email updates, but 18 percent use messaging apps and 15 percent regularly send text messages to supporters
72 percent of respondents accept online donations, an increase of 5 percent from 2017
While 95 percent agree that social media is effective for online brand awareness, only 32 percent of NGOs worldwide have a written social media strategy
Facebook leads global use as the highest social media platform with 93 percent of respondents having a dedicated page, followed by Twitter (77 percent) and YouTube (57 percent)
25 percent of NGOs post daily to their Facebook page and 24 percent Tweet two-to-five times daily, yet 68 percent of NGOs post to LinkedIn less than once per week
80 percent of NGOs worldwide rely on Microsoft Windows operating system for desktop/laptop computers; on smartphones/tablets global Google Android use outweighs Apple iOS
NGO respondents indicated using Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software to manage communications with donors (45 percent), and of those, 64 percent use cloud-based CRM
Only 41 percent of global respondents use encryption technology to protect data and communications

Key findings from North America:

98 percent of NGOs in North America have a website. Of those, 88 percent are mobile compatible
86 percent of respondents accept online donations
Only 10 percent of NGOs use messaging apps to communicate with donors. Of those, Facebook Messenger is the platform of choice (68 percent), followed by WhatsApp (32 percent) and Snapchat (10 percent)
97 percent of NGOs use Facebook, 85 percent use Twitter, 63 percent use LinkedIn and 61 percent use Instagram
Of NGO respondents in North America, 49 percent indicated using Apple iOS on smartphone/tablets, which is the highest reported percentage of use among all regions

Average Number of Subscribers and Followers

How many subscribers should a NGO have? Well, if you’re an NGO in Asia, then you most likely have more Facebook followers than any other region in the world. The average number of Facebook followers of an NGO in Asia is 33,824, compared to the average number of Facebook followers in North America: 26,766. Asia is also a leader in SMS subscribers and Whatsapp followers.

According the survey report, “survey respondents were asked to enter the number of subscribers and followers that they have for their email and text messaging campaigns and on social and mobile media. Their answers, averaged by continent, enable NGOs to gauge whether they are above or below average compared to other NGOs located in their region of the world.”