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NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, has announced that its 2010 Nonprofit IT Staffing Survey is now open for submissions. Now in its fifth year, the survey collects benchmarking information in areas including how IT is structured and situated within organizations, staffing and responsibilities, budgets, training, salaries, and retention.

I had the opportunity to ask Holly Ross, NTEN’s Executive Director, a few questions about this year’s survey. With information technology evolving so rapidly, I was particularly interested in any changes to the survey in response to changes in the technology landscape. Holly responded: ”The most significant change is in the area of outsourcing. Instead of simply asking if you manage a function in-house or through outsourcing, we also give you the option to choose the cloud. I hope this will allow us to understand how nonprofits are using the cloud in a more meaningful way.”

What about social media? “Obviously, the NTEN crowd loves to talk about social media, but it’s only a small piece of the overall technology puzzle”, says Holly. (This author couldn’t agree more!) ”We’re definitely interested in how folks are staffing social media, and how much time they spend on it versus other technology initiatives. That said, it won’t be a primary focus of this report. We have a Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report that we publish annually for folks that are more interested in that.”

“A great tool to take to management when making the case for IT investments.” The results of the survey are made available at no charge to the entire nonprofit committee. As a consultant to nonprofit organizations, many of whom grapple with the role and management of technology, I have found the results very useful. In particular, last year’s results — reflecting input from over 1,000 respondents — provided me with insight into the factors that organizations consider most important when hiring IT staff, as detailed in my post A Look at Nonprofit IT Staffing. Holly points out that the survey is “a great tool to take to management when making the case for IT investments. Of course, every organization has to make decisions like that in the right context, but it can be helpful to know what others can doing.”

As Holly says, “the report only works when we have good data from across the sector, so please take the survey!” Need added incentive, participants in this year’s survey can also choose to enter to win a $250 Amazon gift card.

So what are you waiting for? Help yourself, help your organization, and help the sector — take the survey now!

Photo credit: Alan_D