The nonprofit organization, National Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN) has launched a public data dashboard for Tech Accelerate, a free assessment tool to evaluate your organization’s technology adoption, practices, and policies. The tool has been designed to help nonprofit staff with decisions, planning, and investments.

NTEN provides resources and support for organizations that use technology to further their missions. It offers training, research, and networking opportunities for its members, as well as a range of other services. The organization conducted sector-wide research for more than a decade into how nonprofits invested in technology — from staffing levels to technology budgets — and surfaced the key indicators of practices and policies correlated with effective organizations.

Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN, commented “Starting in 2012, we piloted and expanded various self-assessment models of the survey questions and benchmarking tools, identifying what was of most use to nonprofit staff. In 2018, NTEN launched Tech Accelerate as an online assessment tool with custom reports and benchmarking.”

The comprehensive assessment done using Tech Accelerate can be completed in collaboration with colleagues or on your own. Users report spending less than an hour on their assessment and often complete it before or during other planning and budgeting processes. Once an assessment is complete, you have the option to further explore your results beyond your custom report by using the benchmarking filters.

Aparna Kothary, Director of Technology Operations, NTEN was quoted saying, “Assessing the state of your organization’s technology program can often feel challenging because you don’t have a sense of industry benchmarks or best practices. Tech Accelerate gives you a powerful tool that you can use as you evaluate and optimize how your organization utilizes technology. It gives you solid and unbiased information that can serve as a foundation for future decision-making.”