African Charities Most Likely to Optimize Sites for Mobile Devices, Survey Finds

Title: 2017 Global NGO Online Technology Report

Organization: Nonprofit Tech for Good and Public Interest Registry

Summary: Nonprofits in Africa are less likely than their peers on other continents to have websites. But those websites that do exist are more likely to be optimized for use on mobile devices, according to a new study of regional differences in technology by nonprofits around the world.

“Mobile is huge in the Global South,” said Brian Cute, chief executive of Public Interest Registry.

Nearly 5,000 nonprofits from six continents took the survey, the second annual. Just more than a third of participating nonprofits are based in the United States; nearly a fifth are from India. Leaders at Public Interest Registry and Nonprofit Tech for Good hope that the annual survey will provide baseline data useful to nonprofits hoping to measure their technology use against that of other organizations.

Among the findings:

• 67 percent of all respondents accept online donations. Accepted payment methods include credit cards (78 percent), PayPal (50 percent), debit cards (42 percent), and digital wallets (6 percent).
• Among respondents, 39 percent of African nonprofits regularly send text messages to donors and supporters. That’s compared with 31 percent of nonprofits in Asia, 8 percent in Europe, 6 percent in Oceania and Australia, 4 percent in South America, and 3 percent in North America.
• 52 percent of all respondents have used social media to report live.
• 34 percent have paid for advertising on social media. Nearly half of nonprofits in the survey from Australia and Oceana have done so. That’s compared with 43 percent from Europe, 28 percent from Africa, 20 percent from Asia, 40 percent from North America, and 37 percent from South America.
• 66 percent of all respondents said executive staff support prioritizing social-media use.