November 15, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Grant makers continue to lag behind other groups in adopting and using information technology, according to a recent survey.
The Technology Affinity Group and the Council on Foundations co-sponsored the survey, which gathered results from 334 foundations. It was the third such survey since 2003.
Since that first survey, the percentage of grant-making groups that call themselves “early adopters” of technology dropped from 27 percent to 5 percent. The number who describe themselves as “lagging behind” rose from 22 percent to 57 percent.
The most common technology concern, which half of all respondents cited, was figuring out how to integrate online-application systems with software that currently helps manage grants.
Lisa Dill Pool, part-time executive director of the Technology Affinity Group, says the results did not surprise her.
Foundations “want to spend their money on grant making, not on administrative expenses. And they view technology as an expense, not as an investment,” she explains.
To persuade grant makers to use more information technology, Ms. Pool says, advocates must first convince them “that they can do more with the resources they have if they’re more efficient. And they might have better data to inform grant-making decisions.”
