Philanthropists must become more tech savvy to achieve greater social impact, says US report

Philanthropists must become more tech savvy to achieve greater social impact, says US report

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Philanthropy must literally ‘get with the programme’ on technology funding if  the potential for technology to increase social impact is to be fully realised.

That is the conclusion of a new US report “Amplifying Social Impact in a Connected Age,”  from ZeroDivide that works to build technology capacity in underserved communities.

The report looks at the gap between the demand for and supply of technology funding, particularly as it relates to the application of technology for programme impact. It summarises ZeroDivide’s conversations with 41 funders and 13 technology service providers, focusing on recommendations to strengthen the quality and quantity of technology-related grantmaking for social impact.

ZeroDivide’s CEO Tessie Guillermo writes in a guest post on Tactical Philanthropy’s blog:The demand for technology by non-profits as a tool for social change has been rising. However, the supply of technology funding has lagged significantly in comparison. Unfortunately, funders don’t know what they don’t know and have so far been unable to keep up with the fast pace with which their grantees are adopting new technologies.

The dramatic demonstration of technology’s role in recent global events (Haiti, Egypt, Japan) provides impetus for this demand growth. Everyone wants technology and believes they need it, but acquiring and using it effectively is a function of knowledge, affordability and the supply of funding for technology. The supply of technology funding on the other hand, is highly variable and quite limited.

The report shows while there is overwhelming interest in increasing funding for technology, 68% of participating funders cited “limited staff familiarity and expertise” as the major barrier to increasing investments in their grantees’ technology activities. Technology expertise is still the domain of IT, and increasingly the communications departments, but rarely is there fluency throughout most philanthropic organisational infrastructure.

At an event in London on March 30th co-hosted by NCVO, Lucy Bernholz, one of the world’s leading commentators on the disruptive power of  technology in philanthropy and founder of Blueprint Research, gave examples of  how non-profits are using digital platforms to achieve social impact by ‘extending their reach beyond the room’ and ‘adding new perspectives to their stories’.

She made the point that relationships and the technological application of ‘inanimate’ data, not technology alone, is the key to unleashing its power.  Berhnolz used an extended 'orchestra' metaphor to describe how technology is changing the social sector:  the way it can connect across continents allows new players  and new instruments to take part, but what we need now she said is  ‘new sheet music’ to make sense of the  technological ‘ noise’ and called for  ‘new rules for good’.

Bernholz explained how this was already happening through open source sites such as Ushahidi and Storify that use the power of crowd-gathered content to create new resources to further their causes and also with the development of new infrastructure  such as the creation of ‘B corps’, a new US model that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

She said key would be the removal of restrictions on data.

But at another London event last week run by Our Society Network, it was said the ability to use communications technology to reach out to service users and other stakeholders will be badly hampered by cuts to support providers’ budgets.

Paul Webster, the project manager in charge of Navca’s regional ICT champion scheme said on the last day in his job which has been axed because of the cuts: “We know that technology, social networks, collaboration, community reporting, hyper-local blogging, all these things, using Twitter and Facebook, do make a difference. They have to be the way forward.  I don’t think anyone can still be a naysayer and denounce the use of technology in the sector.

But just as people are getting on board with this, just as they’re Skyping and videoconferencing etc, a lot of support structures and networks are being taken away. The work I’ve been doing, my project, will be more difficult now. I’m not saying we’re the only ones doing this stuff but things will be more difficult. People will have to reinvent the wheel, they’ll not know who to go to for support, they’ll have to make do and to find their own way through things."

He concluded: “I think without support networks these organisations may be weaker, and less well skilled to adapt and to see what is around the corner, what technology will be used next.”

The ZeroDivide report Amplifying Social Impact in a Connected Age can be downloaded for free here: http://zerodivide.org/funder_report