Nonprofit Technology Staffing and Investments

In conjunction with Johan’s webinar this week on building an effective IT department at your nonprofit, I’m sharing the most recent NTEN 9th Annual Nonprofit Technology Staffing and Investments Report published last August (you can participate in the survey for this year here. NTEN expects to publish their 2016 findings this fall.)
We are often asked our opinion on the best staffing model for nonprofits of medium size – when a few accidental techies no longer seem to be enough.  As with most items of nonprofit management, it depends.  It depends on your culture – are you forward leaning with technology or more comfortable with the tried and true? Note – there is no right answer here – unlike many technology mavens (and salespeople!) we believe matching the technology culture to the nonprofit culture brings the best success.
However, I do like the NTEN approach of benchmarking the org staff per tech staff to illustrate the dependency on tech staff, and show where investment – in people, qualifications, certifications and the like – can have good impact on your technology culture and future budgets.