Sharing best practice in the not-for-profit sector

The not-for-profit sector in Australia is diverse and of significant size. The recent research report delivered by the Federal Government Productivity Commission into the not-for-profit sector identified that there are 600,000 not-for-profits (NFPs) contributing approximately $43 billion to Australia’s annual GDP.

Over the past two years Infoxchange Australia in partnership with the Victorian Government has undertaken three significant pieces of work to assess how small to medium NFPs use ICT.  The outcomes of this initiative, known as Measure IT, included:

· A comprehensive assessment of the current state of ICT planning and management, technology infrastructure (hardware, software and telecommunications), ICT skills and the use of online resources by the NFP sector.  The assessment was based on data collected through surveys of over 400 NFPs and onsite ICT audits of 120 small to medium sized NFPs;

· The development of a digital proficiency framework for assessing an NFP’s use of ICT and measuring its effectiveness across a number of key attributes including how ICT supports the organisation’s strategic objectives, efficient processes, service coordination, staff and volunteer development, knowledge sharing and relationship management;

· Identification of the benefits to NFPs, clients, staff, volunteers, government, corporate partners and the wider community by increasing the level of digital proficiency for individual organisations and across the sector as a whole.

Infoxchange Australia has been invited to assess the replicatability of the digital proficiency framework and managed services suite for not-for-profit organisations throughout the Asia Pacific in partnership with Microsoft Australia.

Microsoft has provided funding for Infoxchange Australia Executive Director, Andrew Mahar, to travel throughout Southeast Asia in April and May 2010 with the Microsoft Community Affairs team to:

· Provide the keynote address at NFP ICT conferences in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.  The aim of the conference participation is to raise the level of awareness and importance of digital proficiency and actions being undertaken in Victoria to address capacity building in the sector;

· Assess the current level of ICT maturity in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam through Microsoft sponsored surveys of NFP organisations.

Microsoft has a long standing commitment of providing support to NGOs in our community. This financial year Microsoft will provide approximately $30 million worth of software to nearly 2,000 Australian organisations.  We are proud to have hosted InfoXchanges Visit to Asia to increase awareness of digital proficiency within our region.

Paul Clark, Community Affairs Manager

Technorati Tags: not-for-profit,Infoxchange Australia,Victoria,ICT