Content Support for Products Survey

The goal of the Content Support for Products Survey was to gain an understanding of how our audience uses TechSoup during the product-acquisition, implementation, and post-implementation phases. The survey ran from June 5 to July 5, 2006; although a total of 447 respondents began filling it out, only 315 completed the entire survey.

Highlights

Who took the survey?

As with previous TechSoup surveys, IT managers and executive directors made up the majority of participants (29.6 percent); at 16.8 percent, IT managers had the highest response rate.

The representation of organizations by type corresponded to past survey results as well, with 65.6 percent of respondents coming from nonprofits with budgets below $1 million. A sizable amount also hailed from organizations with budgets over $5 million.

Not everyone is taking advantage of TechSoup Stock's donation program.

Of survey respondents, 72 percent had requested a product donation; 9.8 percent were unaware that the product donation program existed; and only 6.7 percent were ineligible for donations.

The majority of respondents are using TechSoup's Learning Center to assist them with technology purchases.

Of those who responded to our survey, 75 percent use TechSoup articles, worksheets, or stories to assist with technology purchases, and 64 percent have researched and read comparisons of products. Respondents also reported reading stories on how other organizations use technology — a surprising discovery, considering that nonprofit stories on TechSoup haven't historically received a lot of traffic. An overwhelming 92 percent of respondents that used TechSoup content found it to be adequate for their needs.

TechSoup articles, worksheets, and NPO stories not being used for implementation.

A majority of survey respondents — 73 percent — are not using articles, worksheets, or NPO stories for implementation, and 6.9 percent of respondents said that they did not need implementation information. Another 11 percent of users indicated that they were unaware that the content existed.

TechSoup articles, worksheets, and NPO stories not being used for troubleshooting and maintenance.

Only 23 percent of survey respondents have used TechSoup content to troubleshoot and maintain products. The main reason given for not using the content for troubleshooting and maintenance was that it was not needed (41.3 of all respondents). A full 25 percent of respondents indicated that they were unaware that such content existed.