Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report 

I. Survey Overview 

The Technology Affinity Group (TAG) and Council on Foundations (Council) 

collaborated to conduct an information technology survey of grantmakers in April 2003. 

The survey was in response to members' needs for information about technology 

utilization in the philanthropic sector and to enable both TAG and the Council to better 

serve their members. 

The goals of the technology survey were: 

To enable grantmaking organizations to make more informed, timely and cost 

effective technology decisions based on information about what peer 

organizations are doing 

To determine, by grantmaker type and asset and staff size, grantmakers' 

information technology capacity and needs 

To learn how grantmakers access and provide information, and 

To identify what tools or services grantmakers expect or want from TAG and the 

Council.  

A letter explaining the survey was sent to the Council's primary contact at each U.S. 

based member organization, with the exception of unstaffed family and independent 

foundations, who did not receive the survey at all, and foundations that are TAG 

members, where the TAG member received the survey instead of the Council's primary 

contact. The purpose of the letter was to explain the survey and ask members to take the 

survey online using a unique URL that was included in the letter.  

The survey was conducted online using Walker Information's SmartLoyalty Survey tool, 

which was provided to TAG and the Council at no charge. Letters were sent to 1,566 

grantmakers, and 315 foundations completed the survey for a response rate of 20 percent. 

An additional 83 foundations, or 5 percent, started the survey but did not complete it. The 

incomplete surveys were primarily from small foundations that do not have many 

technical capabilities and therefore did not think the survey was relevant to their 

organization. 

Of the 315 completed surveys, 299 foundations reported their foundation asset size 

(Table A 1). The responses by asset size are as follows: 

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