Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report 

V. Challenges/Emerging Issues 

Technology Issues That Grantmakers Are Not Prepared to Address 

Security 

Disaster Recovery Plans (n = 280) 

1   Nothing  

2   Documented up to date disaster recovery plan 

3   Documented up to date and tested disaster recovery plan 

4   Documented and tested disaster recovery plan as part of your organization s business continuity 

plan 

5   Contract with a hot or cold site 

As a first step, almost all foundations (97%) report that they have a back up strategy. 

Among those with a back up strategy, 72 percent of foundations reported doing daily 

backups but only 27 percent of foundations have ever tested the restoration process to 

determine if their backup process works. Sixty five percent of grantmakers either take a 

copy of their backups home with them for safekeeping or send their backups offsite to a 

secure location for storage (Table A 14). 

In response to the open ended question about technology challenges, many foundations 

cited  security  as a concern. Other responses related to security include: 

 Data security (taxonomy classification auditing access control)  

 Data archival and retention  

 Allowing donors access to their account information via a secure server  

 Web based mail/access (security issues)  

 Increased virus protection and security  

 Secure remote access  

 Security of e mail transmissions  

 Revisioning our website disaster plan if systems are made unavailable due to 

terrorism  

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