It’s been 10 years and 5 Harry Potter movies since 2004 and the approach of Canadian nonprofits to their websites hasn’t changed much since.

That’s the conclusion of the brilliant 2014 State of the Web Nation, a landmark website benchmarking study of Canadian charities.

This detailed study, conducted over the past 11 months and just released by Canadian consulting firms Good Works and Envision Online Media is a ‘must read’.

You don’t have to work for a Canadian nonprofit to benefit from the study’s wonderfully illustrated insights. Every nonprofit regardless of location can benefit.

Down load the report here.

What impresses me most is that the authors have marshaled the data gathered from 516 respondents to not only provide a clear and holistic overview, but they also provide an interpretation of what the data mean to each voice around the nonprofit planning table. You’ll get a concise take on what the findings mean from a leadership perspective, a fundraising perspective, and a technology perspective.

Frankly, this study contains more valuable insights than vendors at an AFP conference. Consequently, I’ve selected but a few to highlight.

First, some not-so-good news:

• Although 90% of Canadian major donors visit the nonprofit’s website before making their 1^st gift, only 27% of groups surveyed have a written web strategy and 45.5 % says that if such a document exists they’ve never seen it..

• 60% of those surveyed say the web is not valued or only partially valued by their organization’s leadership.

• 73% think their donation pages are living up to their full potential.

• Only 12.21% of those surveyed say their website is the product of effective cross-departmental collaboration.

Next, some almost-good news.

While it’s clear that a substantial percentage of charities have a long way to go, the survey makes clear there is great desire to make change. These items belong in the ‘almost-good news’ or ’emerging good news’ category.

• 40% of respondents said they tried to focus on user experience in designing their website.

• 60% said they were using forms of storytelling, but want to incorporate a lot more.

• About 50% of respondents are seriously working towards becoming mobile-friendly, but need to be moving in the direction of becoming mobile optimized.

The Bottom Line in a Nutshell.

Canadian nonprofits are not doing enough with their websites. Nearly half of those surveyed are raising less than 5% of their annual contributed income online. Only 25% have any kind of web strategy in place.

On the upside, all of the problems highlighted in the Study can be fixed. Some quite easily.

As the authors note: “Commit to sucking less. It’s time to kick your website in the ask”.

Roger

P.S. Agitator raises to Fraser Green and Holly Wagg of Good Works and Todd Jamieson of Envision Online Media for their insight, style and sense of humor.

P.P.S. Suggestion: Download the 2014 State of the Web Nation report, then gather a group from different departments in your organization and go through this report together, comparing your data to these Canadian benchmarks. You don’t have to be located in Canada to benefit.