One hundred and seven public media stations in the United States participated in the survey for the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report. Their responses are summarized below. The data is meant to provide benchmarks for U.S. public media so that they can gauge whether they are ahead or behind in their use technology.

14 Stats About How Public Media Use Technology

  • 99% of public media organizations have a website. Of those, 94% are mobile compatible.
  • 87% use the .ORG domain. 9% use .COM. 3% use .NET. 1% use other domains.
  • 42% use WordPress as their Content Management System for their website. 10% use Drupal. 30% use another CMS and 18% don’t know.
  • 89% of public media organizations accept online donations on their website. Of those, 96% accept credit card payments. 54% accept direct debit payments. 36% accept PayPal. 7% accept digital wallet payments. 1% accept Bitcoin.
  • 11% utilize an online peer-to-peer fundraising service.
  • 62% participate in #GivingTuesday.
  • 84% of public media organizations regularly send email updates and fundraising appeals to supporters and donors. Of those, 81% use an email marketing service. 14% send email via their CRM. 1% send email through another method and 4% don’t know.
  • 10% regularly send text messages to supporters and donors. Of those, 30% also utilize a text-to-give service for SMS fundraising.
  • 99% of public media organizations have a Facebook Page and 25% have a Facebook Group. 95% have a Twitter Profile. 77% have an Instagram Profile. 61% have a LinkedIn Page and 8% have a LinkedIn Group. Other social media used are: 70% YouTube, 19% Pinterest, 18% Vimeo, 16% Google+, 15% Flickr, and 8% Tumblr.
  • 9% use messaging apps to communicate with supporters and donors. Of those, 57% use Facebook Messenger and 22% use WhatsApp.
  • 75% of public media organizations use Microsoft Windows as their operating system on desktop and laptop computers. 16% use Apple macOS. 4% use Google Chrome OS. 1% use Linux OS. 1% use another operating system and 3% don’t know.
  • 67% use Apple iOS as their operating system on smartphones and tablets. 9% use Google Android. 5% use Windows Phone. 2% use another operating system and 17% don’t know.
  • 76% use a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software to track donations and manage communications with supporters and donors. Of those, 61% use a cloud-based CRM.
  • 65% use encryption technology to protect data and communications. Of those, 60% to protect donor information. 51% to protect organization information. 32% to protect the privacy of email communications. 18% to protect the privacy of mobile communications.

About the 107 public media stations: 5% defined themselves as a small station. 40% as medium-sized. 4% as large.

2018 Public Media Partner: Greater Public