Examining the Adoption of Donor Management Systems in Not-for-Profit Organizations with an Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Two decades of technological advances in internet, security, wireless, social media and networking technologies have introduced the most promising NFP systems - donor management systems (DMS). The number of DMSs available in the marketplace as well as the breadth of their feature and functionality offerings has grown tremendously to overcome NFP challenges which include program and service performance accountabil.ity, financial and operational transparency, and declines in funding sources. These systems enable NFP organizations to perform more intelligent campaigning and achieve a higher level of donor interactions resulting in greater monetary and voluntary contributions in addition to increases in donor and constituent advocacy and public support. Research indicates that NFP have experienced reduced operational and program costs, increased staff productivity, increased monetary contributions, when leveraging DMSs as part of a comprehensive fundraising program.;While NFP adoption of the systems is increasing, adoption rates are much lower when compared to the for-profit sectors adoption cycle for newer technologies. Adopting the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study examined the factors that determine health and human service NFP employees' behavioral intentions to use DMSs. The proposed models included the original TAM factors of perceived usefulness and ease of use and incorporated the additional factors of user experience and organizational support, which have been found to influence an individual's intention to use technology.;The model's predictive capability was measured using multiple regression techniques against data captured via an electronic survey sent to 100 health and human service organizations in the Mississippi Delta region of the US. Results from the 173 participant responses indicated that perceived ease of use and DMS experience directly influenced user perceptions toward DMSs and their subsequent intention to use the systems. The findings further indicated that the factors of perceived usefulness, NFP experience, and Organizational support did not significantly extend the model in predicting behavioral intention. The research was not able to replicate typical predictive capabilities of the core TAM in the context of health and human services NFP organizations.