Omatic Software Launches First-Ever Nonprofit Modernization Index, Revealing a Sector That Feels Ready for Modernization but Isn’t Structured for It

New benchmark research finds that 53% of nonprofits delayed or abandoned a technology project in the past year, even as 76% increased their technology budgets.

Omatic Software, a leader in nonprofit integration and data management, today announced the release of the 2026 Nonprofit Modernization Index, the organization’s first-ever sector benchmark measuring how ready nonprofits are to navigate technology change, including the rapid rise of AI. The report is based on responses from more than 400 nonprofit professionals across nine verticals and introduces a new composite score that nonprofits can use to evaluate their own technology readiness against sector benchmarks.

The findings show a sector pulled toward modernization by funders, boards, and AI, and responding with more investment but intent is outrunning infrastructure.

“The findings show a sector that is genuinely ready to change: leadership is engaged, budgets are growing, and the appetite for modernization is real,” said Brian Alster, CEO of Omatic Software. “At the same time, there is a growing confidence gap in data… This gap will only limit the effectiveness of tech adoption, including AI.”

Key Findings

The Index uncovered several tensions that define the sector’s current state of readiness.

• Confidence gap between data trust and data health: 89% manually reconcile data monthly, yet rate data confidence at 3.78/5.
• Execution lags despite intent: 53% delayed or abandoned a tech project this past year; only 34% saw a project go as planned.
• AI is outpacing strategy: 62% of nonprofits use AI today, but only 18% do so with a defined strategy. Nonprofits still rank data integration and automation (57%) above AI tools (42%) as investment priorities.

Ultimately, nonprofits are prioritizing modernization, but the underlying foundation hasn’t caught up.

“At Omatic, we’ve spent years working alongside nonprofits on the exact problems in this report: fragmented data, disconnected systems, and the manual work that drains staff capacity and slows the mission,” Alster said. “We published the research contained in our 2026 Nonprofit Modernization Index because we believe a more informed sector is a more effective sector.”

The full 2026 Nonprofit Modernization Index report is available now at https://omaticsoftware.com/modernization-index/.