2015 Blacks Gone Geek IT Job Outlook

Did you know that the current employment in the IT sector can be best described as a tale of two markets? In general there is high demand for professionals with specialized skills and then there is the rest of the market with unemployment still in the pre-recession double digits. The trend tells a story of a market in sharp demand for Knowledge workers but a dismal performance for those continuing to seek employment in low skill jobs.

The only way to get ahead and stay ahead in this challenging job market is to constantly distinguish yourself from the competition by demonstrating great performance and maintaining highly marketable skills.

But what are the highly marketable skills for IT professionals today? Every year National BDPA past president Milt Haynes conducts a Blacks Gone Geek Readers Poll to tap into the "Wisdom of the Crowd" because we want you to know what's happening in the "real world".

Please take this short 5-minute survey. Your valuable input will provide insight into where IT jobs are growing and highlight the current and future trends in the industry. Please take action today!

Survey results will be published on Blacks Gone Geek website (www.blacksgonegeek.org) in December.

Click here to take survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2015ITJobOutlook

Are Blacks More Likely Than Whites to Support Causes Online?

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) has established a number of online fundraisers via social networks in the past few years. As such we were intrigued by a new survey that claims ethnicity is a factor in how people perceive charitable and political causes they encounter on social networks and whether they go on to get involved with those causes.  [SOURCE]

Out of 2,000 participants in the survey, 30 percent of Black adults and 39 percent of Hispanics said they were more likely to support online causes rather than causes they encountered offline; 24 percent of whites said the same.

The study was released by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Ogilvy PR, a public-relations company.

While most of the survey participants said they believed they could make a difference by supporting a charitable or political cause, African Americans and Hispanics were more optimistic about the effectiveness of using online networks to do so. When asked if tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs could help spread the word about a cause, 58 percent of Blacks and 51 percent of Hispanics agreed, compared with 34 percent of whites.

In addition, more Blacks and Hispanics said Facebook and other social-networking sites made it easier to support a cause: 62 percent and 64 percent, respectively, compared with 54 percent of whites.

Whites are also less likely to use Twitter in general. According to a telephone survey of 2,277 adults conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 25 percent of black and 19 percent of Hispanic Internet users say they use Twitter, compared with just 9 percent of white Internet users. What’s more, one in ten Black Internet users now visit Twitter on a typical day, compared with 3 percent of whites and 5 percent of Hispanics.

Yet despite the emphasis placed on social media, blogs and social networking sites are still second to more traditional information sources like television, newspapers, and personal relationships. Likewise, people were more likely to donate money or talk about a social issue than post it to a blog or Facebook, the Georgetown study found.

“What the study shows us over all is not to put all your eggs into the social-media basket,” says Julie Dixon, deputy director at the Georgetown Center. Instead, organizations should tailor their communications strategy based on the how their audience is likely to engage.

Our hope is that those of you who support the STEM-based programs that BDPA implements on local, regional and national level will find a way to visit and support our online fundraising efforts. Here is where you can find BDPA in various social networks:

1. Click and Pledge: Donor designates how funds are used
2. Crowdrise: BDPA IT Corps
3. Crowdrise: Various local chapter college scholarships
4. Facebook: BDPA Charlotte HSCC program
5. Facebook: BDPA IT Corps
6. Facebook: BDPA Los Angeles HSCC program
7. Facebook: BETF Endowment Fund
8. Facebook: Jesse Bemley Scholarship
9. YourCause.com: Donor designates how funds are used

What is your take on the survey findings?

The Effect of the Economy on the Nonprofit Sector: A June 2010 Survey

BETF is a valued partner of Guidestar. We participated earlier this year in a survey measuring the impact of the economy on the nonprofit sector.

Public charities and private foundations continued to take a beating during the first five months of 2010. Some 40 percent of participants in GuideStar's first nonprofit economic survey for 2010 reported that contributions to their organizations dropped between January 1 and May 31, 2010, compared to the same period a year earlier. Another 28 percent said that contributions had stayed about the same, and 30 percent stated contributions had increased.

"The Effect of the Economy on the Nonprofit Sector: A June 2010 Survey" presents these results and more. Among the other findings:

• Eight percent of respondents indicated that their organizations was were in imminent danger of closing.
• In order to balance budgets, 17 percent of respondents reduced program services, and 11 percent laid off employees.
• More than 60 percent of participants reporting decreased contributions attributed the drop to a decline in both the number of individual donors and the size of their donations.
• Among organizations that use volunteers, 17 percent used one or more in what had formerly been paid positions.
• About a third (32 percent) of organizations increased their reliance on volunteers, whereas 9 percent experienced a decline.

Chuck McLean, GuideStar's vice president for research, and research assistant Carol Brouwer conducted the survey, analyzed the results, and prepared the survey report.

Download your free copy of the report.

After you read the 11-page report ... please return and share your COMMENTS and insights with us.

American Charities May Not Have a Happy Holiday

American charities have weathered a significant drop in giving this year, and while they're hoping for a holiday miracle, a recent survey shows they will probably see a decrease in year-end generosity.

In light of the economic downturn, only 38 percent of Americans say they are more likely to give a charitable gift as a holiday present this year, compared to 49 percent last year, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive to be released Monday.

Some of the biggest U.S. charities say they are budgeting for a disappointing Christmas.

Read the full Associated Press story here.

Drops in Corporate Giving Exceed Forecasts

By Miriam Kreinin Souccar

Big corporations are cutting back their charitable donations more than they had expected to just six months ago.

In a survey conducted this month, 52% of corporations reported that they have cut their charitable giving because of the recession. Just six months earlier 42% of those same companies had predicted that their budgets for charitable giving would decline this year, according the LBG Research Institute, a nonprofit that conducts research on community investment. The move comes despite a big upswing in pleas for funds, with over 72% of the corporations reporting an increase in grant requests.

Corporations aren’t turning their backs completely. More than 84% of those surveyed say they are encouraging more employee volunteerism to offset the decline in company cash donations, and more than 48% have increased the number of volunteer events this year. Meanwhile, 15% report that they are increasing their in-kind donations of such things as meeting space and office equipment; and 12% are giving away more products.

What cash is still flowing is being given away under higher scrutiny. Almost half of the corporations report that they are emphasizing partnerships with nonprofits over straight cash donations. Half also note that they are paying more attention to measuring the impact of their largesse, holding the nonprofits accountable for results.

“It’s not just check writing anymore,” said Donna Devaul, executive director of LBG Research Institute. “Corporations want measurable results and are actively seeking nonprofit partners that can produce win-win, impactful programs.”

More than 70 major U.S. corporations participated in the survey.

New Survey is First to Examine Nonprofit Industry’s Use of Social Networking

Co-sponsors ThePort Network, Inc., NTEN, and Common Knowledge released results of the nonprofit industry’s first-ever survey examining the use of social networking as a marketing and fundraising channel. Conducted earlier this year, the survey polled 978 nonprofit professionals about their organizations’ use of commercial social networking sites, as well as their own hosted social networking communities.

Included in the survey highlights:

• Among commercial social networking sites, Facebook is the most popular, with 74 percent of nonprofits maintaining a presence. Nonprofit communities on Facebook (including BETF) are still relatively small, with an average size of 5,454 members.
• Four-fifths of nonprofits are committing at least one-quarter of a full-time staff person to their social networking efforts.
• More than half of nonprofits intend to increase social networking project staffing over the next 12 months.

Read more...

Does Racism Still Exist in IT Industry?

Don Tennant is editor for Computerworld who shared disturbing news from the results in Computerworld's 2008 IT Salary Survey. Mr. Tennant wrote about the survey last year. He noted that African Americans were underrepresented in the IT profession, with only a 3% showing, and that their compensation was significantly lower than that of their white counterparts.

Unfortunately, Mr. Tennant points out in his editorial entitled, 'Hoping for equality in the IT profession' that the 3% figure is unchanged, and if anything, the compensation gap is even wider. Last year, African-American IT workers made just 86.4 cents for every dollar white IT workers made (average total compensation of $78,582, compared with $90,901). This year, it was 85.9 cents ($80,733 vs. $93,977).

Maybe the issue is deeper still. There are so many in our industry who feel that racism no longer exists ... after all, didn't we just elect a Black man to be our president?

What is your take on the standing of African Americans in the IT industry as we move into the new year?

Where are the Black Professionals

Hat-Tip to BDPA Detroit chapter for pointing us to Black Web 2.0, a remarkable blog that is a must-read for all BDPA members. The brothers and sisters that created this blog need to be featured at our upcoming annual conference.

Anyhow, Black Web 2.0 asked the question, 'Where are the Black Web Professionals'. They pointed to the 2007 Web Design Survey results from A List Apart (ALA). According to ALA, "the results represent the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. ALA breaks down their report data by race, age and gender, and lends itself to a couple of findings:

• Out of the 32,831 respondents, 1.2% (about 394 people) are Black
• 302 of the 32,831 respondents are identified as Black males
• 96 of the 32,831 respondents are identified as Black females

Anyhow, read the full article and let me know what you think. How should BDPA respond to this information on local or national level?