I'm trying to determine how much my peers at professional associations
spend on information technology, how large their staffs are, and how
they are allocated. Specifically, I want to arrive at useful
"comparables" -- normalizing ratios such as dollars per member,
dollars per employee, IT staff per member, IT staff per employee,
total IT spend as a percentage of organization expenditures -- so that
I can chart my organization's performance in the context of peer
ranges and averages. Ideally, for similar benchmarking reasons, I'd
also like a breakout of IT staff by task: desktop support (help desk),
server support, financial systems, networking/infrastructure,
publishing systems, and new-product development.

I represent a large professional association in the medical field with
about 20,000 dues-paying members, a monthly journal, a dozen
newsletters, and two annual conferences.

I'm looking for data specifically about professional associations.
What I *don't* want are consumer membership groups (like AARP),
trade/lobbying associations, government agencies, and (generally
speaking) nonprofits/charities/advocacy groups (like the National Lung
Assn) and foundations (like the Ford F). That still leaves a lot of
professional groups! Also, there's no restriction to medical
associations -- accountants to zookeepers are fine...

Where I've looked: the syndicated gatherers of IT benchmark data (like
Gartner) focus on for-profit companies and, to a lesser degree,
government operations, but no one I've found breaks out professional
associations, per se.

If I must, I'll just keep calling and surveying, but I'm looking for a
shortcut here so that I can do some quantitative analysis, then focus
on necessary changes, decision-making, governance, etc. If you've done
this sort of research for a client, or it already exists out there,
I'd love to get a pointer to it. Of course, I'd be willing to pay an
additional fee for a completed spreadsheet that will speed up the
analytical work.

Danob --

Inasmuch as you're seeking many metrics in a specific area, your best
bet is one of the market research companies or a specialist on
benchmarking.  The Gartners of the world are very big, so my
professional experience has been that getting the precise information
that you're seeking usually means custom research.

However, Meta Group has done a good job of monitoring IT spending by
category and has built a bit of a specialty there.  It will require a
free registration to see how they're breaking down the Benchmarking &
Measurement area, but is probably worth it:
http://www.metagroup.com/us/home.do

Meta Group also has a Metricnet service that provides some top-level
data for IT spending, linked I this Google Answer.  Again,
registration is required at the Metricnet site:
"Industry Benchmarking for IT Spending" (Omnivorous-GA, May 5, 2003)
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=199713

This Google Answer provides some information on non-profit
organization spending, done by a Canadian consulting firm:
"Information Technology budget, what percent of total budget?"
(Omnivorous-GA, June 16, 2003)
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=218096

Obviously some consulting companies have made benchmarking a
specialty, including Hackett.  As such they also may have some data
products that get closest to your answer:
Hackett Benchmarking
http://www.answerthink.com/services/hackett/

I hate to discourage you or other researchers here -- it's just that
experience tells me that you'll have to go outside Google Answers to
get the details that you're seeking.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Omnivorous -

Thanks for the cautions about GA's limitations. I checked out the
referenced sites and got a few 50,000-foot surveys which at least set
a context, but no one apparently breaks out professional associations:
they're not "professional services," which is the closest standard
industry.

Can I pay you $20 just for your thoughtful comment? How would I do that?

Danob --

Thanks so much for the offer, but that's not necessary.

You could post another question if you're still willing.  (Note that
you can expire this question -- or leave it open to see if another
researcher has more 'magic' than I.)

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I have no more magic than omnivorous, but an idea.  Has the ASAE
surveyed this from their membership?  Most of their site is for
members only, so I couldn't tell you for sure if they have.  They can
be reached at:
The American Society of Association Executives
http://www.asaenet.org/

Good luck,
phiguru

Actually, ASAE agreed to complete my survey -- they want summary
results themselves!

Thanks for your suggestion.