As the economy's slide creates challenges for nonprofit organizations and their workers — including tighter budgets, heightened demand for services, and the looming specter of layoffs — technology can offer tools for survival.

In this supplement, The Chronicle explores ways that charities, grant makers, and nonprofit employees are using technology to make the most of their precious resources. Among them:

CASH-STRAPPED ARTS GROUPS are cutting back on costly print and broadcast advertising by exploiting social networks, text messaging, and blogs to help build audiences to attend performances and exhibits.

AN INTERNATIONAL HEALTH-CARE CHARITY created its own customized system to compile data on its programs and grants, one that could handle the challenge of data entry in developing countries with unreliable Internet connections.

A COALITION OF GRANT MAKERS in Pennsylvania streamlined the grant-seeking process for cultural groups in that state, generating a wealth of data about regional arts organizations and an approach that groups in other states are adopting.

NONPROFIT WORKERS are forging valuable professional connections via social networks like LinkedIn. How they use those networks is changing the way people look for jobs — and how employers hire.