About iT4Communities

iT4Communities is the leading national IT volunteering programme. The main areas of activity are:

  • Introducing skilled, professional volunteers to VCS organisations looking for help with IT projects
  • Promoting volunteering among IT Professionals and companies
  • Building IT capacity in the Voluntary and Community Sectors (VCS)

Since iT4Communities was founded in 2002, over £2.5 million worth of IT support has been delivered to the voluntary and community sector, building up a database of over 4500 volunteers and more than 2000 charities. Over 2000 volunteer opportunities have been defined and over 400 completed successfully to date.

iT4Communities' services are free to registered charities, non-profit and community groups.

How the process works

The core activity of iT4Communities is introducing IT professionals wanting to volunteer their skills to charities and other VCOs needing IT help.
Here's how this happens:

Registering

  • Charities register their details via the iT4C website.
  • Volunteers register their details via the iT4C website.

Defining a project suitable for a volunteer

  • Charities sign-in to the iT4C website and request a volunteer.
  • The iT4C administrator asks one of the project definers to talk to the charity.
  • The project definer contacts the charity - sometimes charities can be very hard to contact but we don't give up easily.
  • The project definer contacts the charity and either discusses the project request there and then or agrees a time to call back.
  • The project definer explains how iT4C works, discusses the "business need" behind the IT need, asks if the charity about experience with volunteers and discusses the ICT requirement in non-technical language.
  • The project definer turns the results of this discussion into one or more volunteer opportunities.
  • The administrator publishes opportunities so that volunteers can see them.

Finding an opportunity

  • Volunteers find out about opportunities:
    • Using the "Search for opportunities" part of the website. They can search on region, skill and charity type or specifically for short tasks or those which can be carried out remotely (virtual opportunities).
    • Volunteers may also chose to subscribe to an RSS feed to get details of opportunities delivered to their desktop as soon as they are published.
    • Opportunities are selectively highlighted through featured Opportunities of the Month in the regular volunteer newsletter.
  • Volunteers look at a specific opportunity. They see its name, region, skill type and the description which the project definer wrote when talking to the charity.
  • When a volunteer sees an opprtunity that fits their skills and motivation then they can request contact details.
  • Once the volunteer requests the details they get an email telling them how to contact the charity and the charity gets an email telling them how to contact the volunteer. iT4C tracks this so they always know who has your contact details - whether you are volunteer or a charity.

Volunteer and charity dialogue

  • The volunteer and the charity can now discuss the opportunity and, if they decide to go-ahead then the charity can inform iT4C via website system. The system marks the opportunity as "in progress" and hides it from other potential volunteers.
  • Until the charity accepts a volunteer or withdraws the opportunity it remains visible to other volunteers and they can request contact details.

If the project goes ahead

  • iT4C gets out of the way!
  • iT4C remains available to help with any difficulties.
  • If charities have a problem iT4C will help, from assisting you with evaluating a prospective volunteer to finding you a new or additional volunteer and anything else around the process.
  • If volunteers have a problem iT4C will help, from assisting you with selecting an opportunity to resolving communications problems between you and the charity and anything else around the process.

If the charity fails to find a volunteer

  • iT4C will feature the opportunity in its monthly volunteer newsletter.
  • iT4C may re-write the opportunity description to make it more obvious what skills are required.
  • iT4C can make suitable opportunity "virtual" so that a remote volunteer can help.

If iT4C doesn't hear about a project "in progress"

  • After a time iT4C will re-contact the charity and/or the volunteer to find out what is happening.

When the project comes to an end

  • Occasionally the charity will inform iT4C. iT4C says "thank you very much" and asks them to complete a simple case study form.
  • More often the volunteer tells iT4C and iT4c asks the charity to confirm.
  • iT4C asks the volunteer to complete an end of project report via the website.
  • iT4C says - "Why not do it again" - to both!
  • iT4C features the completed project on the website as a case study.