Case study

In each edition of the newsletter we like to feature one or more examples of IT volunteer projects. We hope that reading about these projects will inspire you to think of better ways for your organisation to use IT and perhaps ask for a volunteer to help you.

In most cases when you request a volunteer you'll expect them to come to your office to chat about what you need, look at your IT systems or simply to get to know each other before starting work. However, this isn't always the case. Sometimes it's not possible to find a locally-based volunteer and so, if the project is suitable, the best option may be to work with someone you never meet.

It can be difficult to work with a remote volunteer but if you both make an effort to communicate regularly you should be able to iron out any problems. A recent successful project illustrated remote working in the extreme.

Theatre Royal Stratford East website

Volunteer Jason King is currently living in Australia but is still keen to help UK-based charities. When he checked the iT4C website he spotted an opportunity to help the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The Theatre were looking for some advice on their website. It was easy enough for Jason to look at the site from the antipodes so he offered to help.

Jason produced a report describing some improvements that could be made to the site to make it more accessible to all users and to make it easier to find by people searching the internet. The Theatre's web designers are now implementing Jason's suggestions and gradually improving the site. The charity are thrilled with the help they received from Jason and it made no difference to them that he wasn't just around the corner.

Read the full story of this project.

You can read more case studies on our website and we have also recently added a section showing some example opportunities. This page shows real opportunities from our site exactly as they would be presented to potential volunteers. We hope that these examples will give you an idea of the wide range of projects IT volunteers can help with.