Research shows how crucial websites are becoming for charities.

The proportion of people visiting charity websites has leapt by a third in the past nine months, according to research by think tank nfpSynergy.

It found that the proportion of people who said they had visited a charity website in the past six months rose from 23 per cent in February 2007 to 30 per cent in October 2007. The figure almost doubled in the past five years (since the beginning of iT4C), from 16 per cent.

Charities need websites for a variety of reasons: from very basic online contact information to more and more sophisticated ways of interacting with clients/the public or for ways of both reducing costs and increasing funds.

For lots of examples about the way that charities have benefited from their websites see case studies published by the ICT Hub. You may also like to take a look at our case studies which feature a number of website projects.

For information about all aspects of charitable websites see various Knowledgebase articles.

iT4C has a huge range of opportunities for volunteers with website skills, from advice about hosting, training staff to update existing sites, adding an online form or project managing a new website. Can you help and create a new case study that demonstrates more power to the 3rd sector through the good use of ICT? Search for opportunities on the website or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Anne Stafford, iT4Communities Development Consultant