Abstract
There have been different research efforts to analyse the potential, impact and benefits of introducing Information Technology ( IT) in voluntary organisations. But recent literature has highlighted that many voluntary organisations are still in an early stage of IT adoption in their organisational settings. The lack of funding, unstable organisational structures and diversity in operations are the key facts which make IT support in voluntary organisations an interesting emergent field of research. In this paper, we analyse the types and organisational structures of voluntary organisations to find out the factors which differentiate IT support in these organisations as compared to other organisations. The paper advocates the need for more ethnographic works to closely analyse the work practices of voluntary organisations. The paper provides a summary of related work carried out in participatory development with voluntary organisations and discusses the important issues which are worth investigating for the improvement of IT support in voluntary organisations.