More than two-thirds of charitable organisations in the UK employ no paid IT staff and 96% have two or fewer such employees. Despite this and despite approaching numerous sources for IT help, there remains a surprisingly low take up of professional pro bono advice by charities across the UK.

These are among the key findings of a new online survey into IT usage across the charities sector carried out by a consortium of service providers to this sector including livery company, The Information Technologists’ Company (ITC); Adapta; Charity Technology Trust (CTT); IT4Communities and Lasa. The online survey gauged the opinions of 140 charitable organisations, either registered charities or not-for-profit organisations.

“There is no shortage of expert pro bono advice out there willing to offer their time and resource,” says ITC master, Michael Grant. “The issue is that charities are not always aware of how they can take advantage of these services. What is required is a process of education that explains what is available and how they can access it. We hope the survey will raise awareness of the broad range of IT services that organisations like the ITC and its partners can offer.”

To read the full Survey click here and for details of workshop to discuss the Survey and its conclusions click here.