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Building Voluntary Sector Capacity Through Information Management/Information Technology — Backgrounder

The Government of Canada's Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) Program is aimed at strengthening Canada's voluntary sector through technology. It is part of the Government of Canada's Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI), a joint undertaking between the federal government and Canada's voluntary sector. The VSI works to strengthen the voluntary sector's ability to serve Canadians while enhancing its relationship with the Government of Canada.

The IM/IT strategy

The IM/IT Joint Table was one of six VSI Joint Tables. Made up of representatives from the voluntary sector and federal government, it was created to provide a blueprint for the government and the sector to work with to improve the technological capacity of Canada's voluntary sector.

The IM/IT Joint Table's final report, Strengthening Voluntary Sector Capacity through Technology, proposes a broad strategy to help voluntary organizations and the sector as a whole improve their technological capacity to better serve Canadians. The key elements of the strategy include:

• Creating a funding agency campaign to encourage funding agencies to invest in information technology (IT).
  
  
• Fostering ongoing access to IT planning, hardware and software, training and technical support to help voluntary sector organizations access IT planning and expert advice, current hardware and software appropriate to their needs, training to keep up with technology and technical support at the lowest possible rates.
  
  
• Building a voluntary sector Web-based portal, containing voluntary sector-related information and providing a meeting place for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of best practices.
  
  
• Creating an online funding exchange, a Web-based interactive funding service to connect funding agencies with voluntary organizations. This will help decrease the amount of resources used to donate and raise money.
  
  
• Launching a technology awareness campaign to raise awareness among voluntary sector boards and managers regarding the benefits of technology and to provide information on how organizations can use IT effectively.
  
  

The benefits of the IM/IT strategy

With this strategy, the IM/IT Program will help voluntary organizations use technology to develop more effective ways for carrying out essential activities such as:

• raising and donating money;
• planning and investing in IT;
• managing staff and board business;
• delivering services;
• finding and disseminating information;
• keeping abreast of new developments;
• communicating inside and outside the organization; and
• networking with other organizations.

Next steps

Industry Canada's IM/IT Secretariat will work with both the various components of the VSI and voluntary organizations to address the report's recommendations. Funding for implementing this strategy comes from the $10 million allocated by the VSI in 2000 for this initiative.

Additional information

For more information on the VSI's IM/IT Joint Table and its report, please visit http://www.vsi-isbc.org/eng/joint_tables/im_it/index.cfm.