ICT in the Social Sector

Since beginning my placement with Comic Relief's Future Media and Technology (FM&T) team in January, every day I discover more about the essential role that information and communications technology (ICT) now plays in the social sector. Whether it is charities adopting online fundraising tools to empower their supporters to raise money for them, or social enterprises directly engaging with customers and the general public through use of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, the message is clear: in the twenty-first century social sector organisations must get on the ICT bandwagon if they want to be sustainable. A plethora of research reports and case studies all point to the fact that strategic use of ICT tools can help organisations lower costs; raise brand awareness; attract, directly engage and retain supporters or customers, thereby raising or earning more money; and in some cases, reach more beneficiaries. For a couple of examples, check out CAF's report on new media fundraising and NCVO's ICT Foresights.

Comic Relief provides an excellent case study of an organisation (technically a charity but arguably also a social enterprise) that is seizing every opportunity to adopt, adapt, and develop new technology to continuously innovate their campaigns (their IT team is called Future Media and Technology, after all!). For Red Nose Day 2009 Comic Relief spearheaded a deal with mobile phone operators so that it could retain 100% of text donations. For this year's Red Nose Day, Comic Relief made a ground-breaking deal with Apple to be able to raise funds through its own iphone app. These and other examples of how Comic Relief is using technology strategically can be found Race Online 2012's Casebook for Charity Sustainability through Technology.

Information and communications technology is being used in the social sector to not only help organisations deliver their own solutions to whatever social problem they're targeting, but also to connect innovators, entrepreneurs and other creative thinkers to search for and develop new solutions to social problems. One example that I find incredibly exciting is Open IDEO, an online platform that enables people anywhere in the world to collaborate in order to inspire one another, develop concepts, evaluate these concepts, and design promising solutions to real social challenges. A challenge that I've recently been following is 'How might we better connect food production and consumption?' The aim is to better connect rural food production and urban food consumption to improve producer livelihoods, improve consumer health, enhance sustainability in food production, and even minimise waste and other environmental problems associated with the production, transportation and disposal of food. If you're interested click here to keep an eye on this challenge.

It's now obvious that strategic use of ICT tools can strengthen social sector organisations, potentially improving their impact in the communities in which they operate, and also better connect people who strive to find new ways to address existing social problems. The ongoing challenge for social sector organisations and individuals is to keep up with the continuous, rapid advances in technology that are occurring almost every day. It will be a difficult and time-consuming task but well worth the effort and investment.