An approach to building ICT capabilities in nonprofits

Abstract

Over the years, the Digital Divide has focused primarily on the fear that specific groups of people will be left behind in an increasingly technical world. Less, however, has been said about the probability of an organizational digital divide, e.g., that nonprofits may not have access to developing technical capability. The fundamental belief is that nonprofits are at a disadvantage when it comes to adopting and maintaining current information technology systems due to a variety of challenges that they face. The goal of this study was to investigate and assess such adoption through a very systematic and contextualized approach. An action research methodology was used to investigate a nonprofit organization in Western New York during a five-month timespan. The contribution of this study is in applying a modified adaptation of the capabilities framework to understand the nature of the grass-root level impact within the nonprofit from the technology adoption and use.