Charities face IT skills shortage

Demand for specialist database skills has dramatically increased as charitable and not for profit organisations become more sophisticated and technology savvy in their approach to fundraising. As competition for donor support becomes more intense so too does the demand for people with the necessary IT skills to support these systems, according to specialist recruitment company, The Principle Partnership.

The challenge facing organisations is how to ensure that they continue to attract the necessary experienced staff on board, or indeed provide additional training for existing staff. Training costs are expensive for database courses on systems like Access, Raiserís Edge, and Visual Alms. This means additional pressure for charitable and not for profit organisations that are already operating on tight budgets.

Kit Gatrell, consultant at The Principle Partnership, comments:

ìCharities are faced with a difficult dilemma - should they release funds that go towards training new staff with the appropriate IT skills, or do they increase efforts to make sure that database skills are part of regular staff training. Associated training costs are undoubtedly an issue therefore it is important that organisations work in partnership with recruitment companies to select the most appropriate candidates who either already have these skills or are best suited to the training investment required to bring them up to speed.î