The Strategic Use of Information Technology by Nonprofit Organizations: Increasing Capacity and Untapped Potential

How are nonprofits using information technology to enhance mission‐related outcomes and boost organizational performance? The authors examine a large‐scale survey of nonprofits’ technology planning, acquisition, and implementation to assess the strategic use of IT in these organizations. They evaluate nonprofits’ strategic technology‐use potential by examining IT‐related competencies and practices that are critical for the successful strategic employment of technology resources. Several promising developments are found, alongside significant deficits in the strategic utilization of IT, especially in the areas of financial sustainability, strategic communications and relationship building, and collaborations and partnerships. To boost IT’s mission‐related impact, nonprofits must enhance their organizational capacities in long‐term IT planning, budgeting, staffing, and training; performance measurement; Internet and Web site capabilities; and the vision, support, and involvement of senior management.     

The reduction of violent crime through economic equality for women

Normally we do not link the reduction of violent crime with equal rights for women, this paper traces such a linkage. Central to the logic of this argument is that the distribution of the frequency of violent crime is often described by a bimodal curve which supposedly distinguishes between minor, unimportant offenders and a distinct group of serious offenders: the target for many policies being the latter. In fact, this bimodal distribution does not exist; therefore, policies based on it will be fruitless. The larger group of minor offenders is basically ignored. The distribution of violence is better described as a continuous skewed curve which retains its shape. Thus, an effective policy to reduce violence would have to shift the entire curve to the left. Reducing the more numerous acts of lesser violence rather than concentrating on the rarer cases of extreme violence would be more effective. Since much violence is nurtured in family settings, policies that decrease stress in family settings would have a meaningful impact on future violence. Stress could be reduced with greater economic equality for women, making it possible for them to leave potentially violent domestic settings. In the long term this would have an impact on violent crime.     

Interpreting Meaning in Juvenile Court: The Use of Local Wisdom

To be presented at the 1982 Annual Meetings of Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association in Ottawa, June 6–9. The author would like to thank the many people working with juveniles in Alberta and elsewhere who provided insights for this paper. The work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Grant Sumber 410-79-0124 and by funds from the Solicitor General's Contributions Grant.