The current era is referred to as the “information age” because of the fast developments taking place in information technology. Information technology has had a major impact in most industries, from grocery stores to trucking, and has transformed some industries, such as financial services, health care, and many others. Every day brings new types of IT into existence. Most business organizations understand how important IT is to being competitive, or to just surviving. Carla Smith, Executive Vice President, HIMSS stated: "Technology mandates and quality healthcare have finally come together in a way that we've never seen before, and in response, we've created specific content around the coming trends in 2013, with a particular focus on meaningful use, mobile health and consumer engagement ( New Offerings and Programming for Health IT Professionals, 2013)."
Nonprofit organizations are no exception to these changes; however, many of them have been relatively slow to get benefits of emerging IT, although most use computers for word processing, spreadsheet and accounting applications. Traditionally, nonprofits don’t meet same competition pressure as businesses, so they not respond so fast on rapid innovations in IT. From the other side, wide use of computers and Internet makes technology available to both donors and recipients of NPO organization services.
Accepting IT by nonprofits gives them many privileges. The power of Internet gives possibilities for organizations to create their own web site. It lets people find