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This paper focuses upon ways in which National Lottery funding impacts upon aspects of identity for small- to medium-sized organizations in the United Kingdom, and highlights some of the less-anticipated difficulties that groups may experience after receipt of a grant. A large Lottery grant can facilitate rapid expansion and may necessitate a degree of organizational learning for which groups are often unprepared. The paper suggests that a Lottery grant may lead to changes in the ways in which an organization identifies itself, or is identified by stakeholders. However, these changes may not be accompanied by a corresponding change in the organization's capacity or underlying cultural ethos. On the basis of the primary research carried out in 2003, the paper examines the implications of these changes for individual organizations and for the sector more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced networked technologies have the potential to support deep strategic and operational transformation within voluntary organizations as they seek to respond to shifts in the social, economic, and political spheres in which they operate. Evidence form our study of U.K. voluntary organizations demonstrates relatively low uptake of the core networking technologies and applications essential to support such transformation. Friends of the Earth and The Samaritans are exceptions to this trend. Case studies of these organizations demonstrate that they are using advanced networked technologies to reconfigure key information flows and relationships, in support of enhanced campaigning and more effective user services. The extent to which these organizations are able to exploit the transformational potential that the technologies present is tempered by historically institutionalized relationships and values by which they are characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]