A call was put out yesterday to all charities and volunteers to nominate themselves and members of their talent pools for a wide-ranging annual awards scheme.

The IT Volunteer Awards 2007 aim to recognise the crucial role that information technology plays in the volunteer sector.

Running the awards is iT4Communities (iT4C), the volunteering programme of the Information Technologists’ Company.

John Davies, programme director of iT4C, told Community Newswire: "IT volunteers make an enormous contribution to both the industry and the community as a whole.

"iT4C’s volunteers have already provided more than £2m worth of contribution in skills and time, so it is vital that these efforts are recognised and rewarded."

It is only due to volunteers that many charity organisations have access to IT support, Mr Davies added.

The main purpose of iT4C is to help charities and volunteer groups gain access to free IT support.

Over £2 million worth of support has been given by the IT sector since the outfit was set up in 2002.