“We have calls to action for charities and for funders!” Zoe Amar on the results of Charity Digital Skills Report 2024

I was pleased to attend the vitally needed Charity Digital Skills conference today hosted by Fundraising Everywhere, and here are my notes from the first session, in which Zoe Amar presented the results from this year’s Charity Digital Skills Report. This just gives a flavour of the excellent conference, and I warmly recommend accessing the rest of the content here.

Will be talking about some reasons to celebrate despite tough times, economic impact and wider challenges, AI adoption and what it looks like, digital funding and what funders can do, inclusion and small charities specifically

We’ve been mapping the UK charity sector regarding digital since 2017, lots of smaller charity responses which is great.

Reasons to celebrate – not just challenges! Charities are moving ahead with digital despite these charities. ¾ moved forward with digital, and over 80% are using digital tools in their service delivery. Strengthened post lockdown.

But cost of living is affecting capacity – hit home this year (7 out of 10 charities finding it a barrier to moving forward digitally). Also creating lack of headspace and capacity. Ripple effect.

Growing gap between large charities and smaller organisations – skills and digital progress.

Some challenges are about looking to the future, engaging with emerging tech, but also skills, challenges and opportunities as we advance through stages of digital maturity (such as user research).

Engaging audiences – real challenges in fundamental areas like paid ads – need time and space to learn.

Want resources for time, technology, people, training and services

Real challenges around skills and capacity to engage with emerging tech trends.

60% of small charities have poor skills and capacity to engage with emerging tech – who can you buddy up with? Also need to skill up the board and “top table”! Shows how the role of trustees and CEOs is changing – they need a developing skillset.

61% of charities using AI from day to day, but only 11% across the organisation.

Top five ways of using AI – eg meeting notes, drafting docs – but also idea generation and research and information gathering, which is encouraging.

Key trends – majority agree that AI developments are relevant but on ly 22% prepared to face the challenges and respond to opportunities. This ius a real concern. How can we close that gap?

Barriers to adopting AI: skills, lack of training, concerns about AI tools (factual accuracy, bias and discrimination, data privacy, ethical, human rights, environmental concerns. But positive results on skills development in addressing these areas.

41% of black led charities finding it difficult to get funding for digital projects – twice as hard compared to overall results. This shames our sector. Funding needs to be consistent. Doing outreach with funders – talk to us.

Charities led by marginalised groups need to be funded properly. Need to consider as the sector adopts digital – it needs to be done in an equitable way.

Where do we go from here?

We have calls to action:

1. Clear vision from CEO
2. Digital strategy development
3. Invest in data capabilities
4. Keep CEOs and board focused on future, particularly to be AI ready.
5. How to adopt AI tools and tech responsibly – in line with our values and in an equitable way.

Also calls to actions for funders, as shown in this slide:

But look at the report itself: The Charity Digital Skills Report – Charity Digital Skills Report