“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). Engag