18 June 2019

Margot James

A survey of the digital landscape across the charity sector has revealed that charities are way behind with regards to digitisation.

Charity Digital Skills Report 2019, a survey of the digital skills landscape across the third sector in the UK, revealed that over half of the respondents (52%) admitted to not even having a digital strategy in place.

Although more than half (53%) of charities are aware of emerging technology developments, they said they are yet to have plans to utilise them. Meanwhile, a mere 12% of the surveyed charities said that they are planning for how the emerging technology can change the way they operate.

However, 56% cited funding as the biggest hurdle in going digital, which was a slight drop from the 58% figure recorded in 2018.

The survey further found that less than a quarter of charities (23%) have a clear strategy on how to leverage digital solutions to meet their goals. 

“Charities and social enterprises continue to amaze us with the inspirational work they carry out within their communities but boosting the digital skills capability of these organisations is increasingly necessary," said UK minister for digital and the creative industries Margot James. “Not only is this essential for the growth of our digital economy, but it also forms the foundation for growing the UK’s thriving ‘tech for good’ sector and we look forward to this great work continuing.”