Established in 2017, The Charity Digital Skills Report is the annual barometer of digital skills, attitudes and support needs across the sector. Everything you have told us via the surveys has helped us track how charities are evolving, as well as gathering insights into areas that are critical success factors for digital progress, such as understanding users, leadership and governance and strategy.
This year, we redeveloped the survey extensively to capture a snapshot of the sector at this pivotal moment of change and to discover where it needs help with digital to maximise its impact. That’s why we’ve asked new questions to uncover exactly what funders need to do to help get the sector onto a sustainable footing. This has to be done in an inclusive way, so we have also gathered insights into the different support needs of organisations led by and serving groups facing structural inequity.
Find out more about the report’s authors below:
Zoe Amar
Zoe Amar is widely regarded as one of the charity sector’s leading digital experts. She founded digital agency and social enterprise Zoe Amar Digital in 2013. Their clients have included Sense, Anglia Ruskin University and The School for Social Entrepreneurs. Zoe is Chair of The Charity Digital Code of Practice. She writes for Third Sector about charities and also co-authored The Charity Commission’s digital guidance for trustees, ‘Making Digital Work’. Zoe has 14 years’ experience as a charity trustee and currently sits on the board of Charity Digital Trust. Previously, Zoe worked for 5 years as part of the leadership team at a national charity that advised nonprofits about technology. She was voted one of the top 20 Pandemic Pioneers by Charity Times and has also won an Inspiring Communicator Award from CharityComms.
Nissa Ramsay
Nissa Ramsay is the founder of Think Social Tech, providing independent research, learning and evaluation consultancy. She helps organisations design funding and support services, with a dedicated focus on digital skills development in the charity sector. Clients have included Catalyst, Power to Change, Reach Volunteering, Comic Relief, Nesta Challenges, Nominet and the Charity Governance Awards. Nissa has a PhD in Human Geography and an MSc in Digital Sociology, alongside 15 years’ experience in the charity sector. She also sits on the board for Chayn.
Thank you to Skills Platform, who were one of the founding funders of the report. Whilst they are no longer involved, we are very grateful for their support from 2017-2021, which helped develop and scale the report across the sector.
Thank you to our report partners
We are very grateful to our report partners who have made the report possible.
Catalyst
Catalyst is a collective of individuals and organisations (like nonprofits, funders, agencies and freelancers) helping the UK social sector grow in digital. Their mission is to centre community needs in design, digital and data decision making through building collective power. By supporting the annual Charity Digital Skills Report, we hope to continue to uncover what the social sector and their communities need, which is vital for understanding how we can collectively support them in the future.
Microsoft
We are delighted to be working with Microsoft on this year’s report.
“Charities are increasingly expected to deliver far more with far less. Generative AI has the potential to help charities to respond to this pressure by supercharging their ability to drive efficiency, support workers and volunteers, and enhance service delivery. But we risk foregoing the vital impact of charities in our communities if they are not supported to make the most of the AI opportunity. Skilling is a key element of this, and as this year’s Charity Digital Skills report highlights, is a very real issue especially for smaller charities.
As part of our Get On skilling initiative, which has already helped over 1.3m people in the UK gain digital skills, Microsoft has committed to supporting an additional one million people to gain the AI skills they need to be successful in this new AI era. Employees, volunteers and trustees at charities can help develop their AI skills and knowledge with free, online learning paths from Microsoft and LinkedIn at opportunity.linked.com, and the Microsoft Digital Skills Center for Nonprofits provides a collection of resources, designed specifically for charities to enable you to start using AI to enhance your marketing, donor relations, research capabilities and fundraising.”
Pixeled Eggs
We’re Pixeled Eggs, we do purpose-driven digital. By designing smart, modern websites at the heart of purpose-driven organisations, we give every good cause its digital edge.
We partner with organisations making a positive impact, nonprofits and charities to create engaging, accessible and sustainable websites.
We believe that Good People + Good Work = A Better World.
Stopgap Recruitment
We’re very excited to partner with Stopgap Recruitment to support and empower not-for-profit organisations in their quest to build and maximise their digital capabilities and teams so they can deliver their strategic and operational plans.
Stopgap is an independent recruitment agency and trusted advisor with over 30 years of experience of helping not-for-profit organisations to find and secure the best marketing talent and build successful digital teams. They understand the challenges the third sector is facing when it comes to digital transformation and hiring talent, and are able to share thought leadership, actionable market insights and hands on tips.