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.
We are grateful to our funders and contributors for their support.
Catalyst
Catalyst is a collective of individuals and organisations (like charities, funders, agencies and freelancers) with a shared vision: a digitally enabled and resilient social sector. The report will be an essential resource for Catalyst’s work of developing an ecology of interconnected digital support initiatives, shared infrastructures, learning networks and community spaces that experiment with new ways of organising to drive systemic and societal change.