Over half of charity boards have low or limited digital skills, with significant room for improvement.
- There is still potential to grow trustees’ digital skills. 57% have skills that are either low or have room for improvement. This is better than the 64% last year, but there is still a long way to go.
- Encouragingly, 26% have good skills and engage with digital, compared to 21% last year. 6% are excellent, the same as last year.
- The results are relatively similar for small and large charities.
- When we look at the 222 charities delivering digital services, the results are still similar, with only 40% saying their board has good or excellent digital skills.
- Those developing in-house digital products and services give a higher rating for their board’s digital skills and understanding overall. For these 78 charities, 19% say their board has excellent digital skills and 25% say they are good. In comparison, for those 144 delivering digital services using third-party platforms, 6% say their board has excellent digital skills and 32% good. For those 226 charities that are not delivering digital services, 2% say their boards’ digital skills are excellent and 23% say good.
Close to 50% of charities do not have anyone with the right digital skills amongst their trustees.
- Almost half (46%) don’t have anyone with digital expertise on their board. This is a major concern if charities are looking to progress with digital.
- Just over a third (35%) do have someone with digital skills on their board.
- 1 in 5 are not sure whether they have a trustee who fits this criteria or not.
- For those 222 charities delivering digital services, 38% still have no digital expertise at board level. Importantly however, for those developing and delivering digital services in-house (78 charities), half (53%) have digital expertise on their board.
- Trustees are critical to charities’ strategy, scrutiny and support. Since our report began in 2017, we have seen a consistent, and significant, digital skills gap on boards. This poses a risk to the sustainability of charities, not least because these demands will only increase given the growth of AI.
Almost half of charities say that a digital trustee would help them progress with digital.
- Close to half (47%) feel that recruiting a digital trustee could assist their digital progress.
- However, it is worth noting that of the 158 charities who have digital expertise at board level, 36% say their digital skills at board level still need to improve and a further 9% say skills are low. In other words, having digital expertise is helping, but not solving the problem of low digital skills amongst board and trustee members.
- 42% say there is a need for more data informed decision making at board level.
- Charities are aware of the challenge that their board poses to their digital progress, with 34% citing a need to understand digital and IT resourcing, 31% keen for better oversight of their digital strategy, 30% wanting better understanding of digital risk, and 27% keen to have greater levels of buy-in for their digital strategy.
- Over a third (34%) feel that if trustees were learning about digital and were less reliant on one digital expert at board level (32%) then this would lead to positive developments for their charity.
- Only 6% feel that their board is effective in this area and doesn’t need to change.
“There are very few staff in my organisation with anything beyond very basic skills, and many with a ‘fear’ of digital (can’t learn it/might break it). However, there is also a justification (coming from the CEO) that ‘I don’t do digital’/’I never use a spreadsheet’ is an acceptable approach. Many staff including the CEO are ‘patting themselves on the back’ for having moved to remote working/MS Teams during COVID, as if that is a ‘breakthrough’ in digital.”
For the fifth year running, charities would most like their leaders to provide a vision of what digital can help them achieve.
- Once again, more than half of charities (56%) told us that the number one thing they want from their leaders is a clear vision of what their organisation could achieve with digital. This is similar to the 58% last year. It is the fifth year running that charities have told us they need leaders to define a vision for digital and it is worrying that this hasn’t changed since 2019, especially given the scale of digital adoption during the pandemic.
- 43% would like their leaders to embed and develop a good digital strategy, similar to last year.
- Just over a third (37%) would like leaders to understand digital trends and how they could affect their charity. Again, this is similar to last year and demonstrates why leaders must allow time for horizon scanning and thinking strategically about digital.
- Just under a third (30%) want their leaders to understand digital tools.
- A similar number (29%) want leaders to understand the investment needed for digital transformation, as well as get a better understanding of data (27%). All are similar to what people expected of leaders in 2022 and 2021, showing how some leaders have not developed these skills.
- Surprisingly, only 14% expected their leaders to have an understanding of service design.
- The results are similar between small and large charities.
These results show how all charities want their leaders to develop a greater strategic vision and a better focus on and understanding of digital.