This year, there looks to be less digital service provision by charities, with just under half (46%) delivering services in-house or via third-party platforms. This is a significant and noteworthy drop from 73% in 2022.
- Half (53%) of charities are not delivering or developing their own digital services (this includes 47% who say they are not and 6% who are not sure).
- Close to a third (30%) are delivering digital services using third-party tools such as Zoom and Facebook.
- A smaller number (16%) are developing their own in-house products and services.
- In total, 46% are delivering digital products and services. This is significantly less than the 73% last year. Further qualitative research is needed to determine why. It may be because of a move back to face-to-face delivery since the pandemic, which may in turn be connected to less funding for digital services. It may also be because it is no longer possible to differentiate between services that are digital or not.
- Larger charities are more likely to deliver digital services. This year, 61% of large charities (compared to 91% in 2022) and 41% of small charities (compared to 66% in 2022) are delivering digital services.
The biggest skills gaps reported are agile ways of working and evaluating digital services.
- This question was part of a filtered section, answered by approximately 80 charities who develop digital services in-house. The following statistics relate to this group, rather than the 504 who answered the survey.
- Almost 1 in 4 (24%) are excellent at product management.
- There’s scope to improve charities’ agile ways of working, with 38% rating themselves as fair and 35% as poor.
- Similarly there’s room for improvement in following service design approaches, with 41% rating themselves as fair and 30% as poor.
- Just over a third of charities (34%) say they are poor at investing in digital effectively.
- 41% charities are fair at evaluating digital services and 37% are poor. This is the biggest area of weakness.
In totality, this data shows that charities need support to improve how they evaluate digital services. They also need to develop and embed agile ways of working and service design approaches.
A quarter of charities who develop digital products and services in-house are poor at monitoring the diversity and accessibility of their users.
- This question was part of a filtered section, answered by approximately 80 charities who develop digital services in-house. The following statistics relate to this group, rather than the 504 who answered the survey.
- It’s encouraging that 29% of charities think that their products and services are inclusive to a great extent.
- Almost 1 in 5 (19%) say that products and services are not developed by diverse teams, although over half (54%) say that development is informed by user research with diverse communities to some extent.
- More than half (58%) say that their products and services are accessible to some extent and over half (53%) feel that they are monitoring accessibility and diversity of users effectively.
- These findings are all very similar to the situation in 2022.
Charities are collaborating around digital and there’s potential to build on this culture of learning in the sector. For example, 44% never make digital solutions available to others and a quarter are not sharing their learning openly.
- This question was part of a filtered section, answered by approximately 80 charities who develop digital services in-house. The following statistics relate to this group, rather than the 504 who answered the survey.
- Encouragingly, 41% say that they often collaborate around digital development or shared systems, compared to only 9% saying they collaborated with other nonprofits around digital development last year. It’s exciting to see collaboration becoming the norm.
- It’s also positive that almost a third (31%) often use existing tools and other no code platforms to develop services, although this is slightly less than the 37% who did this frequently last year.
- Over a third (35%) sometimes apply digital standards or patterns, similar to the 37% last year.
- However, 44% never make digital solutions available to others, which is slightly less than the 51% in this category last year but still a missed opportunity. Similarly, 24% never share learning about their digital work openly.
- It’s good to see that almost half (49%) sometimes discuss digital choices and challenges with other nonprofits, with 23% doing this often.
Two thirds of charities want to know more about using emerging tech such as AI and ChatGPT.
- This question was part of a filtered section, answered by approximately 80 charities who develop digital services in-house. The following statistics relate to this group, rather than the 504 who answered the survey.
- The biggest issue surrounding technology this year, for two thirds (66%) of charities, is how to make the best use of emerging tech such as AI and ChatGPT, indicating the potential for use of these tools across the sector. Only 15% were interested in emerging technologies in 2022.
- Almost 6 out of 10 (59%) are keen to choose suppliers that share their values and ethics, a slight increase on the 55% last year. This is the second biggest concern for charities.
- 45% want to know how algorithms might affect their audience, a significant increase from 25% last year, whilst 42% are interested in unintended consequences of digital and design decisions, compared to 46% last year.
- 37% are keeping an eye on their tech carbon footprint, up from 27% last year.
- Almost a third (32%) are concerned about the impact of automation on staff and their jobs.
- 25% are looking at how commercial platforms manage data about their clients.