Digital service delivery
How many charities use digital tools (including AI-based tools) as part of delivering services?
A third of charities (33%) say digital, including AI tools, plays an important role in how they organise and deliver their services, whilst 46% of charities say digital is limited or not part of service delivery.
Charities are using digital and AI-based tools in service delivery in the following ways:
- Minimal. Little or no direct use in service delivery (may use behind the scenes): 46%, compared to 39% last year.
- Supportive. Digital tools play an important role in how they organise and deliver some or all of their services (e.g. online booking, video sessions, digital resources): 25%, much lower than the 44% last year.
- Digital-led or hybrid. Some or all services are delivered primarily through digital channels or are fully online: 8%, similar to last year.
Overall, a third of charities (33%) are delivering digital services (supportive or digital-led). This is much less than the 54% last year. We believe this is indicative of our changing sample, which includes a larger number of small charities, as well as charities that are early stage with digital. Our overall figure of 33% is perhaps a better representation of digital service delivery in the sector (rather than a sign of digital service provision falling). This increases to nearly half (48%) of large charities offering digital services, compared to 28% of small charities.
Inclusive service design
How do charities feel their digital services are performing regarding inclusion, accessibility, diversity and safeguarding?
Only 23% of charities believe their digital services are genuinely reaching diverse and marginalised communities. Over half believe they are to some extent, whilst 22% say they are not, or don’t know.
This question was asked only of charities providing digital-led services or whose work supports digital services. All results are very similar to 2025.
- Inclusive of intended users: 31% of charities say their services are very inclusive (to a great extent), whilst 61% believe they are to some extent.
- Accessible, meeting different accessibility needs: 67% say their digital services are meeting different accessibility needs to some extent, whilst only 23% are doing this to a great extent.
- Reaching diverse and marginalised communities: 55% are doing this to some extent. This remains the weakest area, with 8% saying not at all and 14% saying they don’t know, suggesting that some charities are not measuring how well their digital services reach diverse and marginalised communities.
- Safeguarding users of digital services: 31% to a great extent and 51% to some extent.
Most charities feel they are doing the right things to “some extent” but relatively few believe they are doing them well. Across all four areas, only between 23% and 31% of charities feel they are achieving these to a great extent, which suggests significant room for improvement. Charities led by and for specific marginalised groups report much higher results across these areas. Between 50% and 69% of charities led by and for disabled and deaf people are achieving each area to a great extent. There are limited differences between small and large charities here.
How often do charities adopt inclusive design practices when designing their services?
27% of charities either rarely or never co-design services with users.
A note on methodology: this year we changed the response scale for this question from “extent” to “frequency”, so direct year-on-year comparisons of the figures are not possible. However, the relative ranking of practices remains comparable.
The most embedded inclusive design practice is using data and feedback to improve services, with over half of charities (53%) doing this regularly. The other practices we asked about are markedly less embedded, with only around a third of charities doing them regularly.
- 86% of charities use data and feedback to improve services (53% regularly, 33% occasionally). This is the most established practice.
- 72% of charities undertake user research (34% regularly, 38% occasionally). This is more common in large charities (80%, vs 66% of small charities).
- 68% analyse and review monitoring data on diversity and inclusion (32% regularly, 36% occasionally).
- 65% engage diverse groups in user research (32% regularly, 33% occasionally).
- 63% of charities co-design services with users (33% regularly, 30% occasionally). However, 27% rarely or never do this.
Co-design practices are much more common in charities led by and for specific marginalised groups. For example, 73% of disabled and deaf-led charities regularly co-design services with users, compared to only 33% of our overall sample. Similarly, 55% of charities led by and for older people do this, along with 47% of charities led by and for neurodivergent people.
Charities clearly value data and feedback to improve services, but are less likely to involve users, particularly diverse users, in the design of services from the start. Around 1 in 5 charities (18%) rarely co-design services with users, and 1 in 10 never engage diverse groups in user research. This matters because user research and co-design are the practices most likely to ensure digital services work for the people they are meant to serve, particularly those who are marginalised or harder to reach.
User research barriers
What barriers do charities face in undertaking user research?
44% of charities see lack of time and budget as the greatest barrier to undertaking user research.
We know that only 34% of charities are regularly undertaking user research, and report data over the last few years shows that user research is a skills gap across the sector. We wanted to understand more about this, so asked a new question to understand the barriers that charities face.
The top 3 barriers are:
- Limited staff capacity, time or budget in project funding (44%, similar for both large and small charities, this rises to 53% of charities that regularly or occasionally undertake user research).
- Little or no experience of doing user research (30%). This rises to 34% of small charities, compared to only 19% of large charities.
- Relying on staff experience or consultation with users instead (29%, similar for large and small). This rises to 42% of charities that rarely or never undertake user research.
726 charities answered this question, indicating that there is strong interest in user research across the sector. However, the results show that organisations are not able to prioritise this due to a lack of capacity in projects and because they rely on consultation and experience. Furthermore, only 9% of charities are looking for funding to undertake discovery and user research. Overall, user research is not prioritised enough by funders or charities.
