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Large Charities

This year, 211 large charities with an income greater than £1m took the survey, similar to 2025. However, we have also seen changes within our sample of large charities, with 56% being at an early stage with digital, compared to only 32% last year. Despite this, large charities continue to lead on digital and AI adoption.

 

Digital priorities for large charities in the year ahead

  • In the past year, 43% of large charities have made good or significant progress with digital, whilst a further 49% have made some progress. 

  • 44% of large charities have a strategy in place for digital.

  • Key intentions for the year ahead are to:

  1. Build digital skills (staff, volunteers and leaders) (72%).

  2. Develop or update our strategy (technology, digital, data or AI) (65%).

  3. Improve how we collect, analyse and use data (65%).

  4. Strengthen digital, data and AI governance and decision making (56%). 

  • Large charities’ digital communications and fundraising intentions are to:

    • Use data to understand and better engage with supporters (57%).

    • Grow reach, online presence and social media engagement (57%).

    • Increase online fundraising income (49%).

  • In terms of social media, large charities plan to focus on storytelling and involving people with lived experience (67%), as well as sharing more video and informal co-created content (54%).


Barriers large charities face with digital

  • For large charities, the biggest barriers to moving forward with digital are squeezed organisational finances (61%) and a lack of headspace and capacity (58%).

  • CRM limitations (such as being difficult to use, poor reporting or not integrating with other systems) are a distinct challenge for 38% of large charities (vs 17% small), and 41% are prioritising investment in systems and infrastructure in the year ahead.

  • Poor resourcing for digital is only noted as a barrier for 31% of large charities. However, in our skills question, a third (37%) of large charities say they are not resourcing digital effectively and only 25% of large charities say they are good or excellent at doing this.




Digital services in large charities

  • Nearly half (48%) of large charities offer services built on digital tools and processes.

  • Over half (58%) provide digital inclusion services and support, with 39% providing this formally within services or as an organisational priority.

  • 45% of large charities say their use of digital tools in service delivery is excellent or good, whilst a further 37% say they are fair (only 11% are poor at this).

 


AI adoption in large charities

  • Half (50%) of large charities feel they are responding to the opportunities and challenges surrounding AI, whilst 77% are excited about the potential for AI to make their work more efficient and impactful.

  • Overall, 92% of large charities are using AI tools, with nearly half (49%) using AI tools actively or strategically and the remaining 43% still at the exploring stage.

  • 82% of large charities are using AI organisation-wide in administration and project management. The second key use case for AI is for monitoring and evaluation (42%).

  • In day-to-day work, those working for large charities are also using AI tools to create documents and presentations (73%), to generate ideas and for creative thinking (60%), as well as for research and information gathering (55%).

  • 39% of large charities are considering or using AI agents.

  • Despite extensive AI adoption, a third of large charities (32%) say that they have poor skills in using AI tools in everyday work. 35% also say they are poor at keeping up with emerging tech trends, or don’t do this at all. 

 


How large charities are moving forward with AI

  • To move forward with AI, 79% of large charities have an AI policy (36%) or agreed good practice in place or in development (43%). 

  • In addition, 39% have developed or are developing their AI strategy and 37% have agreed organisationally approved AI tools.

  • The key barriers to AI adoption that large charities face are:

    • Quality concerns (accuracy in AI-generated answers) (60%).

    • Limited skills and technical expertise (57%).

    • Data privacy, GDPR and security concerns (54%).

  • Trust in AI is also a bigger concern for 44% of large charities, compared to only 32% of small charities, and this does not seem to be dependent on the level of AI adoption.







Large charities’ funding needs

  • Overall, 37% of large charities have accessed funding to contribute towards digital costs of projects this year. This includes 23% accessing funds from grantmaking trusts and foundations, as well as 15% that have accessed funding from other sources.The biggest barrier large charities face is that core cost funding is not sufficient to cover digital costs. 

  • The biggest funding needs large charities have are:

    • Training staff, volunteers, leaders or boards (45%).

    • Developing our use of AI (45%).

 


Large charities’ skills 

  • Large charities’ strengths include using digital tools in everyday work, using digital tools in service delivery, social media, making the most of their website, creating content, collecting and managing data, and using data to inform decision making or strategy, as well as email marketing. In each skill area, over 80% say they are excellent, good or fair.

  • Skills gaps for large charities include:

    • Digital fundraising: Only 23% say they are excellent or good at this, and 49% say that increasing this is a priority for the year ahead.

    • Search and digital advertising: Less than 40% of charities say they are effectively using search engine optimisation, paid social media advertising, and pay-per-click ads such as Google Ads, and only 15% are investing in AI search (generative engine optimisation, or GEO) this year. 

    • Investing in and resourcing digital effectively: Only 25% of large charities feel they are good or excellent at this. 

    • Approaching digital strategically: Only 44% of large charities are advancing and advanced with digital, compared to 68% in our sample last year. Large charities need to embed digital in their organisational strategy and invest in this.

  • 53% of large charities rate their CEOs’ digital skills as excellent or good. A further 31% rate them as fair. However, CEOs’ AI skills are lower, with only 28% rating these as excellent or good (and 31% as fair). Boards’ digital and AI skills are seen as lower than CEOs’. Just over a quarter (26%) of charities are confident in their board’s digital skills and only 13% are confident in their AI skills (rating them as good or excellent). 

 


Large charities’ support and development needs


  • 44% of large charities do not know if they are seeing any changes to their website usage or the service provision as a result of AI search. A small proportion are investing in GEO to improve visibility in AI tools (15%), and 45% are developing content to improve visibility in GEO. Large charities delivering online services and content to support their issue need to develop this area of work.

  • In terms of data support needs, 53% of large charities most need external support to use AI tools for data analysis, whilst 48% want to learn about storytelling with data.

  • To move forward with AI, the sector-wide support that large charities need most is training for staff and volunteers (67%), as well as for leaders and trustees (63%).

  • 40% of large charities do not have someone with relevant digital expertise on their board and may benefit from this to progress with digital.

  • To progress with digital, large charities most need their board or trustees to:

    • Learn more about emerging tech and AI tools (40%).

    • Learn more about digital (38%).

    • Recruit at least one digital trustee (38%).

  • To progress with digital, large charities most need their CEO to:

    • Develop a clear vision of what they could achieve with digital (49%).

    • Engage with emerging trends, tech and AI tools (39%).


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