Overall Digital Progress

Digital stage

44% of charities have a digital strategy in place, which has declined from 50% last year. However, just over a third (34%) are advancing with digital.

We describe four stages of digital development in our survey and ask respondents to select which is the best fit for their organisation (see our definitions). From this we can see:

Curious: Just under 1 in 4 charities (24%) are at the earliest stage with digital. When we compare by size, 33% of small charities are at the curious stage, compared to 6% of large charities.
Starting out: 32% are starting out with digital, similar to 2024. 35% of small charities are starting out with digital, compared to 26% of large charities.
Advancing: 34% are advancing with digital and are investing, although it’s not yet embedded. This is similar to last year. Only a quarter (24%) of small charities are advancing with digital, compared to 57% of large charities.

Advanced: 9% are advanced with digital, compared to 14% last year. 8% of small charities say they are at this stage, compared to 11% of large charities.

Overall, this means that more than half (56%) of charities are at early stages with digital (i.e. curious or starting out). 44% have a strategy in place for digital and are advancing or advanced on their digital journey. This has fallen from 50% in 2024 and 48% in 2023. This means that there has been an overall decline in the proportion of charities with a digital strategy (advancing and advanced categories). Size also plays a role here. In 2022, 18% of small charities indicated that they were at the earliest curious stage of digital. This has grown every year, reaching 33% in 2025. In contrast, 2% of large charities were at the curious stage of development in 2022, compared to 6% in 2025.

The gap between large and small charities

Again this year, larger charities are significantly further ahead with digital. However, both large and small charities have increasing proportions at an earlier stage with digital.

Small charities: 68% are at an early stage with digital, while 32% have a strategy in place (advancing and advanced). This is slightly backtracking from 64% of small charities at an early stage and 36% with a strategy in place in 2024.
Large charities: 32% are early stage, while 68% have a strategy in place (advancing and advanced). This also indicates a regression from 2024, when 26% were at the early stages of their journey, compared to 74% with a strategy in place.
Income continues to play a significant role in digital maturity, as it did in 2024 and 2023. For each higher income bracket, we can see the proportion of charities at an early stage with digital (curious and starting out) decreasing:
- £0–£100,000: 79% are early stage
- £100,001–£500,000: 61% are early stage
- £500,001–£999,999: 59% are early stage
- £1m+: 32% are early stage.

Key differences in digital maturity

There are higher proportions of charities at an early stage with digital with the following key characteristics. Size is either not a factor here (they have similar proportions of small and large charities) or has been accounted for.

Note that in our overall sample, 56% of charities are at an early stage with digital (including 24% at the curious stage and 32% who are starting out).

Black led: 68% are at an early stage (32% curious, 36% starting out).
Older people led charities: 72% are at an early stage (22% curious, 40% starting out).

There are also regional variations in digital development stages. Northern Ireland has a higher proportion of charities at an early stage with digital (64%), as do charities in the Midlands (67%). Further detail can be found in our Nations and Regions section.

Digital stage and skills development

When we look at each digital stage, we can also see a clear shift in digital skills and capacity. We looked at the proportion of charities rating their skills and capacity as excellent or fair for each skill, according to the digital stage they selected. This helps us build a picture of how charities make progress with digital and what skills they develop first.

Curious stage and skills development

“We have some digital basics in place, such as social media or remote working, and see opportunities to do more”

Strong skills. Most charities (70% or more) in this earliest stage of digital will typically have good or excellent skills and capacity in terms of:

Data protection and GDPR compliance (86%)
Use digital tools in everyday work (81%)
Social media (73%)
Creating engaging content (71%).

Some skills. Charities at this stage will be starting to make progress, with over half (50–70%) having good or excellent skills and capacity in the following areas:

Cybersecurity and threat protection (63%)
Use digital tools in service delivery (62%)
Use data to inform decision making and strategy (60%)
Collect, manage and analyse data (58%)
Making the most of our website (56%)
IT support and hardware (53%)
Systems and databases (53%).

Limited skills. Charities are likely to have limited skills and capacity in the following areas, with less than half 50% rating themselves as excellent or good:

Board digital skills (49%)
CEO digital skills (54%)
Conduct and act on user research (49%)
Email marketing (35%)
Using website and analytics data (28%)
Keep up with emerging tech trends (27%)
Invest in and resource digital effectively (25%)
Use AI tools in everyday work (26%)
Search Engine Optimisation (20%)
Online fundraising (26%)
Paid social media advertising (10%).

Making progress. Less than half (39%) made good or significant progress with digital in the last 12 months. This group is most likely to focus on progress in terms of social media engagement (62%), revamping their website (39%) and staff or volunteer digital skills (34%).

Starting out stage and skills development

“We’re developing our use of digital but we don’t yet have a strategy in place”

Strong skills. Most charities (70% or more) in the starting out stage of digital will typically have good or excellent skills and capacity in terms of:

Data protection and GDPR compliance (91%)
Use digital tools in everyday work (90%)
Social media (78%)
Creating engaging content (72%)
Cybersecurity and threat protection (74%)
Use digital tools in service delivery (72%)
Making the most of our website (72%)
IT support and hardware (70%).

Some skills. Charities at this stage will be starting to make progress in the following areas, with over half (50–70%) having good or excellent skills and capacity in:

CEO digital skills (60%)
Systems and databases (59%)
Use data to inform decision making and strategy (65%)
Collect, manage and analyse data (63%)
Conduct and act on user research (57%)
Email marketing (50%)
Board digital skills (45%).

Limited skills. Charities are likely to have limited skills and capacity in the following areas, with less than half 50% rating themselves as excellent or good;

Using website and analytics data (38%)
Keep up with emerging tech trends (33%)
Invest in and resource digital effectively (30%)
Use AI tools in everyday work (24%)
Search Engine Optimisation (31%)
Online fundraising (39%)
Paid social media advertising (19%).

Making progress. Half (51%) made good or significant progress with digital in the last 12 months. The biggest areas of progress are the same as the other stages (social media engagement at 61% and revamping our website at 45%). However, at this stage there are also more charities making progress with:

IT, systems or infrastructure upgrades (33%, vs 13% at the curious stage)
Digital communications (32%, vs 22% at the curious stage)
Data protection and cybersecurity (27%, vs 16% at the curious stage).

Advancing stage and skills development

“Digital is part of our strategy and we’re investing in technology and skills, but we’ve not embedded this yet”

Strong skills. Most charities (70% or more) in the advancing stage of digital will typically have good or excellent skills and capacity in terms of:

Data protection and GDPR compliance (97%)
Use digital tools in everyday work (99%)
Social media (89%)
Creating engaging content (90%)
Cybersecurity and threat protection (92%)
Use digital tools in service delivery (83%)
Making the most of our website (83%)
IT support and hardware (91%)
Systems and databases (82%)
Use data to inform decision making and strategy (77%)
Collect, manage and analyse data (87%)
Conduct and act on user research (72%)
CEO digital skills (78%).

Some skills. Charities at this stage will be starting to make progress in the following areas, with over half (50–70%) having good or excellent skills and capacity in:

Board digital skills (65%)
Email marketing (65%)
Using website and analytics data (61%)
Keep up with emerging tech trends (66%)
Invest in and resource digital effectively (68%).

Limited skills. Charities are likely to have limited skills and capacity in the following areas, with less than half rating themselves as excellent or good:

Search Engine Optimisation (48%)
Online fundraising (41%)
Use AI tools in everyday work (37%)
Paid social media advertising (37%).

Making progress. 85% made good or significant progress with digital in the last 12 months. Similar to other stages, social media engagement is the biggest area of progress (57%), as is a website revamp (45%). At the advancing stage, we can also see more progress with:

IT, systems or infrastructure upgrades (48%, vs 33% starting out) – as a result, 82% rate their systems and databases as excellent (20%) or fair (62%), up from 59% at the previous starting out stage
Our strategy for digital, data or AI (45%, vs 9% starting out)
Staff and volunteer digital skills (45%, vs 29% starting out)
Data protection and cybersecurity (45%, vs 27% starting out)
Data collection, analysis or use (44%, vs 30% starting out)
Digital policies and governance (42%, vs 13% starting out)

Advanced stage and skills development

“Digital is fully embedded in our organisational strategy and our ways of working”

Strong skills. Most charities (70% or more) in the advanced stage of digital will typically have good or excellent skills and capacity in terms of:

CEO digital skills (90%)
Board digital skills (78%)
Data protection and GDPR compliance (99%)
Use digital tools in everyday work (100%)
Social media (94%)
Creating engaging content (94%)
Cybersecurity and threat protection (85%)
Use digital tools in service delivery (98%)
Making the most of our website (94%)
IT support and hardware (92%)
Systems and databases (89%)
Use data to inform decision making and strategy (89%)
Collect, manage and analyse data (92%)
Conduct and act on user research (84%)
Email marketing (76%)
Using website and analytics data (81%)
Keep up with emerging tech trends (90%)
Invest in and resource digital effectively (87%).

In addition, 42% say their services are digital by default, or fully online, compared to 9% at the advancing stage.

Some skills. Charities at this stage will be starting to make progress in the following areas, with over half (50–70%) having good or excellent skills and capacity in:

Use AI tools in everyday work (57%)
Search Engine Optimisation (60%).

Less than half have good or excellent skills in online fundraising (48%) and paid social media advertising (33%).

Making progress — Most charities (89%) at the advanced stage have made good or significant progress with digital in the last 12 months. Similar to the advancing stage, key areas of digital progress include social media engagement (56%), staff and volunteer digital skills (51%), data collection, analysis or use (51%), digital policies and governance (48%), data protection and cybersecurity (48%), a website revamp (46%) and recruiting new digital, data or technology roles (32%). Higher proportions are progressing with:

AI tools, use cases, opportunities and risks (51%, vs 37% advancing)
Operations and administrative tasks (49%, vs 29% advancing)
Accessibility, inclusion and diversity in digital services (35%, vs 22% advancing)
Using digital tools in service delivery (33%, vs 24% advancing)
Attracting funding or donations (30%, vs 19% advancing)
Recruiting new digital, data or technology roles (32%, vs 24% advancing).

Digital achievements

Almost two-thirds of charities (63%) have made progress with digital this year.

This is a new question designed to measure charities’ overall sense of progress before we find out which areas they have made progress in (see next question).

50% have made good progress (by developing skills and capacity)
14% have achieved significant progress
Just under a third (32%) have stayed the same
3% have encountered setbacks that have reversed progress.

It’s encouraging that around two-thirds of charities (63%) have moved forward with digital, despite the significant financial challenges facing the sector.

Digital achievements are also related to both size and stage, with larger charities and those with stronger digital capacity making more progress with digital:

Three-quarters (76%) of large charities have made good or significant progress with digital this year, compared to 59% of small charities.
86% of those at the advanced and advancing digital stages have made progress this year (61% significant and 25% good), compared to 39% at the curious stage and 51% at the starting out stage.

Where charities have made progress in digital, data and tech

Almost 6 out of 10 charities (59%) have moved forward with social media engagement and 44% have improved their websites.

The top 3 areas where charities have made progress are:

Social media engagement (59%): This had a significant lead on other areas of progress.
Revamped our website: 44% of charities improved their sites.
Improved staff and volunteer digital skills (37%): This is similar to the 40% who progressed this last year.

Progress in social media and websites indicates that charities are still investing in digital marketing and their infrastructure.

It’s also notable that a third (35%) progressed their data collection, analysis or use, and 34% progressed IT, systems or infrastructure upgrades.

Large charities are more likely to have made progress with:

IT, systems or infrastructure upgrades (53%, vs 27% of small charities)
Data protection and cybersecurity (46%, vs 26% of small charities)
Data collection, analysis or use (45%, vs 31% of small charities)
Our strategy (for digital, data or AI) (41%, vs 17% of small charities)
AI tools, use cases, opportunities and risks (41%, vs 24% of small charities).

Small charities are more likely to say they have made progress with:

Social media engagement (66%, vs 47% of large charities)
Revamping our website (43%, vs 47% of large charities)
Staff and volunteer digital skills (39%, vs 35% of large charities)
Operations and administrative tasks (32%, vs 26% of large charities).

What are the most significant factors which helped charities make progress with digital?

For the first time in our report, we asked a qualitative question to gather insights on the critical actions that helped charities achieve progress. We had 478 qualitative responses to this question. The most popular themes are outlined below.

1. Funding and resource allocation

“Funding to invest in a CRM system and funding … for more up to date laptops. Our website company is also working hard on sustainability.”

“Creating a dedicated fund for digital transformation and recruiting a new role with the skills to lead its delivery.”

“The investment from our board 12 months ago to create an inhouse innovation team. This allowed us to develop a solution quickly and test with our users.”

2. Strategic leadership

“Employing a forward thinking Director to drive forward the business model and Community Development Manager with digital ‘enthusiasm’ to revolutionise the charity’s ways of working and seize opportunities to focus on automation and fundraising.”

“Strong leadership by CTO with significant experience. Building internal relationships and changing the Tech function from an order-taker to a partner. Org appetite for exploring AI is unlocking different conversations about digital and tech in general.”

“Having a clear strategy and roadmap which has buy-in from board level and strong ownership.”

3. Skills and capabilities

“Specific data-focused roles, in particular Data Protection Officer, Database Officer, Impact and Evidence Manager.”

“We have an app as part of our mission delivery – so hiring a React Native Engineer and Product Owner and integrating systems into our practice such as PostHog and AWS.”

“Transformation programme. Prioritising digital over other things – making the time to learn how to do things.”

4. Processes, tools and ways of working

“Using AI to support content creation, data analysis, helping to create automation and refining reports. We have also started to automate some admin tasks.”

“We’ve restructured (lost staff) so have had to become more efficient with how we work digitally and use online tools.”

“Always seeking to be user-led with our digital project and innovations – we have used a combination of ‘problem/hypothesis statements’, and flexible, agile project planning to help keep user needs front and centre.”

5. Support and partnerships

“Digital Candle made an introduction to The Developer Society who created a new website for us that is super accessible.”

“Help from a corporate org who did a comms workshop with us which included digital comms. With a follow up which taught leadership how to use paid social media ads well for recruitment.”

“Worked in partnership to bring a new product to market in the UK; fostered a curious and open attitude among the team to digital; worked in partnership with Scottish Tech Army.”

6. Infrastructure and cybersecurity

“Moving to a single cloud-based platform (Google) rather than a mixed system. Using project management software. Improved policy and practice around data protection supported by digital systems.”

“We have developed a new digital strategy to support the implementation of a CRM system which will help to streamline our work. Through our research and development, we have been reviewing our existing digital infrastructure.”

“Focused on security and training for rolling out Microsoft Copilot licenses. After 1 month of use with AI, we are seeing significant benefit and cost savings.”

Analysis

The themes above chime with what we see in the data from our report. Funding, leadership, skills, support and infrastructure are critical success factors for charities who progress with digital, so it’s not surprising that these are reinforced in these insights.

What also stands out from some of these responses is how purposeful charities are now being about technology, with goals behind their actions. It’s encouraging to see the results achieved by charities who had a clear rationale for what they did.

Barriers to digital progress

More than 60% of charities aren’t progressing with digital because of squeezed finances, funding, headspace and capacity. These are the same top 3 barriers as last year.

The cost of living crisis is continuing to block charities from making progress with digital. The top five challenges they face are very similar to last year. Charities are facing many constraints to digital progress in the current climate, with an increase in need for digital funds this year. The most significant barriers to progressing with digital are as follows, and were similar to 2024 unless stated otherwise:

Squeezed organisational finances (69%).
Finding funds to invest in infrastructure, systems and tools (64%, up from 60% last year).
Lack of headspace and capacity (64%).
Lack of technical expertise or someone to lead on digital (41%).
Staff/volunteer digital skills (40%), down from 47% last year.

It’s not surprising but it is concerning that finances, funding and skills continue to be ongoing hurdles for charities when moving ahead with digital. As we saw in last year’s report, the stress of the financial squeeze gripping the sector also means that almost two-thirds of charities do not have the bandwidth to plan their next steps in digital.

Worryingly, this is continuing to have a disproportionate impact on small charities. They face the same top 3 barriers as large charities, but to a greater extent:

Squeezed organisational finances (72%, vs 61% of large charities).
Finding funds to invest in infrastructure, systems and tools (68%, vs 55% of large charities).
Lack of headspace and capacity (62%,vs 67% of large charities).

We can also see in the previous questions that, as a result, fewer small charities are making progress with digital (59%, vs 76% large).

It is also noteworthy that 43% of large charities are struggling to progress with digital because of the increase in National Insurance/minimum wage reducing their budget.

Funders and other organisations supporting the sector need to review how they can best support charities with organisational development, strategy, infrastructure and skills. In a context of increasing costs and declining budgets, charities will continue to make cuts and the sector will have less impact.

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