Priorities for digital, data and technology
What do charities see as their key digital, data and technology priorities for the next 12 months?
Almost 6 out of 10 say that building skills for everyone, from staff to leaders and volunteers, is their most important priority for the year ahead.
Top priorities
- Building digital skills: 59% say that building skills of staff, volunteers and leaders is a priority. This is significantly higher than last year, when 43% of charities said their priority was growing staff and volunteer digital skills and 20% said growing board and leadership skills was a priority (63% in total, noting that both options could be selected). Building digital skills is particularly important for large charities this year, with 72% saying it is their top priority. It is also a key priority for 56% of small charities.
- Improving our online presence and communications: More than half (55%) say that building their online presence and digital communications is important to them. This is particularly important to small charities, with 58% saying this is a priority, alongside 48% of large charities.
- Data: 51% say that collecting, managing and analysing data is a priority. This is a growing area of focus for charities, up from 39% last year, which said that improving or using our data to improve services or operations was a priority. Large charities see data as a top priority, with 65% planning to improve how they collect, manage and analyse data in the year ahead. The same is true for nearly half of small charities (47%), which see data as a priority.
- Digital fundraising: Surprisingly, improving digital fundraising is only a priority for 48% of charities, large and small.
- Strategy: Developing a strategy for tech, digital, data or AI is important to 44% of charities this year (similar to 49% last year). However, this rises to 65% of large charities, compared to only 37% of small charities.
- Strengthening digital, data and AI governance and decision making: We were surprised to see that strengthening digital, data and AI governance and decision making is only a priority for 34% of charities overall, in the age of rapid AI development. However, this is still an improvement on the 23% that saw strengthening digital policies and governance as a priority in 2025. It is also worth noting that for large charities, 65% see this as a top priority.
- Securing funding for digital costs and projects: This is a medium priority overall in the sector, with 38% seeing this as a priority for the year ahead. However, this rises to 62% of global majority-led charities, 56% of neurodivergent-led charities and 50% of disabled and deaf-led charities wanting to secure digital funding.
Lower priorities (for less than a third of charities)
- Improve accessibility, diversity and inclusion in/through digital work (26%), which still remains a low priority for charities (28% last year).
- Improve digital service delivery or develop new digital services (21%).
- Recruit or develop specialist digital roles (11%).
- Reduce our digital carbon footprint (12%).
Improving digital service delivery and prioritising accessibility, diversity and inclusion are low down on the list of priorities. It’s also notable that while environmental concerns about AI have risen as a barrier to using AI (31%, up from 26% last year), reducing charities’ digital carbon footprint is yet to translate into a clear priority. Only 12% of charities have no specific priorities for digital, data and technology.
Top priorities for small charities
- Improve online presence and digital communications (58%).
- Build digital skills (staff, volunteers and leaders) (56%).
- Improve digital fundraising (49%).
- Improve how we collect, analyse and use data (47%).
Top priorities for large charities
- Build digital skills (staff, volunteers and leaders) (72%).
- Develop or update our strategy (technology, digital, data or AI) (65%).
- Improve how we collect, analyse and use data (65%).
- Strengthen digital, data and AI governance and decision making (56%).
Digital communications and fundraising priorities
What are charities’ digital communications and fundraising aims for the next 12 months?
Growing reach and income continue to be priorities for charities, alongside a new focus on improving visibility in AI search.
This year, we expanded our list of potential communications and fundraising priorities (as such, we cannot meaningfully compare each of these with 2025).
The top 5 priorities for charities are:
- Grow our reach, online presence and social media engagement (59%), similar to last year and similar for both large and small charities. However, this is by far the biggest priority identified by 60% of small charities, compared to others listed.
- Increase online fundraising income (51%), similar for both large and small charities.
- Use data to better understand and engage with supporters (43%). 57% of large charities see this as a priority compared to only 38% of small charities.
- Revamp our website (36%), similar to 2025; this is slightly more important to 38% of small charities, compared to 33% of large charities.
- Developing content to improve visibility in AI search-driven tools (29%, a new option for 2026). This increases to 45% of large charities, vs 23% of small.
We were surprised that, once again, growing a young supporter base was only a priority for a small proportion of charities (25%, similar to 2025 data and identical for both large and small charities). This only rises to 31% of charities that identify children and young people as a core target group. However, it’s interesting that this is a top priority for a higher proportion of charities led by and for global majority communities, with 45% identifying this as a priority. Growing a pipeline of the donors of tomorrow is an area more charities should consider, whether they work directly with young people or not.
Barriers to digital progress
Charities are unable to progress with digital because of squeezed organisational finances. This is the biggest barrier for 63% of both large and small charities, increasing in significance since 2025.
The biggest barriers are:
- Squeezed organisational finances (63%, similar to 2025).
- Lack of headspace and capacity (51%, down from 64% in 2025).
- Lack of technical expertise or someone to lead on digital (38%, similar to 2025).
- Staff/volunteers have low digital skills and confidence (35%, down from 40% in 2025).
- Poor resourcing and budgeting for digital (30%, down from 37% in 2025).
Squeezed organisational finances are by far the biggest issue affecting charities this year. In contrast, in 2025 charities indicated that a lack of headspace and capacity were similarly challenging and other barriers were given more prominence and rated higher. It’s interesting that resourcing and budgeting are seen as less of a barrier this year, perhaps because the ongoing financial challenges facing charities have overshadowed this.
Both small and large charities have the same top two barriers (finances and headspace). However, for 38% of large charities, CRM limitations (for example, difficult to use, poor reporting, or doesn’t integrate with other systems) are one of the most significant barriers. This is less significant for small charities (17%). More large charities also note challenges around culture and ways of working (32% large vs 16% small) as well as needing to invest in infrastructure, systems and tools (33% large vs 23% small).
