Small Charities

In our main report, we highlight how smaller charities have made wide ranging digital progress. Overall, however, smaller charities have much lower digital skills and capacity than larger charities. Furthermore, this gap looks to be increasing. Here we recap and provide further data specifically relating to small charities. Overall, we can see there is a clear case for targeted support and funding to help small charities with capacity, skills and time to focus on digital and organisational development.

Our sample

• 364 organisations (62% of our responses) are small charities, with an income of up to £1 million. This includes: 
  
  
  • £0 to £10,000: 49 organisations (8%)
  • £10,001 to £100,000: 114 organisations (18%)
  • £100,001 to £500,000: 164 organisations (26%)
  • £500,001 to £999,999: 58 organisations (9%).
    
    
• 39% are led by people with lived experience. 
  
  
• 75% are registered charities or a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, 15% are a company limited by guarantee, 7% are a Community Interest Company.
  
  
• 20% describe themselves as a social enterprise or community business.
  
  
• 10% are infrastructure or second tier organisations.
  
  
• 53% provide frontline services to individuals.

Digital progress

• 64% are at an early stage with digital (27% curious and 37% starting out).
  
  
• 36% are advancing or advanced, with a strategy in place for digital. Last year, 42% of small charities had reached this stage, which is a worrying decline. 
  
  
• For the smallest charities, with an income of up to £100,000, 70% are at the curious and starting out stage. This falls to 61% of those with an income between £100,001 and £500,000 and 53% of those in the £500,001 and £999,999 income bracket. The same trend was apparent in 2023 and the proportions have increased slightly.

Barriers

1. Squeezed organisational finances (72%) 
   
   
2. Lack of headspace and capacity (66%)
   
   
3. Finding funds to invest in infrastructure, systems and tools (63%) 

Skills gaps

1. Engaging with emerging tech trends (60% are poor at this or don’t do this)
   
   
2. Using digital tools in service delivery (52% are poor at this or don’t do this)
   
   
3. Resourcing digital effectively (44% are poor at this or don’t do this)
   
   
4. Undertaking user research (39% are poor at this or don’t do this)
   
   
5. Make the most of their website (38% are poor at this or don’t do this)

Digital priorities

• 77% see digital as an organisational priority, with 23% saying it is a high priority.
  
  
• 42% say their top priority this year is to develop a digital strategy, whilst 29% say their top priority this year is to develop a data strategy.
  
  
• Top priorities for small charities are:
   
  • Build our online presence and social media engagement (58%)
  • Increase online fundraising (54%)
  • Grow our reach (47%).

Services

• 56% are delivering services built on digital tools, in a supportive or integral role.
  
  
• 57% are using digital tools behind the scenes to help run services.
  
  
• 13% support clients with digital inclusion, whilst 15% say this is a priority.
  
  
• 64% feel their services are inclusive to some extent (41%) or a great extent (23%).
  
  
• 22% plan to develop or scale digital services, 15% want to offer new digital services.

AI 

• 53% are using AI in their day-to-day work, compared to 78% of large charities.
  
  
• 21% are using AI tools behind the scenes to deliver services.
  
  
• 56% agree or strongly agree that AI developments are relevant to them, whilst 23% feel prepared to respond to AI opportunities and challenges.
  
  
• 50% of small charities are saying they definitely (16%) or probably (34%) will look for external training or support to move forwards with AI.

Funding 

• 19% accessed funding for some digital costs (e.g. devices or staff time) and 4% accessed funding for substantial digital costs (e.g. a digital role or website). 
  
  
• 22% did not include digital costs in their grant funding applications.
  
  

• The top barriers to accessing funding for digital costs are:
  
  
  • We prioritise meeting demand and delivering our current work (43%)
  • We need to prioritise paying the bills and other core costs (36%)
  • Our typical funders do not cover digital costs (28%).

Funding needs:

• Capacity/headspace for organisational development (59%)
• Training for staff and volunteers on digital or data (47%)
• Develop our digital strategy (42%).

Leadership

• 66% say their trustees’ digital skills are low or in need of improvement.
  
  

• The top skills, knowledge and behaviours CEOs need to develop are:
  
  

1. A clear vision of what we could achieve with digital (56%)
2. Understand digital tools and ways of working (44%)
3. A clear vision and plan to improve our data (42%)
4. Ability to develop and embed a good digital strategy (42%)
5. Keep up to date with emerging trends, tech and AI tools (38%).

Data support: top priorities for small charities

1. Storytelling with data (52%)
2. Website and social media analytics (50%)
3. Analysing and making sense of data (43%).

Learning about digital

• Sector publications, reports and guides are the most popular form of support (42%).
  
  
• 20% said they had not benefited from external sources of digital support this year.