Social enterprise and community businesses

This year, we can provide specific insights relating to social enterprises and community businesses for the first time. We asked organisations to tell us if this is how they described their organisation. Our sample has a higher proportion of small charities, but digital progress is similar to our main sample. Social enterprises and community businesses see digital as a priority and a high proportion are delivering digital services.

Our sample

• 109 (17%) of our responses are from social enterprises and community businesses.
  
  
• 75% are small and 22% are large (the remainder did not specify). This is a much greater proportion of small charities than the 62% in our main sample.
  
  
• 55% are a registered charity or Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and 26% are a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee. 
  
  
• 13% are infrastructure or second tier organisations.
  
  
• 40% are led by people with lived experience of the issue they address, compared to 31% of our main sample.
  
  
• 44% provide frontline services to individuals.

Digital progress and challenges

• Digital progress in social enterprises and community businesses is similar to our main sample. 53% are at an early stage (22% are curious and 31% are starting out), whilst 47% are advancing or advanced, with a strategy in place for digital.

Barriers to digital progress

1. Squeezed organisational finances (72%) 
   
   
2. Finding funds to invest in infrastructure, systems and tools (68%)
   
   
3. Lack of headspace and capacity (65%).

Digital priorities

• 85% see digital as an organisational priority, with 31% saying it is a high priority.
  
  
• 36% say their top priority this year is to develop a digital strategy, whilst 33% say their top priority this year is to develop a data strategy.
  
  
• Top priorities are to build online presence and social media engagement (58%), grow our reach (55%) and grow staff/volunteer digital skills (48%).

Services

• 82% are delivering services built on digital tools, in a supportive or integral role.
  
  
• 55% are using digital tools behind the scenes to help run services.
  
  
• 11% support clients with digital inclusion, whilst 25% say this is a priority.
  
  
• 65% feel their services are inclusive to some extent (42%) or a great extent (23%).
  
  
• This year, 27% say their priority is to develop or scale digital services, whilst 17% plan to offer new digital services.

AI 

• 59% are using AI in their day-to-day work or operations. 
  
  
• 33% say that using AI tools is a priority this year.
  
  
• 18% are using AI tools behind the scenes to deliver services.
  
  
• 67% agree or strongly agree that AI developments are relevant to them.
  
  
• 31% agree or strongly agree that they feel prepared to respond to AI opportunities and challenges, compared to 22% in our main sample.

Funding

• 23% accessed funding for some digital costs (e.g. devices or staff time), whilst 11% 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 are:
  
  
  • We prioritise meeting demand and delivering our current work (37%)
  • We need to prioritise paying the bills and other core costs (34%)
  • We cannot find a funder who will support our digital project (25%).

Top funding needs

• Capacity/headspace for organisational development (55%).
  
  
• Training for staff and volunteers on digital or data (43%).
  
  
• Bring in external advice/expertise (40%).
  
  
• Subscriptions/licence costs (39%).