Skills and capabilities in engaging audiences
The areas where charities see themselves as confident and where they struggle most are largely similar to last year, suggesting that skills have not grown significantly, nor have skills gaps closed. As noted earlier, the introduction of ‘good’ as a new rating option this year means direct year-on-year comparisons of confidence levels are not possible, although the relative ranking of skills and the proportions rating themselves as poor or not doing each activity remain comparable.
Where charities are most confident
The top three skills where charities are most confident are the same as last year:
- Social media: Half of charities (50%) rate themselves as excellent (12%) or good (38%) at social media, with a further 34% saying they are fair at this. Large charities are slightly more confident here, with 62% saying they are good or excellent, compared to less than half of small charities (46%).
- Creating engaging content: Half of charities (50%) are confident in this skill, with just over 1 in 10 (11%) excellent at creating engaging digital content and 39% good. A further 34% rate themselves as fair. Again, small charities are less confident here, with 45% saying they are good or excellent, compared to 62% of large charities.
- Making the most of their website: 44% of charities feel confident in making the most of their website, with 8% saying they are excellent at this and 36% good. A further 35% rate themselves as fair. Encouragingly, the proportion rating themselves as poor at this has fallen from 22% in 2025 to 16% this year, and this falls to only 7% of large charities. 1 in 4 small charities (25%) do not have a website or are not using this effectively.
Where charities struggle most
The areas in which the highest proportions of charities rate themselves as ‘poor’ or say they ‘don’t do this’ are similar to last year:
- Using website and analytics data: This year, using website and analytics data has the highest ‘poor’ rating of any engagement skill, with 30% saying they are poor at this and a further 13% not doing it at all. With analytics so foundational to digital decision making, this is a worrying gap. This is particularly the case for small charities, with 52% saying they are poor at this or don’t do it.
- Digital fundraising: 30% are poor at this, while 28% say they don’t do this – a combined 58% of charities, which is surprising. Looking at our data year on year, this is an ongoing, systemic skills gap across the sector. This affects 64% of small charities, as well as 41% of large charities.
- Search engine optimisation (SEO): A quarter (24%) of charities say their skills are poor, and an additional 25% do not use SEO. This means almost half of charities (48%) struggle with SEO. This rises to 58% of small charities, compared to 24% of large. This pattern of responses echoes last year.
- Email marketing: 41% of charities are either poor at (19%) or don’t do (22%) email marketing, similar to last year. Again, this is influenced heavily by the 50% of small charities struggling with this, compared to only 17% of large charities.
It is also worth noting that high proportions of charities do not do the following:
- Pay per click (PPC) ads (66%).
- Paid social media advertising (58%).
- Digital fundraising (28%).
- SEO (25%).
- Email marketing (22%).
It’s a concern that despite the fact that digital marketing and fundraising skills are key to raising charities’ profile and income across the sector, the skills gaps remain similar in our report year on year. This is particularly prominent for small charities, which struggle with these skills across the board to a much greater extent than large charities and compared to other areas of digital. Capacity and funds are likely to be key issues here.
Social media approach
Half of charities are focusing on storytelling (52%) with more co-created and inclusive content, whilst a third (36%) are developing their strategy and getting greater value from social platforms.
As social media is changing at pace, we asked a new question this year to learn more about charities’ current goals for these platforms.
The top 4 areas where charities are focusing are:
- Storytelling, involving people with lived experience (52%, rising to 67% of large charities).
- Sharing more video and informal co-created content (47%).
- Developing our social media strategy (36% vs 25% in 2025).
- Monitoring and evaluating what is working and what isn’t (35%, rising to 45% of large charities).
In summary, charities are exploring more creative and inclusive content, aiming to develop more strategic approaches and reviewing where they are getting value or not from social platforms. Interestingly, more small charities (39%) are focusing on developing their social media strategy in the year ahead, compared to 28% of large charities (which perhaps already have this in place).
Only 6% of respondents say that countering online hate and abuse is a priority, consistent with 5% in 2025. It is surprising that this isn’t a greater area of focus for more charities. However, countering online hate and abuse is more of a focus for charities supporting specific marginalised communities, including LGBTQIA+ groups (22%), asylum seekers, migrants and refugees (19%), and global majority communities (18%). It is also noteworthy that 27% of disabled and deaf-led charities, as well as 25% of neurodivergent-led charities, are focusing on protecting the wellbeing and safety of social media staff (compared to only 11% overall), whilst 30% of disabled and deaf-led charities and 35% of neurodivergent-led charities are running education or advocacy campaigns. This indicates that social media is a more challenging space for specific marginalised groups.
