The charity digital spectrum How all charitiescan go further with digital

Lessons for Tech Trust’s 2018 survey into the UK third sector’s adoption and perceptions of digital

2019

Contents

The Charity Digital Spectrum

01 / Executive Summary 02 / Key Results 03 / Introduction 04 / The Cloud05 / Investment in Digital and IT06 / Skills and Digital Competency07 / Security and Risk 08 / Digital Engagement and Fundraising 09 / Conclusion10 / Calls to Action 11 / About Us

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01ExecutiveSummary

Methodology

The survey that this report is based on was carried out over a period of 30 days in September-October 2018, with 1,100 different organisations taking part.

In September 2018, we asked our char-ity partners to answer an in-depth sur-vey about their use and management of digital technology, their priorities, pain points and plans for the future. The results gave us valuable insight into how charities in the UK view tech-nology, and their relationship with it.

The charity respondents, Tech Trust’s registered charities, are generally re-flective of the UK charity sector, the majority of which are small (under £1m income) and micro organisations (under £100k income).

The demographic has shifted slight-ly since our last annual report, with more micro organisations (43%) than small organisations (38%) answering the survey – compared to 36% and 40% last year.

The organisations operate in a wide range of areas from health, housing

and education to youth, recreation and religious activities. Most (over 67%) operate regionally.

The respondents themselves are large-ly senior charity staff or trustees, com-prising 77%. The rest are executives, volunteers, and a small number of con-tractors or consultants. This roughly reflects the senior level charity staff who make up 68% of Charity Digital News’ readership.

In this whitepaper, we explore each of the key areas covered in the survey: the cloud, investment in digital and IT, training and skills, cyber security and risk, and digital engagement. We ana-lyse the results from each and define strategic action points for charities looking to take the next step.

We compare the results of this year’s survey to the one we carried out in the same period in 2017, highlighting

some significant changes. Not all of the changes are expected or appear to show a positive trend, but as is often the case, some of the more surprising outcomes lead us to the most valuable takeaways.

The survey builds a picture of a charity sector that is growing in awareness of the benefits that digital can bring, but the title of this paper alludes to a sig-nificant gap between those charities who understand and embrace digital as part of their strategy - and those who do not, whose ability to achieve impact faces uncertainty.

In each section, charities will find re-sources, advice and guidance, as well as signposts to relevant Tech Trust services. As you will find throughout this report, we also invited the chari-ties themselves to share their experi-ences of digital in their own words.

Charity size

Geographical scope Job title

43.8% Micro (Income under £100k)

38.2% Small (£100k - £1m income)

12.7% Medium (£1m - £5m income)

5.3% Large (Over £5m income)

67.7% Regional

20.3% National

11.9% Multinational

32% Manager

30.9% Trustee/Board

11.5% Director

9.9% Executive

7.9% Volunteer

4.4% C-Level

3.4% Contractor/ Consultant4 5

02Key Results

The Cloud

Skills and Digital Competency

Digital Engagement and Fundraising

Security and Risk

Investment in Digital and IT

72% of charities have core apps – such as CRM, website or another service – in the cloud, compared to 63% in 2017.

48% of those charities that have embraced the cloud are confident that they will make a greater impact in the next year, compared to just 28% of those who haven’t.

‘No perceived benefit’ remains the most cited reason for resisting cloud adoption, and though the number has decreased, the percentage of people giving this reason has increased from 28% to 31%.

There has been little change to future investment plans when it comes to IT, with 43% planning to spend the same (compared with 44% last year). 31% plan to spend more and 11% plan to spend less.

Of those planning to invest in new tech, 47% predict an income increase. Of those who aren’t, 31% predict an income increase.

Charities are expecting to invest more in software than hardware (36%/26% respectively).

36% of charities say they do a ‘good’ job of defending against cyber attacks, with 23% saying they don’t think they do enough to defend against cyber attacks – down from last year’s 29%.

28% of ‘micro’ organisations don’t feel they do enough to defend against cyber attacks whilst only 12% of large organisations feel this way.

47% consider improved security one of the top benefits of the cloud. In contrast, 18% of those not in the cloud

Just under half (49%) of charities consider their competency with IT average, with 24% claiming it is below average and 27% claiming it is above.

Only 14% of charity employees consider their trustees to be above average when it comes to digital. 40% of charities consider their Trustees’ IT competency below average, a significant increase from last year’s 29%.

This year, 33% of trustees consider their own IT competency below average, compared to 20% last year.

Only 44% of micro charities fundraise online compared to 70% of large charities.

The majority who fundraise online only raise between 0-5% from it (46%). However, of those who fundraise online, 44% expect an income increase

- for those who don’t this is only 26%.

32% of charities say fundraising tools would be the most beneficial software if it was free, a decrease from 37% last year.

cite security concerns as the main reason.

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03Introduction

The release of this report comes at a time when the need for high quality, cost-effective services from the social sector has probably never been greater. This need was evidenced by the 2018 report from the FSI which shows a 123% increase in demand for services from charities over the previous four years against an increase of only 2% in income.

These changes in demand seem unlikely to be reversed, being driven by an aging population and constraints on state provided social services which may be further exacerbated by shorter term events such as Brexit, political policy and the potential for a further recession.

Against this background, the need for charities to increase their impact through the use of digital technology is clear. Fortunately the opportunities to do this are increasing too as new technologies are enabling innovative service delivery models and more established technologies are increasingly becoming mainstream.

2018 saw a number of significant digital events and developments. Though we have yet to see what sanctions might be taken under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) for serious security failures, fines of £1.3m were handed out to 11 organisations in 2018 under the previous data protection regulations.

The vulnerability of the social sector to malicious attacks was further outlined in February 2018 when the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published their Cyber Threat

Assessment for the UK charity sector.

Our survey has shown increased confidence in security, with only 23% of charities (down from 29% previously) thinking they don’t know enough to defend against cyber-attacks. However, this still represents thousands of charities, and in a world where forms of attack constantly evolve there is no room for complacency.

In response to the cyber threat, Tech Trust has started working closely with the NCSC, promoting their charity guide and co-hosting an educational webinar on Charity Digital News as part of our webinar series.

Closing the third sector digital divide

2018 also saw the launch of the Charity Digital Code of Practice. Given the key role of charity leaders and trustees in enabling digital change in their charities, this is a key resource and one that is much needed, as highlighted by our survey which showed 40% of charities consider their trustees’ IT competence as below average.

Whilst Tech Trust can’t expect to individually solve the digital skills gap, in 2019 we are responding to this need by extending our low cost and free events and platforms. These include our Charity Digital Tech Conference, which is priced substantially lower than other events, and our new webinar programme which will deliver 24 events over the year on a diverse range of topics, all totally free of charge to charity participants.

And we launched a new online jobs platform, Charity Digital Jobs, in partnership with charity recruitment specialists Prospectus, specifically to link charities up with the best digital talent. With over 100 job roles live on the site, charities can post their

own roles as well as find their next opportunity in the sector.

Whilst Big Tech business came in for some criticism in 2017, 2018 saw many positive developments. These included Microsoft strongly supporting AI for Good and Facebook making its Workplace collaboration platform available to charities totally free of charge. Both of these initiatives have the potential to be far reaching and we are pleased to be supporting them.

Tech Trust operates at all points of the digital maturity spectrum, supporting charities in fulfilling their basic digital needs as well as being an enthusiastic ambassador for the positive impact more advanced technologies can make.

I hope you find the insights provided by this report useful. We look forward to continuing to support charities of all shapes and sizes in realising the benefits of digital technology.

Jonathan Chevallier CEO, Tech Trust

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04The Cloud

Year of the cloud

Our survey found that charities are moving in a positive direction when it comes to adopting cloud-based software and services, with 72% of respondents saying they have core apps - whether their CRM, website or another service – in the cloud, compared to 63% in 2017.

The percentage of charities storing contact information in the cloud has also risen from 22% to 37%.

The results show an increased perception of the cloud as a money-saver, with 39% expecting to increase their income as a result of the efficiency improvements that cloud can bring. For charities not in the cloud only 27% expect their income to increase in the coming year.

And 48% of those charities that have embraced the cloud are also more confident that they will make a greater impact in the next year, compared to just 28% for those who haven’t.

All of this suggests that those not using cloud services could be in danger of stagnating behind those that do.

And there is evidence that those not moving to the cloud have less understanding of its benefits – ‘no perceived benefit’ remains the most-cited reason for resisting the cloud.

Over the past few years, the growth of cloud-based software and services have had a profound impact on organ-isations of all kinds. Many have been embracing the cloud as a way to con-sume resources more flexibly and ef-ficiently, more easily collaborate from different devices and work remotely.

2018 was the year that Microsoft went all-in on the cloud as the default mod-el for business software. In April, the vendor announced it was phasing out many of its on-premises software do-nations for charities on platforms such as Tech Trust’s tt-exchange, bringing the donation programme in line with its focus on cloud products and servic-es like Office 365.

It’s clear from our survey that charities who are open to the benefits of cloud technology have more confidence in their future income and their ability to make a bigger impact with their cause.

This is no surprise as charities that use the cloud can eliminate the time and hassle of managing back-end resourc-es, freeing them up to focus on their mission.

Cloud software also removes the need for smaller charities to invest in spe-cialist IT staff, with the potential to create a more level playing field for all.

But our survey shows a growing divide between the charities taking advan-tage of these tools, and those who are

yet to catch on to their benefits. A lack of awareness and education about the opportunities from the cloud is still holding back some.

There is a cloud tool out there for al-most every operation or business pro-cess, with a growing number of dis-counted and free options for charities.

Cloud collaboration tools such as Slack, Workplace by Facebook, Micro-soft Teams, Trello and Box are instant, efficient, designed for a wide range of project management tasks and are fast replacing email as the default for inter-nal communications.

Microsoft’s cloud solution, Office 365, is discounted for eligible UK charities, allowing staff to easily store, share and edit documents, access email and cal-endars and collaborate with instant messaging and video, from any device.

Meanwhile, Google offers a compa-rable package to eligible charities for free. G-Suite provides apps such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Drive, allowing charities to write and store documents and se-curely access data from anywhere as part of the Google for Nonprofits pro-gramme.

Charities can access these and a large catalogue of other cloud programs by registering for the tt-exchange soft-ware donation platform.

48% of charities in the cloud say they expect to increase their impact in the next year, compared to 28% for those not in the cloud

We’re progressively moving to software hosted by the supplier, so while our core server infrastructure hasn’t yet moved to the cloud, core software such as CRM, HR and email has moved to being hosted externally. For example, we’ve recently migrated our Office 365/Exchange online. It’s hopefully more cost-efficient, but that is yet to be quantified. We’re at a point where our server infrastructure needs a refresh and purchasing cloud based services is an option we’ll explore.

Justin Taylor IT Services Manager, LOROS

The top benefits of being in the cloud

Organisations with core apps in the cloud

68.3% Increased Mobility

51.5% Disaster Recovery

49.5% Collaboration

47% Security

78.7% Email

74.3% Documents

51.9% Website Data

37.5% Cost Saving

31.3% Automatic Updates

37.5% CRM System

17.2% Other

15.2% Security

18.7% Sustainability

9.3% Design Software

11.8% Environmental Benefits

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05Investment in Digital and IT

When looking at future investment of charities’ budgets, this year’s survey found that there has been little change in the amount many charities are planning to invest in tech next year, with 43% planning to spend the same (compared with 44% last year), 31% planning to spend more and 11% plan-ning to spend less.

But of those planning to invest in new tech, more of them (47%) predict an income increase. Of those who aren’t, only 31% expect their income to in-crease in the next year.

Almost a quarter of all charities say they are planning to invest in innova-tive and emerging technology such as AI, and this figure rises to almost half when looking at large charities. These charities are also more confident when it comes to income and impact, all of which strongly suggests that a digital mindset helps charities be more pre-pared for the future.

Drilling down further, we can see that charities are expecting to invest more in software than hardware in the com-ing year - 36% and 26% respectively. This could indicate a growing aware-ness of the cost savings that can be gained from the cloud, over investing in hardware.

However, one area that fewer charities are planning to focus their budgets on

is training in digital, down from 28% to 25% in 2018.

A cost-effective new model

Despite a growing awareness of the cost savings to be had from ditching expensive servers and other on-prem-ises tools in favour of the cloud, the charities we surveyed seemed more willing to pay for technology overall than to invest in less tangible things such as staff training.

Many charities still consider invest-ment in ‘stuff’ more important than training personnel, with 65% saying they would consider physical tools to be most useful over just 32% for train-ing and support.

Again, there seems to be a divide be-tween those organisations that un-derstand the cost saving benefits of investing less in ‘stuff’ and those that are yet to catch on.

Some charities may be stuck in the mindset that a minimum amount of budget should be put aside for IT – benchmarking figures that hark back to a now-dated report by the Charity Consortium IT Directors Group from 2005 advising roughly 3%.

But government and other industry bodies’ previous budgetary recom-mendations around IT no longer make sense in world where cheaper, cloud-based platforms are radically chang-ing cost structures.

The cloud model of software consump-tion allows for flexible pricing models, where organisations pay only for what they need when they need it, helping them get a better grip on cash flow and divert more resources to their core missions.

Most charities could be using cloud services instead of buying and main-taining servers and latest versions of on-premises software, freeing up budget to spend on other areas such as upskilling staff to make the most of digital, or developing services.

The tt-exchange software donation programme is a comprehensive source of software for charities at heavily dis-counted prices, including cloud-based tools.

Charities can also benefit from ex-pert-led training through Tech Trust’s new programme of free educational webinars for charities – a platform to learn about many aspects of digi-tal from a wide range of digital sector leaders, designed specifically for time and resource-strapped charity staff.

22% of charities plan to invest in innovative new digital solutions, with the biggest portion, 17%, planning to invest in contactless donations.

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How much do you plan to spend on IT next year compared to last year?

43.6% About the Same

23.8% Slightly More

15.3% I’m Not Sure

7.2% Much More

5.7% Slightly Less

4.5% Much Less

06Skills and Digital Competency

When asked about their competen-cy with IT, about half (49%) consider themselves average, with figures re-maining very similar to last year (51%). This raises the question of whether charities sense little progression in their knowledge, or if the bar for what is considered ‘average’ is just becom-ing higher.

On the face of it, the fact that only 14% of charity employees consider their trustees to be above average when it comes to digital, and only 29% of sen-ior leaders to be good at finding digi-tal solutions, is discouraging. 40% of charities consider their trustees’ IT competency below average - a signifi-cant increase from last year’s 29%.

This might point to a drop in compe-tency, but does it also mean charity staff have higher expectations when it comes to their senior staff?

More trustees also answered the sur-vey this year (21% vs. 30%), painting a picture of sector leaders beginning to take a more active interest in technol-ogy overall.

But senior leaders themselves are aware that they have large knowledge gaps around digital, and of their own need for more education. This year, 33% of trustees consider their own IT competency below average, compared to 20% last year.

Despite all this, as mentioned on the last page, charities plan to spend less on digital training than they did last year - down from 28% to 25% in 2018.

Of those who consider lack of un-derstanding their biggest barrier to digital competence, only 26% would consider digital training a worthwhile investment.

Stuff vs. staff

This year’s survey suggests that chari-ties are more aware than ever before of the importance of having trustees who are switched on to digital, with greater expectation placed on them when it comes to digital understanding.

But while awareness is important, it doesn’t always translate to action. There is a still a significant skills gap apparent with charity boards, as the latest annual figures from the Charity Digital Skills Report also highlight.

According to the 2018 report by Skills Platform, the majority of charities (69%) cite their board’s digital skills as low or having room for improvement. But 78% of charities either don’t know what’s being done to remedy this, or state that their organisations don’t have any plans.

A lack of digitally-skilled trustees and senior leaders is certainly holding the charity sector back – one in three char-ities in the Skills Report state that lack of trustee understanding or buy-in is the main factor holding their organi-sations back in digital.

As mentioned in the above section, despite an obvious skills gap, chari-ties overall are planning to invest less in digital training in the coming year. Many charities still consider invest-ment in ‘stuff’ more important than training personnel, with 65% saying they would consider it to be most useful over just 32% for training and support.

We think there are a few likely reasons for this - a lack of time to investigate and take part in training is likely to be the main factor, as a recent report from the Foundation for Social Im-provement (FSI) shows. A lack of time has also overtaken lack of money as the main barrier to increasing digital competence in our survey.

But we argue that it will ultimately benefit charities and put them at a competitive advantage in the long run. According to the 2018 Digital Skills Re-port 65% of charities think that devel-oping digital skills would help retain staff, 73% think it help them grow their network, and 72% think it would help them increase fundraising.

64% of large organisations have someone responsible for digital upskilling, whilst this figure is only 11% for micro-charities.

Luckily the advent of online learning makes it easy for people to upskill in their own time and at a minimal ex-pense.

Tech Trust is launching a number of new learning initiatives in 2019 through Charity Digital News, includ-ing its first conference, the Charity Digital Tech Conference launching in London on February 13th. The day will be packed with informative talks and workshops from a wide range of speak-ers, catered to all charities from begin-ners to advanced tech users.

Charities can also learn through Tech Trust’s new programme of free educa-tional webinars for charities, on topics from cyber security to data manage-ment, content marketing, collabora-

tion and digital leadership. They’re de-signed to be interactive, time-efficient (they can be taken in the space of lunch break) and are completely free for charities to attend.

Other opportunities include Skills Platform, which links charities up with training providers and offers e-learning bundles on a range of char-ity-specific topics such as health and care, but also workplace development such as data governance and project management, all designed to be af-fordable for charities.

And November last year saw the launch of the Charity Digital Code, an ambitious online learning resource for charities funded by Lloyds Bank-ing Group and the Co-op Foundation

and developed by a sector-wide group led by independent digital expert Zoe Amar.

Through the Code, charities can learn how to apply seven key digital princi-ples to their organisations, identify the gaps in their understanding and improve, including links to many re-sources and free courses.

For those organisations looking to bring in new skilled new staff, Tech Trust’s new online platform Charity Digital Jobs, launched in partnership with charity recruitment specialists Prospectus, is the first in the UK creat-ed specifically to link charities up with the best digital talent.

Staff have had minimal training when it comes to digital. In a world where everything is accessible via your phone, tablet or PC this is something which will have to become a main focus going forward - all team members will need to receive regular and updated training in order to continue to be successful in the digital world.

Lisa ThomasOffice ManagerZoë’s Place Baby Hospice

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Barriers to digital competencyand upskilling

31.9% Lack of Time

29.8% Lack of Money

23% Lack of Understanding

9.4% Not Considered Beneficial

3.9% Lack of Support

2% Other

Is your charity planning to invest money on providingdigital training to staff this year?

75.5% No 24.5% Yes

07Security and Risk

GRAPH NEEDED

Encouragingly, only 23% of charities surveyed said they don’t think they do enough to protect their data from at-tack, down from 29% last year.

An increased focus on data protection under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) could be a factor in this. Last year, almost a third of organi-sations hadn’t heard of GDPR or felt ready for it. Since the regulation came into force in May 2018, that figure has dropped to just 18%, and a third now say it has made a considerable differ-ence to their day-to-day.

However, 40% of charities in our sur-vey consider themselves average at defending against cyber attacks, com-pared to only 36% saying they are

‘good’ and just 7.4% excellent.

Confidence with cyber security varies depending on organisation size, with smaller charities more likely to say they are not doing enough to protect their data and systems. 28% of micro organisations (under 100k income) don’t feel protected enough, compared to just 12% of large organisations.

Small but secure

It’s positive to see a general increase in confidence with cyber security, with charities taking a more proactive ap-proach to protecting the privacy and security of their data.

But there is still a large percentage who consider their ability to defend

against cyber attacks ‘average’. It’s time to seriously question whether

‘average’ is good enough in an environ-ment where many of an organisation’s most valuable assets are digital and cyber criminals are constantly evolv-ing their tools and tactics in what is an ever-growing industry for stolen data.

In the 2017 Official Annual Cybercrime Report, it’s estimated that cyber crime will cost $6 trillion annually by 2021. In 2015, that figure was $3 trillion.

A breach of a charity’s data could mean losing information that is pivotal to its beneficiaries, resulting in potentially devastating reputational damage or critically affecting a charity’s ability to deliver its core services.

Unfortunately, we see a significant divide between the big players with the time and money to invest in cyber security tools and training, and the smaller organisations lagging behind.

Smaller organisations may have less time and resources, but cyber crime is indiscriminate, with many attack-ers taking a shotgun approach. A re-port from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport found that a third of charities with an income of under £500,000 had suffered a data breach in 2018.

Small charities can benefit from a number of free and easy to digest edu-cational resources online, such as the NCVO’s Knowhow Non-profit site. The Government’s NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) also has a guide to cy-

29% of fundraisers say their day-to-day has been considerably affected by GDPR.

ber security for small charities, with guidance on simple measures that are free or low-cost to implement.

And the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials Guide is a broader, but equally as jar-gon-free guide to data security that should be required reading for organ-isations of any size.

This January, Tech Trust is delivering an exclusive webinar in partnership with NCSC designed to help charities get to grips with cyber security basics during a lunch break. The webinar can be viewed for free on the Charity Digi-tal News website.

And the cloud can be a huge help in terms of sourcing low cost tools. The tt-exchange software donation pro-gramme features a number of cyber security software packages that need no technical knowledge to set up and so are ideal for micro and small organ-isations.

Using the cloud for your core apps can take care of security as charities don’t need to manage security on their own servers, and lots of charities are be-ginning to understand the security benefits - our survey found that 47% of charities that use the cloud for their core apps consider improved security one of the top benefits.

I take personal responsibility for cyber security. Sadly I’m one of the few within the company that actually understand it. Sadly another charity I volunteer for lost £85k through a sophisticated e-mail hack. We have only recovered £34k. I’ve now upgraded their systems using two-factor authentication.

Darron M NixonManaging DirectorAccept Care ltd.

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How charities rate their ability to defend against cyber attacks

Poor 5.1%

Below average 18.3%

Average 40.4%

Good 28.8%

Excellent 7.4%

08Digital Engagement and Fundraising

There have been some interesting changes to fundraising in the year since the last survey. Slightly fewer respondents say they fundraise online (50% compared to 53% last year), rep-resenting just 44% of micro charities and 70% of large charities.

The majority who fundraise online only raise between 0-5% from it, and the percentage of charities raising more than 20% of all funds online stands at 15%.

However, of those who fundraise on-line, 44% expect their income to in-crease in the next year, compared to just 26% of those who don’t.

Broadly following trends of social me-dia use by the general public, slightly fewer charities are using Facebook, though the platform still comprises a significant majority at 86%. Consider-ably fewer charities are on Twitter this year (65% down from 73%), and there has been a 5% increase in the number of charities on Instagram, which has now overtaken LinkedIn.

A growing online world

Fundraising has seen some interest-ing changes, with the suggestion of a shift in the way people generate fund-ing for their charity. Our survey results

overall show that charities are putting less reliance on revenue streams such as online donations, suggesting that it may be a tricky nut to crack for many, and certainly a slow burn.

Nonetheless, the percentage of funds raised online directly corresponds to an increased confidence in more profit next year, suggesting that those who are doing it right are seeing definite benefits.

The question remains – are all the charities that are able to raise funds online doing so?

The trend for online giving is steadily but surely on the rise - in 2017, dona-tions through websites, social media and apps accounted for £26 in every £100 donated in the UK. The oppor-tunities are out there, and everyone should be able to make at least some income from online donations.

The online fundraising ecosystem has seen a growth spurt in the last couple of years, with new players of-fering donors new and engaging ways of supporting causes digitally. These include mobile donation platforms such as Donr and Charity Checkout, which offers branded online fundrais-ing and payment solutions customised to charitable organisations of all kinds.

There has also been an explosion in

When asked which software would benefit charities most if it was free, the second most-answered was ‘fundraising’ at 32%, next to ‘office software’ at 38.4%.

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Time is our biggest challenge when it comes to online marketing and fundraising- it is time consuming to make sure all sites are up to date, and to set it up. Also the sheer variety of different platforms that are available out there – we are getting bombarded with emails from companies offering online fundraising services, but it is not so easy to compare them and decide on the best.

Linda FitzmauricePersonal AssistantEmmanuel International

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the number of dedicated online fund-raising platforms for charity fundrais-ers - our Charity Digital News guide to the best cost-effective online fund-raising platforms looks at some of the most cost-effective platforms availa-ble today.

Social media is a great way to energise people around a cause and create a community of advocates for your char-ity’s brand.

Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter are largely free and cost nothing to have a go - it is simply a mat-ter of allocating the time as efficiently as possible, knowing which platforms to focus on and approaching it strate-gically. Social media scheduling plat-forms such as HootSuite, Buffer and Tweetdeck have free and low-cost pricing options, enabling you to plan your social media posting in advance and save time.

And in January this year, Charity Digi-tal News partnered with charity social media experts Lightful to run a free educational webinar on creating and managing content for charity digital marketing campaigns. The webinar is available to view on the Charity Digi-tal News site.

Social media channels charitieshave an active presence on

85.8% Facebook

65.3% Twitter

28.9% Instagram

23.2% LinkedIn

10.6% None of the Above

2.2% Snapchat

0.4% Reddit

0.8% Other

Charities who fundraiseonline

Large – 70%

Medium – 58%

Small - 52%

Micro – 43%

09Conclusion

Our latest survey presents a window on a charity sector that is steadily growing in confidence when it comes to digital, with some encouraging improvements from last year.

But what’s apparent is that there is still a significant divide between the haves and the have-nots of the digital world: the charities adapting and experimenting, and those still struggling to find the time, access the right resources and understand the difference that digital can make to the way they operate.

Nowhere is this more evident than the divide between those that understand the power of the cloud to drive their mission, and those that are yet to catch on to its many benefits. While there is a growing knowledge of the cost and efficiency savings that the cloud revolution has brought, many just aren’t aware that it can help them.

A few charities still seem to be stuck in the outdated ethos that IT is a physical resource that needs to be bought and owned. Because they still prioritise ownership and management of digital assets, for these charities there is less of a focus on investing in digital education for staff and trustees, perpetuating the cycle.

This year, charities show more awareness of the need to have digital trustees, and senior staff themselves seem to be more aware of their knowledge gaps. But many are still struggling to find the time and resources to upskill.

While we can’t comprehensively fix this problem in the third sector, we can point charities in the right direction: cost-effective online training opportunities abound and there are many new and evolving bespoke digital services for charities in 2019.

One area of education that urgently needs addressing is around cyber security. While there has been a general increase in confidence with charities’ abilities to defend against cyber attacks, there are still many smaller charities who are in danger of being complacent to what is now a very real risk to all organisations.

The survey also shows a correlation between those who actively fundraise through online channels and their confidence about growing their funding in the coming year. However, what’s interesting is that fewer charities are fundraising online and slightly more charities are on no social media channels at all, suggesting that

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there is still a chunk of the third sector missing out on this potential revenue stream.

What’s clear from our latest glimpse into the sector is that a digital mindset and investment in digital helps charities of all sizes and kinds stride forward into the future with more confidence, in terms of both their income and impact.

Those who are investing in digital resources, training and skills have more confidence in their ability to eliminate inefficiencies, drive income and ultimately deliver on their mission.

So while the divide between digital and non-digital charities still exists, our aim is to help close that gap little by little and make 2019 the year that digital is accessible and advantageous for everyone.

10Calls to Action

The Cloud

Skills and Digital Competency

Security and Risk

Investment in IT

Digital Engagement and Fundraising

Wherever they can, charities should look to use a cloud tool in place of on-premises software and infrastructure. Using cloud-hosted tools frees up resources and time for charities to focus on their core missions.

There are a huge number of cloud options available now for almost every business process an organisation can conduct, which charities can access on Tech Trust’s tt-exchange programme.

Through this they can get discounted and donated versions of popular cloud programmes from collaboration, document management and office software to security and email marketing.

Suites of cloud-based tools like Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google G-Suite have free options or premium versions at a discount for eligible UK charities. Tech Trust provides help with setup and validation for charities wishing to move to the Microsoft Cloud.

All organisations that rely on donations as a stream of funding should be able to make at least some income from online donations.

Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter are largely free to begin experimenting with. Social media scheduling platforms such as HootSuite, Buffer and Tweetdeck have free and low-cost plans, enabling you to plan your social media posting in advance and save time.

Facebook has recently launched a suite of tools for charities called Charitable

Investing large proportions of charity budgets into physical IT no longer makes sense when the cloud is such a cost-efficient option. The cloud model

Small charities can benefit from a range of online training avenues for both trustees and staff, so they can become more confident with digital in their own time and at minimal expense.

Skills Platform links charities up with training providers and offers e-learning bundles on a range of charity-specific topics such as health and care, but also workplace development such as data governance and project management, all designed to be affordable for charities.

Charities of all sizes have a responsibility to ensure their data and systems are adequately protected from fraud and cyber crime, and smaller organisations are no exception.

Smaller charities can find many free educational cyber security resources

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is helping charities to better manage cashflow, with flexible pricing models and no skilled technical staff needed.

The tt-exchange software donation programme has an extensive catalogue of cloud software for charities at heavily discounted prices.

Charities can also benefit from free advice and training through Tech Trust’s new programme of free educational webinars for charities to learn about many aspects of digital from a wide range of experts.

Keep an eye out for Charity Digital News’ new programme of learning in 2019, including a programme of expert-led educational webinars around digital and its first conference, the Charity Digital Tech Conference launching in London on February 13th.

The Charity Digital Code, launched in 2018, aims to provide charities with clear and easily understandable guidelines to applying digital principles within their organisations, along with comprehensive resources on different areas of digital.

And for those organisations looking to bring in new skilled new staff, Tech Trust’s new online platform Charity Digital Jobs, launched in partnership with charity recruitment specialists Prospectus, is the first in the UK created specifically to link charities up with the best digital talent.

online, such as the NCVO’s Knowhow Non-profit site.

The NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre)’s guide to cyber security for small charities includes guidance on simple measures that are free or low-cost to implement, and their Cyber Essentials Guide is a jargon-free guide to data security that organisations of all sizes should familiarise themselves with.

Charities should look to the cloud to source low-cost tools, including cyber security software available on the tt-exchange donation programme that needs no technical knowledge to set up and run.

Charity Digital News is also launching free resources for charities in partnership with NCSC, including a webinar on getting cyber security

Giving Tools through which charities to collect donations directly on Facebook and empower supporters to create their own fundraisers for their favourite causes.

There has been an explosion in the number of dedicated online fundraising platforms for charity fundraisers – check out our Charity Digital News Guide to the best cost-effective online fundraising platforms.

Charity Digital News has also partnered with charity social media experts Lightful to run a free educational webinar on creating and managing content for charity digital marketing campaigns. The webinar is available to view on the Charity Digital News site.

basics right. The webinar can be viewed for free on the Charity Digital News website.

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Endnotes

Tech Trust

Acknowledgements

Tech Trust has been working to connect the charity sector to the best technology since 2001.

Our team helps over 35,000 UK charities and non-profits by giving them greater access to tech from world-leading providers, as well as friendly advice and support.

We run the UK’s only software donation platform, called tt-exchange, which has helped UK charities to save over £200 million on software from the likes of Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and more.

We also run Charity Digital News to promote good tech stories, offer non-profit specific email marketing through tt-mail, and provide financial services for charities.

For more information on how we can help your charity, visit the Tech Trust website at tech-trust.org, or email us at customerservice@tech-trust.org.

Registered office: Camburgh House, 27 Dover House, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3DN

Telephone: 020 7324 3380

Company Registered Number: 06902258

Charity number: 1133179

More information about Tech Trust can be found at tech-trust.org.

This whitepaper was written by Chloe Green based on data capture and analysis undertaken by Emelia Goodall. With thanks to everyone who undertook the survey and contributed their views. Thanks for Crucible Creative for the design work.

This report has used anonymised data to report on the state of the charity sector with direct relation to adoption of digital technology. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that the information provided is correct, Tech Trust accepts no liability for any loss or damage caused to any person relying on any statement or omission. This is for information only and should not be relied upon as offering advice for any set of circumstances. Specific advice should always be sought in each instance.

Issue date: January 2019

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The charity digital spectrum:

How all charities can go further with digital.