Key findings from the Charity Digital Skills Report 2024

The Charity Digital Skills Report is the annual barometer of the digital skills, attitudes, and behaviours of charities.  More than 630 charities contributed to the 2024 report, which aimed to track shifting digital skills and priorities, understand engagement with artificial intelligence (AI), identify barriers facing charities led by marginalised groups, and much more.  

The report shows that, in 2024, tech use across the sector has evolved, but digital progress remains static. The cost-of-living crisis has evidently impacted the sector, leading to a lack of capacity, lack of resources, and various financial pressures. But, despite such challenges, charities have improved strategically and many are embracing opportunities presented by AI. 

In this article, we track some of the key takeaways from the Charity Digital Skills Report 2024.  

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Key takeaways from the report 

Artificial intelligence 

AI was the core tech talking point of 2024. It will likely remain the talking point of 2025. And, thankfully, charities are taking part in the conversation. The Charity Digital Skills Report found that 65% of charities either agree or strongly agree that AI developments are relevant to them, which a decrease on2023, but still shows a general appetite to engage with the tech.  

More than three in five (61%) charities currently use AI in day-to-day operations. That is a significant increase on the 35% that claimed to use AI tools in 2023. The most popular uses of AI tools are content creation (33%), admin (32%), and drafting documents and reports (28%). That shows that, while the appetite exists, charities need to use AI in more innovative and unique ways.  

Charities are, understandably, concerned about AI risks. Three in ten cited concerns around accuracy and 31% referenced the introduction of bias. Other concerns revolve around financial costs and the environmental impact. It’s clear that, despite progress, charities remain in the developmental phase of AI, with almost two thirds (62%) hoping to gain a better understanding of AI and 58% seeking knowledge on using AI tools responsibly. 

Service delivery and digital inclusion 

Charities are using digital tools in service delivery, even if not directly. More than four in five (81%) of charities use digital tools to serve communities, often behind the scenes, in a supportive role, or as an integral role. Large charities are particularly adept at using digital, with 88% delivering digital services in some form, a striking number when compared to only 56% of smaller charities. 

It is promising that 37% of charities are co-designing their services with users, meaning they are relying on input from the precise people they aim to help. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that number rises to 42%  when considering only charities that are providing frontline services. 

Charity Digital has launched a digital inclusion campaign in 2024. And it’s certainly an area in which charities must focus, as only 16% of charities providing frontline services offer digital inclusion support – and minimal differences exist between small and large charities.  

Digital inclusion is seen as a priority for more than a quarter (27%) of charities providing frontline services, replicating the results from last year. But only 17% say that improving digital inclusion was a key achievement in the past year, demonstrating that more improvement needs to happen.  

Equality, diversity, and inclusion 

Charities, as explored above, are aware of the importance of inclusion. A third (33%) say their digital services are inclusive to a great extent, which is an increase from 29% in 2023, but a further 62% say they are inclusive to some extent, which adds up to a promising 95% in total.  

But charities need to go further. Only 15% of charities, for example, are monitoring their diversity and inclusion to a great extent and nearly a third (31%) are not doing that at all. That shows a clear skills gap. In addition, less than one in five (18%) of charities say their services are informed to a great extent by research with users from diverse communities, down from 25% in 2023. 

Only 52% of charities said that a commitment to diversity and inclusion was important – and only 18% said it was important when choosing suppliers. That seems concerning – and something the sector needs to address. Charities should prioritise diversity and inclusion in all areas of their organisation, including when working with third parties and external suppliers.  

Digital marketing and fundraising 

In terms of marketing, charities are mostly concerned about building online presence and social media engagement, cited by 54% of charities. That number, while still the top marketing priority, falls much lower than the 79% of charities that prioritised building their online presence last year.  

Three in ten (29%) of charities are not making the most of their website, a stat that has remained roughly the same, and approximately the same number are poor when it comes to search engine optimisation. Social media has become increasingly volatile in recent years, but nearly half (48%) of charities are continuing to use social platforms as usual. 

Digital fundraising is a priority for 52% of charities. But many feel like they’re not succeeding, with four out of ten (41%) suggesting they are poor at digital fundraising and a further 25% saying they don’t digitally fundraise at all. That means, in total, 66% of respondents are not fundraising effectively with digital, a massive increase on 55% from 2023.

The above is just a snapshot of some of the key highlights. The report has a wealth of information about so many different areas of charity operations.