How to make inclusion part of your digital strategy

How are you feeling about Elon Musk buying Twitter? One of the concerns I’ve read was that the future of the world’s biggest, most influential tech companies is now held by a handful of wealthy, male billionaires. Where’s the diversity in that?

 

Closer to home, inclusion is likely to have been getting more airtime at your charity, with the majority of charities now having plans in place to address that. It follows that if digital transformation is about organisational change, then it must be inclusive to have maximum impact.

 

That’s why we’d like to hear about your digital funding and support needs in The Charity Digital Skills Report survey as we’re tracking how these may differ between charities across the sector, including for groups facing racial inequality and other organisations tackling the inclusion agenda. 

 

Inclusion, much like digital transformation, is one of the biggest challenges facing the sector right now and we cannot tackle one without the other. How else will we truly understand our supporters, create effective online services, and grow digital fundraising unless we help the communities we support feel that they belong?

 

Inclusion also matters to me as a woman of colour, which is why I have written about why tech for good needs to be more inclusive. Unless we tackle the issues of inclusion and technology head on, there is a risk that we could not only reinforce but worsen systemic inequalities.

 

We can see this when we look at the amount of power and money concentrated among Elon Musk and his fellow tech billionaires. If the tech industry itself isn’t diverse at the top, then how can charities make their digital strategies inclusive?

 

 

Emerging trends 

 

As charities increase their ambitions around inclusion, questions arise about the tech we use and how we use it. Rhodri Davies, voluntary sector emerging tech expert, has raised concerns about the risks of platform dependency, with charities increasingly reliant on digital platforms and tools owned by a small number of big tech companies.

 

We’ve seen intensive digital adoption across the sector during the pandemic and now is a good moment to review the tech you’re using, why you’re using it, and assess any risks associated with dependencies. 

 

Anecdotally, I am also hearing from charities who are asking questions about inclusion on the supplier side and how this aligns with their organisational commitment to inclusion. For example, I’ve spoken to charities who are seeking agencies to help them build new websites and who are looking for organisations with diverse teams and skills in  involving users with lived experience in user testing and development.

 

This echoes another trend I’m seeing, which is charities and suppliers designing projects together based on shared outcomes and values. Next time you’re writing a tender for a new digital project, you could include how you’d like to collaborate on and learn about inclusion alongside your supplier, offering mutual, constructive challenge about inclusion every step of the way. 

 

I asked sector experts how they are making inclusion part of their digital strategies. 

 

 

Set the bar high

 

Inclusion has to be more than a tick box exercise. To avoid this, set ambitions for how it will help you achieve your organisational strategy. 

 

Sense have recently been working on developing a new website and set themselves the task of living their commitment to inclusion. Michael Laffan, Deputy Director of Engagement, says that "it’s a journey – there is never a time when you can put your feet up and say – ’we’ve got this’. We’ve got to keep trying and learning and thinking about inclusion at every step of every project."

 

As Sense developed their new website, Michael and his team took inspiration from a recent  campaign, Left out of Life, for more accessible communities which used the message: think, ask, include.

 

They worked with an accessibility and inclusion consultancy to include disabled people all the way through the development journey, so that they were accountable and also had a clear idea of their goals. Michael recommends that other charities are, "prepared to learn and adapt as you won’t always get it right".

 

 

See it as a learning opportunity 

 

During the pandemic the team at ACEVO have been reviewing how they can be more accessible and inclusive. When they developed their new website in 2019, they realised that there were lots of small things they could start doing to be more accessible, such as looking at colour contrast, using more accessible fonts and colours, adding alt+ text to images and using HTML content instead of PDFs.

 

Heloisa Righetto, communications officer, relished the opportunity to learn new skills to help members. She points out that even small changes, such as using #CamelCase in hashtags on social media, can have a big impact which will help create behaviour change.

 

She told me, "If one more person does it, then someone else might notice and will start doing it too". Righetto and her colleagues also helped her team grow their skills by running an informal learning session. "My colleague and I, who are the ones responsible for website and social media, shared what we are doing with our colleagues, and even though at that point all the things seemed quite ‘simple’ to us, they were all positively surprised."

Make the case to leaders 

 

As with any aspect of your digital strategy, getting leaders on board is vital for the strategy’s successful implementation. Suzy Christopher, co-founder of Untapped, a strategic communications and inclusion consultancy, begins her work with clients by reviewing their EDI principles, which will reveal gaps and opportunities for digital. 

 

If your leaders aren’t yet on board with why inclusion should be part of your digital strategy, Christopher points out that having inclusive digital communications will help you reach more people and create a deeper emotional connection with your cause, which  should be music to leaders’ ears. 

 

Christopher counsels charities to make a commitment to inclusion and hold themselves accountable to staff and supporters. She says, "Being transparent with your stakeholders – both internal and external – about your clear intent to be inclusive, why this matters and how you’re going to achieve this, will enable you to not only ’talk the talk’ when it comes to inclusion, but to actually ’walk the walk’."

 

There’s so much potential for inclusion in your digital strategy. Done right, it will help you reach more people, and help them, and your staff, feel a sense of belonging with your charity. At a time when the cost of living and war in the Ukraine could affect donations, committing to inclusion through digital could help your charity achieve more and truly live its values.