What are the key steps on a charity’s digital journey?

Pattern 2: A call to action

Like a classical work of fiction, the protagonist’s journey often began with a sudden change which put pressure on the organisation - often, this was something unplanned.

This could involve a new project, a financial crisis, the collapse of a fundamental system, or the arrival of a new individual at a senior level who was keen to provoke change - most often a Chief Executive. It is easy to speculate that the arrival of COVID-19 may have sparked this journey for many.

In a lot of cases, the change provoked a need for an instant solution. The hurdle this created was pressure to go digital, quickly. Solutions were introduced that did a patch job. Often this created problems down the line, but it often proved a learning experience.

 

 

Pattern 3: Starting to fix or change something

 

In the next pattern, we move onto a more conscious period of trying to create change. Often that first change provoked an understanding that there was more to be done, and different ways to do things.

 

Unfortunately this period was often characterised by false starts and circling, as charities attempted changes that didn’t work, or ran out of momentum because of time, money and resource. Many digital leads were still trying to cope with digital transformation on top of their main job. As a result, this period could last for a long time. Digital leads often reflected that at the time, they felt as if this period had been wasted, but that in retrospect, it had enabled the charity to understand itself and its needs, empowering it for future progress.

 

To move forwards at this stage, the charity needed at least one, and preferably more than one, of several factors: internal buy-in to do more with digital, additional capacity from creating a full time role to focus on digital, and a grant or other funding. It also really helped if the charity had a tangible goal it wished to achieve.

 

 

Pattern 4: A digital project

 

For most charities, the digital journey really started in earnest with the launch of the first major project. This usually involved bringing in external figures such as digital agencies for the first time.

 

But this was all still very new. Few had any experience developing a digital project or an in-depth understanding of their user needs. They needed to learn a whole new language and way of working.

 

In most cases, creating a positive relationship with an agency or a mentor was key to overcoming this. Many, though, ended up with unsuitable solutions. And others saw relationships with agencies fall apart, with disagreements over scope, requirements and approaches to projects. Support was absolutely vital here.

 

A few charities chose to go it alone at this stage, using tools that did not require coding skills and learning how to develop solutions themselves. This was often a very successful approach. Although it could be slower it was arguably better for building confidence and skills.

 

 

Pattern 5: Getting internal buy-in

 

Once a digital project was in place, getting internal buy-in from staff often became a priority.

 

As new digital tools and new processes were introduced, they challenged conventional ways of working and required staff to learn and change, which generated resistance, and required digital leads to make the case for their approach. Many wished they had laid the groundwork for this earlier, and got staff more engaged at earlier stages.

 

The digital leads we spoke to started upskilling everyone and getting them involved in digital decisions. This included their CEOs and boards. As this started to work, they increasingly found themselves pulled in lots of different directions, from presenting at a board meeting to advising staff on setting up laptops.

 

It would be around this time that they realised digital was becoming a priority for the organisation and they could not do it alone for much longer.