Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com and the government’s digital champion, has said charities should consider becoming paperless and digitising all their communication.

Fox, who was speaking at NCVO’s Trustee Conference this week on the charity sector’s engagement with the digital world, said there was still a huge way to go to embed the internet into the heart of how charities operated. However, she also added that some organsiations were doing it really well.

She cited football charity Street League which had saved a considerable amount by deciding to become mainly paperless.

“Digitising your communication is an impactful and cheap way to start engaging with digital very quickly,” she advised.

Fox also praised the charity Carers UK, which runs online conferences for international and UK-based supporters.

On funding for charities to develop digital capacity, Fox said minister for civil society Nick Hurd did get the agenda and saw the power of technology, but added he was limited for resources. 

“I’m making the case for funding directed to technology to local authorities, Big Society Capital and the Big Lottery Fund,” she said.