Two-thirds of charity professionals regard the use of digital technologies as ‘essential’, according to a survey published today, with 78 per cent fearing that they will miss out on fundraising income if they do not engage.

But only 21 per cent believe that they are already “fully engaged with it as an organisation, from board members to junior staff”. The majority (69 per cent) are using it but feel they could do more and 10 per cent don’t feel that they are engaging with it sufficiently.

Lasa carried out the Charity Digital Survey this autumn to measure how the sector was engaging with digital, as part of its Google-funded programme of events for charities. Some 334 charity sector professionals responded to the online survey.

Missing out on fundraising was identified as the biggest risk of not engaging with digital (78 per cent) closely followed by losing support (77 per cent), being left behind (71 per cent), wasting money (65 per cent) and not being able to help as many people (56 per cent).

Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) revealed that their organisation was not using mobile technology for fundraising or did not have a mobile-friendly website or app. 

Most respondents (94 per cent) said that they use digital technology for communication; 80 per cent for infrastructure (eg intranet, remote office access, CRM); 70 per cent in service provision; 68 per cent for fundraising; 60 per cent for research and 28 per cent for cloud-based tools and services.

Terry Stokes, chief executive of Lasa, said: “Our research shows how heavily the sector relies on digital, but it needs to be at the heart of what every organisation does.”

Barriers to digital

The survey identified nine barriers to engaging with digital – the most popular reason was a need for training, which was cited by 56 per cent of respondents as a barrier.

Other barriers were:

• Digital needs to be a core competency for all staff (54 per cent)
• Lack of time to get to grips with it (50 per cent)
• Lack of understanding at board/director level (41 per cent)
• Cultural – the charity needs to become more innovative (33 per cent)
• Budget cuts (26 per cent)
• It isn’t part of the organisational strategy (25 per cent)
• It requires a big change in the organisation's overall approach (21 per cent)
• Internal politics (19 per cent)

The full report can be viewed here.