Charities must use technology to create change or risk 'sliding into insignificance' Zenon Hannick, chief technology officer at Comic Relief, told a Civil Society Media conference yesterday.

Hannick (pictured) delivered the opening keynote at the tenth Charity Technology Conference. He said told the room that “we should be on the front foot showing others where the possibilities are”.

And that if IT leaders want their senior management teams to listen “we need to be clear that we understand what the business objectives are”.

He said that there has been “massive change in user behaviour” brought about by social mobile and digital technology.

“People expect to be engaged with differently,” he said. “The charity sector is in a much better starting point that other sectors – we already know about engaging with volunteers and supporters.”

As part of this he said it was important to “let go” and embrace “how people want to engage with us”.

Hannick said that Comic Relief is in the process changing how it works, by working in few silos, taking a more agile approach and working to get a better view of its data.

“If your organisation is not moving to be more focused,” on the opportunities, he warned, it risks “sliding into insignificance”.

He also said when going through a change programme it is important to be flexible and “respond to feedback” from others, as well as being patient and resilient.

‘Good data is key to good governance’,

Technology can enable charities to make better, evidence-based decisions and improve their governance Hannick told delegates.

“One of the biggest challenges the sector faces today is governance,” he said, and improving access to data could help tackle some of the issues.

Product management over project management

Comic Relief has moved towards having produce management teams, rather than project management teams for much of its technology work.

This means creating cross functional product teams that put the user at the centre. He said that by having people involved over the longer term it helps to “make the product as good at it can be”.

Hannick also said that for him a key indicator for success was the “happiness of the team” because happier teams are more productive.

The sector must face up to the digital skills gap

Delivering the closing keynote Rachel Neaman, chief executive of Go On UK, said that technology was no longer the responsibility of a select number of people in an organisation and warned delegates that they needed to take the digital skills gap seriously.

She said almost 60 per cent of charities “back basic digital skills” and that this is an “expensive reality”.

Neaman added that the “whole workforce needs to be involved” and that this included trustees.

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