Charities are embracing the cloud, with almost three times as many charities using some form of software as a service (SaaS) as two years ago, according to the Charity IT Survey 2011.

17 per cent of respondents said they use at least one SaaS solution, up from 12 per cent in 2010 and 6 per cent in 2009.

14 per cent said they didn’t but were considering it, and just 5 per cent said they had considered it but decided against it.

However, there remains a lack of understanding of the concept within the sector, with 64 per cent saying they hadn’t thought about using SaaS technology, though this has fallen from 75 per cent in 2009.

Elsewhere, use of smartphones continues to rise, with 70 per cent of £10m+ income charities issuing them to at least some staff, compared to just 44 per cent in 2009.

For the full findings based on responses from 350 charities, read the May issue of Charity Finance or purchase a copy of the survey here.