A review programme has been launched by think tank NPC to assess how to improve access to digital technology in a charity sector “lagging way behind” in its approach.

The Digital Transformation programme will bring together charities with some of the biggest names in technology.

The committee set up to run the programme includes Mark Wakefield, corporate citizenship and corporate affairs manager at IBM; Megan Griffith Gray, head of digital and communications at NCVO; Lord Jim Knight, managing director at TES Global, chair of the Tinder Foundation and director of Apps for Good; and Rachel Neaman, chief executive of Go ON UK, a charity dedicated to enhancing the UK’s digital skills.

A spokesman for NPC said the programme will include research, roundtables and events over the next two months.

“The key thing is that it will bring together people from the tech side who think lots about innovation, with charity types who see a sector which isn’t as innovative as it ought to be but don’t know where to start,” he said.

“It will hopefully lead into a second phase where that’s applied to problems on the ground – such as how digital innovation enables us to approach mental health differently, give advice more effectively and take a new approach to homelessness etc.”

Tris Lumley, director of development at NPC, said: “Private companies have been developing and harnessing innovative tech for years to get better services to their customers. The public sector is in on the act, too, as governments experiment with information-sharing and delivering services. Meanwhile charities lag some way behind.”

Lumley said the programme will help the charity sector to adapt the latest technology to its purposes.

“This can be small innovations or a complete overhaul of how some charities work,” he said. “But at its best it can transform the fundamental architecture of the whole sector.”

A recent study from Lloyd’s Bank found that the majority of charities lack even basic digital skills, compared to fewer than 1 in 4 small businesses.

Not-for-profit company Eduserv last month found that the majority of charities have not invested in staff to lead digital work, and 46 per cent of charities had inadequate IT plans for the future.

NPC will also hold two Digital Transformation events in July 2015 in London and Manchester.

• NPC will be speaking about digital technology at Civil Society Media’s Charity Technology Conference 2015 in November, 2015. To find out more and book a place, click here.