Eight in ten charities are failing to back plans for digital transformation with IT investment

Poor understanding in top teams of what digital transformation means is to blame for an incoherent approach to IT.

Friday, 5th February 2016 Posted 8 years ago in by Phil Alsop

UK charities are not investing in the IT capability they need to support plans to use digital platforms to raise money, deliver services and improve efficiency because their top teams don’t have a sufficient grasp of what digital transformation means for their organisation, according to new research from Eduserv, a not-for-profit provider of IT services to the charity sector.

The research, conducted among 310 UK charity digital leaders and published in a report “A manifesto for change – business transformation and the role of heads of digital”, found that the lack of digital literacy of the top team (58%) and the trustees (39%) was harming the progress their organisation made in adapting to a digital operating environment.

According to digital leaders, the majority of charity IT teams (86%) have not drawn up a plan to support digital transformation and half of charities (50%) have no digital strategy.

The research also found in eight in ten charities underinvestment in IT and the inability to access and manage data effectively were blocking progress in using digital platforms to improve charity performance.

Although digital leaders say digital skills and knowledge are the top two success factors for delivering successful change, the majority of charities (95%) have no strategy to improve their digital capability.

Tim Cockle, Head of Digital at Eduserv said:

“What emerges from this research is a worrying picture of a charity sector which is still muddling along rather than putting in place decisive plans to embrace the technology and digital platforms which are essential to their future health.

Charity leaders need to act urgently to plug the digital gaps in knowledge and skills across their organisations, bring digital and IT experts into the strategy and planning process early on and demand that teams across the organisation – including the top team – take a digital first approach to that planning.

They also need to make sure that they follow through their plans with the right financial investment so that IT and digital have the right tools to do the job they are being asked to do.

Charities that fail to action in this way will not only fail to realise the transformational benefits of IT and digital but risk losing out on the funding and support to the charities who do grasp the importance of this agenda.”