Charity Digital

• 08-12-2019

A couple of weeks ago, Lloyds released its annual Charity digital Index which measures the adoption of technology within charities. If you haven't already had a chance to download it, it's essential reading for charity leadership or for anyone involved or interested in technology. We will be doing an in-depth article on the report once we've had a chance to digest it a bit further, but there are just a couple of key stats that are worth mentioning at this point.

The first is about ensuring that we are inclusive in all we do. The report uses the government Essential digital skills framework for measuring the use of technical skills and their adoption. This is the set of skills that they define as “the digital skills adults need to safely benefit from, participate in and contribute to the digital world.” The worrying statistic is that “45% of charity leaders do not see digital as relevant to their organisation”. With such a lack of recognition, are organisations going to invest in skills which, as well as improving their organisation, allow their workers and stakeholders to develop skills allowing them to better contribute to modern society. We need to make sure we do all we can to reduce the divide between those who have developed these digital skills and those who, as yet, haven 't.

The second set of statistics measures the impact of increased digital adoption. According to the report, efficiency is significantly improved, they quote that “Charities are saving 23% of their working week through digital channels. This equates to 415 hours per year”. Another figure is that charities with better skills are more likely to increase revenue, around 1.5 times more likely to increase revenue. There is clear evidence that continuing to develop your organisation digitally will improve its outlook for the future.

Download the report

Moving onto something which has been available for quite a while, but I'm always surprised about the number of organisations that aren't aware or don't make the most use of it, and that's the Google Ad grants for non-profits. This gives you the equivalent of 10,000 dollars in free google ads which you can use in your campaigns.

Go to Google Ad Grants

Something which might come as a bit of a surprise in a digital round-up is the pop-up store that Action for Children has opened this Christmas in Convent Garden. The reason for the mention? Well, it's their collaboration with Cap Gemini, who has developed a machine-learning algorithm to help perfect find their perfect gift donation. It all works by gauging your reaction to images and using these to determine your perfect donation.

It might seem like a bit of a novelty, but it does start to signal a clear move to a far more targeted interaction with donors. If potential donors can be categorised and profiled earlier on in the donation journey, with content completely customised to their situation, the effectiveness of digital marketing will be increased significantly.

And don't forget that if you need any more information, or would like help transforming your organisation through the use of digital, we can be contacted through the link below.

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