New Publication: The Charity Digital Skills Report 2026
The Charity Digital Skills Report began in 2017 and since then we have seen a huge amount of change – perhaps this year more than any other.
Our report is the annual barometer of digital and AI adoption, skills, attitudes, funding and support needs across the sector. Each year charities tell us about how their use of digital and AI is changing, what they have learned from this, and where they need funding and support.
This year a record number of charities took our survey. We had 807 responses and are so grateful to charities for taking the time to share their views, not least because there is so much on charities’ shoulders this year. We are also very grateful to everyone who came to our report discovery sessions and who helped test the survey. Everything they told us helped us develop the survey so that it is relevant and useful for charities and those that fund and support them.
The 2026 report would not have been possible without our report partners Corndel, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Manifesto, Media Trust, Microsoft and Torchbox. They have also played an invaluable role in helping our report evolve by sharing their insights. We work with these partners to develop resources and guidance that help meet some of the needs highlighted in the report, from content to events to AI leadership programmes.
In 2026, our aims were to:
- Measure charities’ changing digital priorities, skills, confidence and attitudes.
- Track how charities are progressing with AI, what they have learned and what is stopping them from moving forward.
- Identify the support and funding charities need to move ahead with digital.
- Gather insights about the needs of small charities.
- Understand specific priorities and barriers facing charities led by marginalised groups.
- For the first time, understand how AI is changing grantmakers’ practice.
This year, we have built on our diversity, equality and inclusion approach from previous reports (developed with our consultant Eshe Kiama Zuri). We have put lived experience at the heart of our report this year, focusing on organisations led by and for specific marginalised groups.
Charities have given us one message loud and clear from this year’s report: with 79% of charities now using AI, and greater proportions of organisations using these tools strategically and actively, the sector is changing. Charities need support and funding to manage this change. AI tools are changing how charities work day to day and the way in which people search and access information and services. There is now an urgent need to improve the systemic digital issues that have created a drag factor on charities’ digital progress for years.
We can also see this year that squeezed organisational finances are by far the biggest issue affecting two-thirds of charities (63%). AI adoption is potentially helping to plug gaps in capacity, with most charities using this to save time on administration and project management (63%, rising to 82% of large charities). However, charities are worried about relying on AI tools, due to a lack of skills (56%).
It is time that we owned these challenges as a sector. In particular, we urge funders to sit up and take notice of where charities need support. Building skills of staff, volunteers and leaders is an organisational priority for 59% of charities. Training staff, volunteers, leaders and boards is the top funding need identified by 44% of both small and large charities. Furthermore, 60% say that training staff or leaders on AI is the sector-wide support they need most.
Funders and support organisations must define their roles in supporting charities as AI and digital creates far-reaching changes across their work and society. If they do not provide this support, it is the largest and most skilled charities that will benefit most from AI and digital advancement. The outcome of that can only be deepening inequalities across the communities that charities serve.
Our data shows that charities are making digital and AI progress despite the huge financial and service demands they are facing, with more than 8 out of 10 (81%) of charities progressing digitally this year, compared to 6 out of 10 in 2025. The fact that charities have achieved this growth, when the odds are against them, indicates that charities could increase their impact even further if funders step up to help charities at this critical stage in digital and AI development.