The 2019 Charity Digital Skills Report highlights urgent need to develop tech-savvy Boards

For three years now, the Skills Platform, in partnership with Zoe Amar Digital has released a national report to assess digital competence across the charity sector. 

This year's survey received 540 responses from charities with income ranging from below £10,000 to above £10million and disappointingly, several key points measured demonstrated very limited progress or a decline in overall digital skills and preparedness. Key headlines were as follows: 

• 68% of charities rate their Board's digital skills as low or having room for improvement (just 1% less than last year)
• Only 3% of charities see their Board as digitally savvy (compared to 6% last year)
• 9% of charities are looking to recruit. a digital Trustee (up from 4%. in 2018)
• Lack of funding is the greatest challenge for charities with digital, followed by skills and culture. 
• 31% of charities see a lack of Trustee understanding or buy-in for digital as a blocker. 

Most importantly, the top three calls to action from the report were: 

1. "Funders need to set up" with supporting charities' digital ambitions. 
2. "Leadership teams and their teams need to work together" to develop skills, recruit and maintain a digitally savvy team and create a clear digital vision. 
3. "Boards need to raise their game" and charities need to encourage and support their Boards to adapt and learn new skills. 

At the Trustee Leadership Programme, we believe passionately in the need to up-skill those taking on governance positions across the UK. Let us know what you think of this latest report on twitter @TrusteeLeaders.