Can you tell us about your work and how you support the sector with digital change and digital fundraising?
I head up the digital consultancy Zoe Amar Digital. We help charities and other non-profits develop inclusive digital strategies, design and implement digital transformation programmes and grow their digital fundraising.
I also co-author an annual barometer of charities’ digital adoption, goals, skills and attitudes called The Charity Digital Skills Report. And I’m the co-host of the podcast Starts At The Top, which features social sector leaders who are leading differently.
What do you think the main trends will be when it comes to digital developments within the charity sector over the coming years?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already taking off in charities. In the latest Charity Digital Skills Report , 78% of charities agreed that AI is relevant to their charity and could transform it.
Yet 73% of charities don’t feel prepared to respond to the opportunities and challenges of AI. 35% are already using AI for certain tasks, and 52% want to look into the technology more but are constrained by a lack of time, resources and skills, whilst 42% are trying to get colleagues to engage. For every charity I speak to that is using AI to create content for campaigns, improve fundraising and develop their strategies, there are many more that are struggling to move forward.
The barriers aren’t just about the technologies. Charities are being held back by similar issues across many other areas of their digital transformation. A lack of funding, not having the right skills on the team and not getting buy-in for digital plans are perennial problems. We need funders to better resource digital for charities; this has become even more imperative during the cost of living crisis. Charities also need to look at how they can grow their teams’ skills and create consistent support across teams for their shared digital vision.
We will also see more charities making efforts to develop an inclusive approach to digital. This will include designing their online products, services and campaigns to reach more marginalised groups. In last year’s Charity Digital Skills Report, we saw that there was a case for dedicated and tailored digital funding and support for organisations led by specific marginalised groups, including black-led charities and those with a core purpose to support survivors of domestic violence and abuse. As digital adoption grows across the sector, those providing digital funding, training or services need to review how the digital needs of different groups are evolving and adapt the support they offer accordingly.
What are the biggest challenges the arts and cultural sector is facing at the moment when it comes to adapting to digital?
Digital funding is obviously a significant challenge for charities and non-profits of all kinds. However, for arts organisations and from the work I do with Cause4 training arts and culture organisations in how to develop their digital fundraising, a key problem that surfaces is how to adapt to a hybrid environment. Whilst lockdown is old news, it does seem to have made an impact on arts and culture supporters’ behaviour, such as being more used to consuming culture in digital formats.
What advice would you give to organisations hoping to address these challenges and adapt to digital?
A lack of digital and arts funding may not change anytime soon. So the best thing to do is focus on growing your digital fundraising. Make sure you communicate a good case for support across your digital channels and make it as easy as possible to give. Your case for support needs to demonstrate your impact, so telling the story of what you have achieved is vital.
In terms of hybrid, deciding whether an event should be offline, online or both, has implications for cost as well as engagement. These decisions need to be informed by insights from your supporters, so staying in close touch with them, regularly speaking to them to stay on top of how they are using digital to interact with, support and donate to the arts is key. This can be achieved by speaking to a small number of supporters regularly, as well as using tools such as online surveys. Taken together, these will help you build a picture and an evidence base, to inform what supporters want from your digital offering.
How can small charities compete with larger institutions that are achieving so much in digital change?
We work with small as well as large charities, and I’m really conscious that it is impossible for small organisations to compete in terms of people and resources. Yet there are still tons of things that small charities can do to give themselves the best chance of success.
The first thing is that you need to have a really clear idea of where you want to get to with digital, and this vision needs to be created in such a way that it helps you to increase your impact. For example, if you run a textiles museum based in Birmingham, you may want to use digital to help more people experience and support your museum. You then need to decide how you are going to achieve this vision. For example, digital could help you achieve this by increasing visitor numbers through digital marketing, give far flung supporters ways to experience your offer (e.g. through online events) and acquire new donors.
Once you have your strategy, this should help you to cherry pick where you will focus your efforts. I find that small charities are often incredibly disciplined about resources, meaning that they often get more value from what they are investing in digital.
Finally, I recommend speaking to your supporters regularly. This will help you generate ideas about new ways you can use digital to engage them and grow fundraising, for example, through ideas for new fundraising campaigns. I’ve worked with some amazing small charities which are in the habit of regularly testing out new digital fundraising ideas, inspired by their insights from supporters, which helps them rapidly identify the campaigns which best generate income.
Is the rise of AI something that all organisations (from micro to large-scale) should be developing a strategy to respond to?
You certainly need an idea of what AI can help you to achieve and what you need to focus on to do it! If your charity is just getting started with AI, I’d start by trying out tools, such as Chat GPT. Then share learnings across your teams about how you are using these tools and what has and hasn’t worked.
You will also need to develop parameters for staff about how they can and can’t use these tools, for example, on what data.
If your charity is getting started with, or needs to review its approach to AI, we have developed a free AI checklist for charity leaders and trustees.
At what point will digital no longer be seen as a separate or additional consideration, but as a core activity like fundraising or finance?
I think we reached this point a few years ago! The pandemic merely sped up the pace. If I was interviewing a charity leader or trustee for a job tomorrow, I would expect them to have a good understanding of digital, and ambitious ideas for how the organisation that they’re joining should use digital to increase its impact.
Where might we see skills develop to properly support digital? Will charities be able to attract the best skills in data science for example?
It is a challenge, as charities can’t compete with private sector salaries. Yet I’ve seen charities of all sizes be really clever about bringing in pro bono support, freelancers and agencies to plug the gaps, creating a ‘team around your team’. Training up your staff is also key, as digital never stands still, and also offering professional development opportunities will motivate them and help them have even more impact in their role.