VCSE Digital Skills in the South West
In partnership with Quartet Community Foundation, we ran the first Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Digital Skills Survey for the South West region (referred to as charities and non profits in the rest of the article). Understanding where organisations feel confident, where they’re stretched, and what practical support they actually need to keep delivering for their communities is critical to the work of Tech4Good South West but many others also. The survey ran from June to July, with responses from 132 organisations and almost 200 individuals across the region.
Since closing the survey and diving into the data, I’ve been reflecting on what the findings reveal about the region, and how they sit within the bigger national picture. We designed the questions to align as closely as possible with the National Charity Digital Skills Report (running since 2017), so we could see where the South West follows wider patterns and where the gaps are more stark.
In this post, I will be exploring what the numbers tell us, and share how they’re already shaping the programmes we’re building at Tech4Good South West. I also hope it will be an opportunity for others to join in our mission to support the development and growth of digital skills across the charity and non profit sector.
What’s sitting underneath the numbers
Anyone who has worked in charities or non profit organisations knows the pattern: stretched teams, limited budgets, and internal systems that never quite keep up with the ambition of the work and the complex work of delivering support to communities. Over 20 years of working in the sector, I’ve seen how this affects access to digital skills, knowledge of, and access to, digital tools, and the luxury of time and resources to experiment with them. This combination of challenges has multiple impacts but fundamentally shapes how much time and resources organisations spend on admin rather than the relational work that actually changes lives.
What struck me in the survey wasn’t reluctance or resistance, it was lack of access:
65% of organisations haven’t received any training on the tools they use - This demonstrates a need to better support continuous digital learning culture within organisations. Without time, funding or internal support to embed tools properly, organisations risk inconsistent use and missed value over time.
80% haven’t accessed any digital training in the last 12 months - This suggests digital skills are not consistently embedded within routine professional development, particularly learning that focuses on how and why organisations adopt digital, not just specific tools. When training is infrequent or episodic, organisations are more likely to respond to change reactively rather than strategically.
Fewer than 1 in 5 have a digital strategy in place - Developing a strategy takes time, confidence, and often external support. Yet a digital strategy puts technology at the heart of how a charity or non profit delivers its mission, enabling better services, wider reach, and more effective use of resources. Without it, digital decisions can become fragmented and reactive
Only 3% feel confident using AI tools
Nationally, 76% of charities report already using AI*, highlighting a gap between adoption and confidence. This reflects the pace of change outstripping access to safe, ethical and practical learning environments. This also plays out in the organisation's very valid concerns about unleashing AI on the people they serve.The biggest barriers to improving use of technology are lack of time (75%) and lack of funding (71%). These are consistent structural constraints that shape the sector’s engagement with technology. It has always been the case but the pace of change is making it even harder. When organisations are stretched delivering essential services, learning, reflection and digital improvement are harder to prioritise without protected time and dedicated funding.
The nature of working in charities and non profit organisations often involves high administrative demands and increasingly complex operating environments. Teams balance the needs of many different service users with increasingly complex needs, alongside significant reporting and compliance requirements. This can reduce the time available for front-line delivery and meaningful engagement with people.
Digital has a critical role to play – not simply by reducing administrative burden, but by creating space. When digital tools work well, they can free up time for creative thinking and for work that depends on human judgement, creativity and connection, supporting more relational and responsive services.
Why we’re building a cross-sector network around digital skills
One of the clearest messages from the survey is that no single organisation - not a charity, not a tech company, not a funder - can fix the digital skills gap alone. The conditions simply aren’t there.
As I’ve already highlighted, many non profit organisations operate with limited time, funding and internal digital capacity. In this context, the landscape of digital support can be difficult to navigate. While there is no shortage of organisations offering to “work with charities”, the support available is uneven, varies widely in quality and cost, and is not always designed around the needs and realities of how the sector works.
This complex picture is further compounded by funders needing to fund projects and outcomes not systems. I would argue funders need to see digital maturity as a continuous process and core to delivering outcomes.
That’s where networks matter—not as abstract entities, but as practical scaffolding between organisations and sectors to advocate for more targeted support. We are using the survey data to directly shape our programmes, ensuring we are consistently addressing the needs of the sector. By running the survey annually, we will create a trusted evidence base for the South West – tracking change, surfacing gaps, and informing smarter funding and policy decisions.
