Skills & Capabilities

Overview

Following the pandemic, over half of small charities are offering services online and in person, with half offering new online services.
Small charities strongest rated skills in 2018-19 were basic IT and organisational skills, budgeting around projects and financial management.
Areas of fundraising such as major donor and legacy fundraising and public policy came up the highest in need of ‘significant upskilling’.
Small charities were less likely to need significant upskilling in running fundraising campaigns in 2017/18 than in previous years.

Following the pandemic, over half of small charities are offering services online and in person, which is comparable to large charities.
Half of small charities are offering new online services, compare to almost two-thirds of large charities.
22% of small charities have provided their users with devices, data or support to get online or access services, compared to 16% of large charities.

Small charities were most likely to rate their skills as 'excellent' in the following areas: basic IT and organisational skills, budgeting around projects and financial management.
A third or more of small charities rated their skills in major donor fundraising (34%), street fundraising (35%) and legacy fundraising (40%) as in need of 'significant upskilling'.

More small charities felt they had the skills to run successful fundraising campaigns in 2017/18 than in previous years.
The proportion of small charities who felt they needed 'significant upskilling' in running fundraising campaigns has declined from over a quarter (28%) in 2015, to 13% in 2017/18.

In 2018-19, small charities were more likely to rate their skills in areas of marketing and communication as 'excellent' or 'very good' than in previous years.
The largest area of improvement was in social media, where nearly half (46%) of small charities rated their skills in social media as 'excellent' or 'very good', an increase of 10% since 2014-15.

In 2018-19, small charities were most likely to want further training to address their organisational skills gaps (46%).
Beyond this, 40% of small charities felt that visiting other charities, connecting with business or using resources from the wider voluntary sector would also help address skills gaps.
Small charities have consistently reported these areas as the most likely actions to address the skills gaps within their organisation since 2012-13.

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