Though digital transformation varies across charity boards and private sector environments,

core strategic considerations remain consistent. How do we prioritise digital investment? Who’s accountable? What does success look like?

For charities, membership bodies and professional associations, the stakes are high. Technology is central to everything from service delivery to regulatory compliance and fundraising but unlike SMEs the third sector is often less resourced, less confident, and more risk-sensitive when it comes to digital change.

The challenge isn’t whether to digitalise, it’s how to do it

strategically and sustainably

and that invariably starts with governance.

Digital isn’t a side project; it’s your operating model

Many mission-led organisations treat digital as a set of tools: a CRM, a new website, perhaps a data dashboard or logged in area, but strategies are not just shopping lists of artefacts. A good strategy is a clear line of sight between digital investment and organisational value.

Too often, third-sector digital roadmaps are drafted by delivery teams in isolation so are full of ambition but disconnected from board-level oversight. That’s not to say the board is unaware of the ambitions, but their capability or confidence in contributing to the definition of a strategic roadmap is low, or they are simply too busy to be involved at any point other than to agree to the request for budget.  Without this alignment, it becomes difficult as a strategic delivery team to:

• Justify budget allocation
• Evaluate risk effectively
• Build organisation-wide capability
• And most importantly deliver outcomes that reflect your purpose

In contrast, SMEs tend to treat digital strategy as a core business function, so for them digital is embedded in how they grow, serve customers, and compete. While not all SMEs get it right, the strategic muscle is often more developed, boards ask tougher questions and often are able to move faster.

For the third sector to keep pace, not with Silicon Valley, but with stakeholder expectations, it needs to bring digital into the boardroom with equal clarity and confidence, because without a seat at the table your digital estate is going to fall behind faster than you possibly imagine.

For context, when Netflix launched in 1997 it took 3 years for them to hit 1 million users, whereas Instagram in 2010 achieved it in 2.5 months. The current record holder is unsurprisingly ChatGPT, which sailed past the milestone in a pinch under 5 days and this trend doesn’t look to be slowing.

Where's the gap?

The 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report highlights the governance gap in stark terms:

• Only around 50% of charities have a formal digital strategy
• 62% say their trustees’ digital skills are low or need improvement
• Just 22% rate their organisation’s cybersecurity as “excellent”

This is not due to lack of interest and many boards are aware of the challenge. In a conversation with the Chair of a Membership Organisation, he described the agenda for their upcoming conference as “AI and some other topics” with an attendee list who were broadly in favour of AI but who had little to no understanding of what it meant for them as businesses.

This is a common theme, and digital remains intangible to most as the pace of change, abundance of vendors, and fear of failure all make it difficult to lead decisively.

Meanwhile, the risk landscape is getting more complex with the rise of AI, cyber threats, and accessibility legislation (such as the EU’s 2025 Accessibility Act) placing new responsibilities on leadership teams. Boards must own these risks and the only way to do that is with structured governance and strategy.

In SMEs, digital investment is typically framed around return on investment (ROI): more leads, lower costs, faster delivery. In charities and associations, the return is more complex. It's about reach, engagement, inclusion and impact, all metrics that don’t always appear in financial spreadsheets.

This doesn’t make digital strategy less important, rather it makes it more so, because if you're trying to deliver social or professional value your digital ecosystem must reflect and reinforce those goals.

A good digital strategy in the third sector should answer:

• What are we trying to achieve, and how does digital support that?
• Where are the biggest risks to reputation, trust, or effectiveness?
• How do we make the most of limited capacity?
• Who owns the strategy, and how is it governed?

As an opportunity, this is the ideal time to explore fractional leadership, and engage a specialist on a retainer to perform this function. 

Introducing the "Digital Trustee"

One growing trend is the appointment of board-level digital leads, sometimes referred to as “digital trustees”. Their role isn’t to do the tech work, but to ensure that digital gets the same strategic attention as finance, risk, and compliance and in many respects is a leadership level product ownership function.

It’s a concept that’s still maturing and most organisations struggle to define it clearly whilst others worry about tokenism or over-reliance on a single individual. Where it works though, it brings real value: sharper oversight, better alignment, and more confident decision-making.

SMEs, for their part, can learn from the third sector’s emphasis on ethics, equity, and stakeholder inclusion and the most forward-looking private companies are now embedding ESG principles into their digital strategies, something the best charities have done instinctively for years.

Five steps to better digital governance

1. Audit your digital capabilities

Map systems, skills, gaps and current initiatives. A digital maturity assessment can clarify where you are and what’s missing.

2. Define ownership and accountability

Make sure digital isn’t “everyone’s job” as this usually means no one owns it. Define clear leadership roles (e.g. a digital trustee, CIO or external advisor).

3. Tie digital to strategic goals

Avoid disconnected projects and focus on defining programmes. Every digital activity should be traceable to a defined outcome from improving service delivery to reducing risk or enhancing accessibility.

4. Create governance rhythms

Digital should feature regularly in board packs and senior discussions and a regular cadence needs to be established for managing and assessment. 

5. Build board-level digital confidence

Invest in training or fractional advisory support for trustees. A one-off workshop can dramatically improve oversight and reduce hesitancy, an ongoing engagement with a non-partisan consultant will provide assurance, a sounding board and importantly distance.

Building capability, not just systems

The future of digital in the third sector will be shaped not just by what systems organisations buy but by how confidently they govern them. Strategy and governance are not simply back-office issues but are central to mission delivery, stakeholder trust, and long-term sustainability.

At Kingsbury Consulting, we help charities, professional bodies and mission-led organisations bridge the strategy gap. Whether you're just starting or looking to mature your governance model, we can help you define, structure and communicate a clear path forward.

Many third sector organisations already use external specialists for niche areas such as training so why not apply the same thinking to Digital?