DIY Digital Audit Guide for UK Charities

Charities of all sizes are under pressure to do more with digital, often on limited budgets. The good news is that you can take a DIY approach to reviewing your digital strategy and infrastructure (a sort of internal digital audit) to uncover insights and quick wins, if you don;t have the budget for consultants. In this guide, we’ll explore how a pragmatic self-assessment can empower your organisation with new knowledge and actionable steps. We’ll cover the pros and cons of going DIY; It’s not a perfect substitute for professional assessment, and we’ll be clear why, but we’ll walk through a step-by-step checklist to help you get started. Yes, you can do this!

What Is a Digital Audit and Why Does It Matter?

In simple terms, a digital audit is a review of your organisation’s online presence, tools, and practices to identify what’s working and what isn’t. It typically involves evaluating things like your website, social media, email marketing, internal systems, and even staff digital skills. The goal is to spot strengths to build on and weaknesses to address. Think of it as a health check for your charity’s digital ecosystem.

Why should charities care? Because in today’s world, people expect seamless digital experiences from every organisation, including charities (see NCVO). Donors, beneficiaries and supporters alike expect to find information easily, interact with you online without friction, and trust that you’re up to speed digitally. A digital audit shines a light on whether your charity is meeting these expectations or falling behind. It can be a game-changer for understanding the state of your strategy and is often the first step towards improving your digital effectiveness. In fact, research by Salesforce shows that digitally mature nonprofits are four times more likely to achieve their mission goals than those lagging behind, yet only about 12% currently consider themselves “digitally mature”. That gap spells opportunity: a self-audit can help you start closing it.

Lastly, a note on scope: You can perform a full-organisation digital review or focus on a specific department or function (e.g. auditing just your fundraising team’s digital tools). Either way, the principles remain the same.

The Benefits of a DIY Digital Audit

Why might you conduct an internal digital audit yourself, without outside consultants? Here are some key benefits:

Cost Savings: The most obvious advantage; it’s essentially free aside from your team’s time. Charities with tight budgets can’t always afford external consultants, so a DIY audit is a way to get insights without the hefty price tag.
Immediate Insights and Quick Wins: An internal audit can quickly highlight low-hanging fruit. For example, you might discover your donation page isn’t mobile-friendly or your Twitter account hasn’t been updated in months, issues you can fix right away. It’s about finding those “ah-ha!” moments in your current digital setup that could be improved with minimal effort.
Deepen Your Team’s Understanding: Going through the audit process internally can be a great learning experience. Your staff or volunteers will gain a clearer picture of how your digital systems work together (or don’t!). This shared understanding can build a stronger digital culture. In fact, involving team members in assessing current strengths and weaknesses can create a sense of ownership over the improvements to come.
Tailored to Your Context: You know your organisation’s mission and context best. By self-assessing, you can focus on what matters most to your charity’s goals. There are even free tools to guide you. For example, NCVO’s Digital Maturity Matrix, which is a “simple way of assessing your current strengths and weaknesses, and helping you see what you need to do next, completely free of charge”. It lets you rate your charity across areas like leadership, technology, skills, and data to pinpoint where you stand. Using such frameworks, you can customise the audit to your needs and immediately see which areas need love.
Foundation for the Future: A DIY audit can generate evidence and narrative to support bigger changes. If you’re in a larger organisation and need to make the case for budget, an internal audit is a great starting point. By documenting problems (with screenshots, data, or user feedback) you can tell a compelling story to leadership about why investing in digital – whether it’s new tools, training, or eventually bringing in experts – will pay off. We’ll talk more about crafting that narrative later.

In short, a self-conducted audit is empowering. It gives you clarity on where you stand and can energise your team around a roadmap for improvementsunandesigns.com. As one nonprofit marketing company put it, “getting a digital audit is the first step towards understanding your standing in the digital world” and provides an in-depth view of your strengths, weaknesses and actionable next stepssunandesigns.com.

A Reality Check: Limitations of Going DIY

Now for the flip side: What can’t a DIY digital audit do, and where might you still want professional help?

No Outside Perspective: By definition, an internal review is done by insiders. You might be too close to see certain issues. External consultants, on the other hand, bring a fresh pair of eyes and can spot blind spots you overlooked. They also come with experience from other organisations, so they can benchmark you against best practices. One expert notes that an external consultant offers new perspective and insight from helping similar organisations through the process.
Limited Expertise: Your team may not have deep expertise in every facet of digital (and that’s okay!). For example, diagnosing technical SEO issues or cybersecurity vulnerabilities might be beyond the knowledge of your staff. A professional audit typically involves specialists (in web, IT, marketing, etc.) who know exactly what to look for. As a nonprofit tech guide candidly says, you can attempt to audit your technology yourself, but a third-party expert provides objectivity and know-how from past experience. In volunteer-led charities especially, in-house skills might be limited.
Time and Thoroughness: Doing a thorough audit takes time and careful effort, which your small team might struggle to spare. External professionals are dedicated to the task and can often complete a comprehensive review faster. They’ll dig into analytics, interview stakeholders, test user journeys, and so on in a systematic way. If you DIY, be realistic about scope so you don’t burn out your team. You might focus on a “lite” audit, capturing the big picture, and leave the fine-tooth-comb work for another day (or a consultant later on).
Not a Magic Bullet: An internal audit can reveal issues, but it won’t solve them for you. Without additional resources or expertise, some of your findings might be hard to act on. For instance, your audit might show that your database system is hopelessly out of date; upgrading it could require budget or technical help beyond your current means. In other words, insights alone don’t equal implementation. Be prepared that a DIY audit is a starting point, not a complete solution.

Important: We want to be clear that a self-assessment isn’t a replacement for a professional assessment in the long run. Think of it as complementary. In fact, many organisations find a hybrid approach works best: do a DIY check-up internally to gather initial insights, then bring in an external expert to go deeper on the tough stuff. As one LinkedIn commentary on digital readiness put it, for a truly thorough assessment an external consultant is recommended to save time and ensure nothing’s missed, but most leaders already have an intuitive sense of where they’re struggling and can start with some honest self-reflection. Use your internal knowledge to kick things off, and don’t be afraid to call in help for the next steps if needed.

How to Conduct Your Own Digital Audit (Step by Step)

Ready to roll up your sleeves? Here’s a pragmatic step-by-step checklist for a DIY digital audit. Feel free to adjust based on your organisation’s size and focus. You can even do this as a group exercise, involving colleagues from different teams – it’s a great way to get everyone on the same page.

1. Define the scope and goals of your audit. Decide upfront what you’re auditing and why. Is this a full digital audit of your entire charity, or a targeted review (for example, just looking at your website and social media)? Clarify what questions you want to answer. (E.g. “How effective is our online presence in engaging supporters?” or “Where are we wasting effort with outdated tools?”). Setting a clear scope will keep the process manageable.

2. Gather your performance data and feedback. Before you start judging your digital channels, collect some facts. Pull web analytics (traffic stats, bounce rates, conversion rates), social media metrics (followers, engagement), email open/click rates, etc. Also consider asking stakeholders for input – for instance, survey your newsletter subscribers or ask a few donors for honest feedback on their experience. This data and feedback will provide a baseline and highlight areas that deserve attention.

3. Inventory your digital tools and channels. Make a list of all the digital tools, platforms, and systems you’re using. This includes your website (and content management system), CRM or donor database, email marketing tool, social media accounts, any fundraising or campaigning platforms, internal collaboration tools, etc. Note what each is used for and who is responsible for it. Often, this exercise reveals surprises – you may be paying for software nobody uses, or two departments are unknowingly using different tools for the same task. Get it all in one view.

4. Evaluate key areas one by one. Now, dive into assessing each aspect of your digital presence. You can use a framework or simply a checklist of questions. Here are some key areas to look at:

Website: Review your website’s content and usability. Is it user-friendly and up-to-date? Test it on mobile; is it responsive? Check loading speeds. Look for broken links or outdated info. Is it optimised for search engines (SEO) so that people can find you on Google? A digital audit can identify SEO shortcomings like missing keywords, lack of backlinks, or slow pages. If you’re not sure how to judge these, free tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or SEO checkers can help you spot issues. Consider accessibility too: are there any barriers for people with disabilities? Essentially, put yourself in a user’s shoes and note down anything that frustrates or confuses you on the site.
Social Media: Take stock of your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… whichever platforms you use). Are they consistently branded and up-to-date? How is your engagement (likes, comments, shares)? Identify which content performed well and what fell flat. An audit will show where you could improve; maybe you need to post more regularly, or perhaps one channel isn’t reaching the right audience at all. Also, check the basics: are your profile bios and contact info correct and consistent? Look at peer organisations’ social media for comparison, as it can inspire ideas for boosting your own engagement.
Email and Communications: Examine your email newsletters or campaigns. Are you happy with the open and click-through rates? Is your mailing list healthy (not bouncing or filled with inactive addresses)? Review one or two recent email sends critically for design, clarity, and tone. Ensure you have proper consent and unsubscribe options (GDPR compliance is a must in the UK). Also think about broader comms: do you have a content calendar or are things ad-hoc? This audit is a chance to spot if your communications could be better coordinated or more compelling.
Data and Security: This might not be as glamorous, but it’s crucial. Check your data protection practices. Are you securely backing up important data? Who has access to what systems? When did you last update passwords or enable two-factor authentication? Small charities often have “patchwork” IT fixes that were thrown together in busy times (especially during Covid). Take a moment to identify any of those quick-fixes that should be solidified or any obvious security gaps. For example, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) offers a free 20-minute digital check-up to give charities a holistic view of their cyber security capabilities – a reminder that basic IT health checks are part of your digital audit too. Use guidance from resources like the National Cyber Security Centre’s Small Charity Guide if needed.
Skills and Culture: Assess the human side of digital. Do your staff and volunteers have the digital skills they need? This could be informal. Ask team members how confident they feel with the tools you identified in step 3. Also gauge the organisational mindset toward digital: Is leadership supportive of digital innovation? Is there resistance or fear of change holding things back? Culture can be harder to quantify, but it heavily influences success. (For instance, if everyone is swamped and no one “owns” digital, that’s important to flag in your narrative.)
Strategy and Leadership: Finally, reflect on your overall digital strategy (if you have one written down) and leadership engagement. Do you have clear digital goals? Are they aligned with your charity’s mission? If your charity has a strategic plan, is digital included in it? Often, a self-audit surfaces the fact that there isn’t a unifying digital strategy, or it’s outdated. Note this as a gap if so. Also, consider how you currently measure success in digital (web analytics, fundraising online, etc.) and whether those metrics truly capture what you need to know.

Tip: To stay organised, you could create a simple scorecard or use an existing template. The NCVO Digital Maturity Matrix mentioned earlier is one option. It prompts you to score yourself from beginner to expert in categories like Technology, Service Design, Data, etc., and “helps you see what you need to do next”. There’s also TechSoup’s Digital Assessment Tool, a free online quiz-style assessment that provides recommendations on where to improve (though one review noted it’s good for ideas but not as detailed in analysing your systems). Any structured approach can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and ensure you cover all bases.

5. Summarise your findings into the good, the bad, the ugly. Once you’ve gone through the areas above (and any others relevant to you), pull together a summary. Highlight your strengths – things to be proud of. e.g. “Our website content is strong and up-to-date” or “We have a decent social media following on Facebook” – and your weaknesses or gaps – e.g. “We’re lacking internal digital expertise” or “Our CRM database is outdated and siloed”.

It can help to categorise these by priority: which issues are critical vs. nice-to-have improvements? Also note any quick wins you discovered along the way. For example, if you found broken links or missing info, those can be fixed immediately – celebrate that! This summary is the heart of your audit report.

6. Craft a narrative and next steps. Data and bullet points alone won’t drive change – it’s the story you tell around them that inspires action. This is where the narrative comes in; Take your findings and weave them into a clear story of where your charity stands digitally. For instance, you might write a short narrative like: “Over the past few years, our digital efforts have been haphazard. We have a great story to tell, but our outdated website and sporadic social media mean many potential supporters aren’t hearing it. Our internal review found that while our team is passionate, they lack certain digital tools and training – we’re basically using duct-tape solutions to get by. If we invest in strengthening these areas (like adopting a better CRM and launching regular email newsletters), we could reach thousands more people and make a bigger impact.” Adjust the storyline to fit your situation, but keep it honest and constructive.

Your narrative should also paint a picture of the opportunity ahead. Maybe your audit shows that improving SEO could greatly increase your visibility (since right now you’re not ranking well). Frame that as untapped potential. Or maybe you realise better integration between systems would save staff dozens of hours a month, highlight that efficiency gain. Put a human face on the issues where you can (e.g. “One volunteer told us our sign-up form was so confusing she nearly gave-up trying, so we’re fixing that ASAP.”). Storytelling isn’t just for external campaigns; it’s a powerful tool internally to get buy-in from trustees, CEOs, or colleagues for making changes.

7. Prioritise actions and assign owners. Finally, turn the audit insights into an action plan. For each major recommendation, decide on next steps. Some will be things you can do in-house immediately (e.g. updating web content, tightening security settings). Others might require further research or budget (e.g. evaluating new donor management software). Rank the actions by impact and effort. Crucially, assign someone to each task, even if that someone is you, and a rough timeline. This ensures the audit leads to real changes and doesn’t just become a report that gathers dust.

With these steps, you’ve essentially created a roadmap for digital improvement without spending a penny on consultants. Pat yourself on the back – this is no small feat!

Using Your Audit to Drive Change (and When to Call in Experts)

Completing a self-audit is empowering, but it’s what you do next that counts. Here’s how to make the most of what you’ve learned:

Share the story: Present your findings and narrative to your team and leadership. Use plain English, not jargon, and focus on the big picture. For instance, instead of drowning people in analytics stats, emphasise key takeaways: “We’re losing mobile donors due to a clunky site. Fixing that could boost donations by X%,” or “Staff are spending hours re-entering data. An integrated system could free up time to help beneficiaries.” By framing it in terms of mission impact (the why it matters), you’re more likely to get buy-in (and budget). Breaking down digital complexity into easy concepts of current state versus future state can demystify digital for senior leaders, making them more supportive.
Implement the quick wins: Demonstrate momentum by immediately tackling some of the small fixes you identified. Perhaps update that old event page on your website, or revive your Twitter with a fresh post. When others see improvements happening, however minor, it builds confidence and a sense of progress. It shows that the audit is leading to action.
Plan for the bigger investments: For the more significant needs that emerged (say, a new CRM, a website overhaul, staff training, etc.), use your audit findings to justify any budget or external help required. You now have evidence and a coherent argument; use it. If you need to make a business case for funding, include data from the audit (e.g. “Our email open rates are only 10%, industry benchmark is ~20%; investing in better email content and tools could double our engagement”). Prioritise these asks based on impact.
Consider external support strategically: If your DIY audit revealed complex challenges, this might be the moment to bring in outside expertise. And that’s perfectly fine! You’ve done the groundwork, which will help any consultant understand your context faster. An external digital consultant or agency can take your internal findings and go deeper – consider conducting user research, technical audits, or developing a full digital strategy document. Remember, their outsider perspective and experience can validate what you found and uncover nuances you didn’t. As one tech auditor put it, a professional can “make clear suggestions” tailored to your needs and has likely seen similar issues elsewhere . You can decide to engage help for specific pieces (for example, hire a web developer short-term to fix the site issues you flagged, or a strategist to facilitate a digital strategy workshop with your board). It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.
Repeat the self-audit periodically: Digital landscapes change quickly. Make it a habit to revisit this internal audit annually (or even every 6 months) to track your progress. Free tools like the Charity Digital Skills Report’s self-assessment, or NCVO’s matrix, can be reused to see if your scores improve over time. Regular check-ups will keep you from slipping back into old habits and continuously highlight new areas to improve. It’s all about continuous learning and iteration.

By following through on your audit’s findings, you’ll gradually raise your charity’s digital maturity. And as we noted earlier, higher digital maturity is linked with better mission outcomes – ultimately, that means more people helped and greater impact.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need a big budget or an outside consultant to start transforming your charity’s digital presence. With a bit of structure, honesty, and team effort, a DIY digital audit can yield eye-opening insights and practical to-dos. It’s about working smarter with what you have, identifying where to invest precious resources for maximum return. Most importantly, it’s about empowering you and your colleagues to take charge of your digital destiny, rather than waiting on external “experts” to tell you what to do.

Use the checklist and advice above as a jumping-off point. Adapt it, add to it, make it your own. If something feels too technical, skip it or seek a friend/volunteer’s help. The perfect audit doesn’t exist, but an imperfect audit that prompts action is worth its weight in gold.

Remember, this DIY approach isn’t a silver bullet or a one-off task. Think of it as part of an ongoing journey of improvement. Know when to celebrate your wins (like that boost in social media engagement after you implemented changes) and when to ask for help (when you hit a wall or need specialist skills). By starting internally, you’ve already taken a huge step towards a stronger digital strategy, and build your own digital knowledge.

Empowerment is the name of the game here. You’ve got the knowledge and the tools at your fingertips to drive change. So roll up those sleeves and dive in – your charity’s digital future is yours to shape!

Checklist: DIY Charity Digital Audit (Recap)

Set Audit Scope & Goals
What are you auditing (whole org or specific areas) and what questions are you trying to answer?
Gather Data & Feedback
Collect website analytics, social stats, etc., and get input from users or staff to inform your review.
List All Digital Tools/Channels
Inventory your website, social media, email system, databases, and so on (with who uses them).
Review Website
Check content, user experience, mobile-friendliness, SEO basics, accessibility, and up-to-date information.
Review Social Media
Check branding, engagement, consistency of posts, follower growth, and alignment with your audience.
Review Communications
Evaluate email newsletters/campaigns, messaging consistency, and how you engage supporters online.
Check Data & Security
Ensure backups, security practices, password protocols, and compliance (e.g. GDPR) are in place.
Assess Skills & Culture
Gauge staff digital skills and the organisational attitude towards digital change/improvement.
Identify Strengths & Gaps
Summarise what you’re doing well and where you need improvement; prioritise the issues found.
Craft the Narrative
Turn the findings into a story that explains the current situation and the opportunity that improvement will bring, demystify the complexity to get easier buy-in.
Create an Action Plan
List quick wins to implement now and bigger projects to seek resources for, with owners and timelines for each.

Use this checklist as a starting point, and tweak it to fit your charity! Remember, even a basic audit can provide valuable insights – but the key is to take action on what you discover.

How to DIY Your Charity’s Digital Audit