What is Digital Maturity?
Digital maturity is how well your organisation uses technology across everything it does – from fundraising and service delivery to supporter experience and decision-making. It has less to with having lots of fancy software, and more to do with using the right tools for the right job, in a way that helps your team work smarter.
To put it another way, it’s how matured the use of digital technologies is within your organisation; how comfortable staff are with using the tools, whether it improves efficiency & streamlines process, and how much of a positive contribution it makes to achieving your objectives. A digitally mature organisation is able to demonstrate a clear link between their their core mission objectives & their digital strategies.
Charities with higher digital maturity are more likely to grow income, make better use of data, and feel confident in their tech. According to the Status of UK Fundraising 2025, the average digital maturity score across the sector is just 5.1 out of 10. That’s a signal – not just of untapped potential, but of real barriers holding organisations back.
If your CRM still feels clunky and no-one knows how to use it, your digital strategy is stuck in draft mode, or AI sounds like something for “other charities,” now’s the time to take stock. Not to do more – but to do better.
What is a Digital Maturity Score?
A digital maturity score is a self-assessed measure of how effectively an organisation uses digital tools, systems, and thinking across its operations. In the context of UK charities, it’s often based on a scale from 1 to 10, where:
- 1 = minimal digital integration (e.g. mostly offline processes, limited tech use)
- 10 = digital is embedded in strategy, delivery, decision-making, and culture
Charities typically rate themselves on this scale as part of sector-wide surveys like the Status of UK Fundraising Report or the Charity Digital Skills Report. This score reflects factors like:
- Whether the charity has a digital strategy
- How integrated its tech stack is (CRM, website, email, etc.)
- How data is used to inform decisions
- Staff confidence, autonomy, and leadership on digital
- Use of digital in fundraising and service delivery
You don’t have to do a full digital audit before assessing your digital maturity, but it can really help get more accurate results. We’ve got a simple guide to performing a DIY digital audit for charities that can help if you don’t have the budget for an external consultant, or want to make a start before hiring one.
Why Digital Maturity Matters
Fundamentally, digital maturity is not about having digital systems, it’s about how well your digital systems are integrated, used, and aligned with your goals. When your website, CRM, donation platforms, email tools, and service databases are connected, you can build a complete picture of your beneficiaries, donors, volunteers, and services. That joined-up view lets you support people more holistically, spot trends, personalise communications, and make better decisions across departments.
Digital maturity is not just about having digital tools in place. It is about how well those tools are integrated, embedded, and aligned with your organisation’s mission. When digital systems are mature, they do more than support day-to-day tasks. They create clarity, reduce duplication, and unlock better outcomes across the board.
For service delivery, digital maturity allows you to connect data across programmes. This makes it easier to understand the full picture of someone’s needs, coordinate support across teams, and track real outcomes over time.
For fundraising, integrated systems let you link supporter data with programme impact. This makes it easier to personalise communications, report on what donations have achieved, and build longer-term supporter relationships.
For reporting and strategy, digital maturity turns scattered data into clear evidence. You can produce stronger impact reports, respond faster to emerging needs, and make a more compelling case for funding.
I could go on but, in short, digital maturity gives you the ability to use data, tools, and insight in a joined-up way. It helps your organisation work smarter, respond faster, and demonstrate its value more clearly.
Digital isn’t a panacea, but charities with higher digital maturity are:
- More likely to grow their income
- Better at engaging supporters
- Less stressed about their tech stack
(Source: Blackbaud’s The Status of UK Fundraising 2025)
The NHS has good (if a little out of date) example on its own digital maturity process, with links to their Digital Journey Planner for NHS staff and What Good Looks Like. It’s very specific to healthcare & the NHS unique (and huge) structure but you may find it useful for reference & insight.
Signs You May Not Be as Digitally Mature as You Think
There’s plenty of signs you may not be using digital tools as effectively as you could (or should), but here’s a few obvious ones.
Your CRM is more of a digital storage cupboard than a strategic asset.
If your supporter database is cluttered, inconsistent, or underused, it’s probably not driving much value. A mature digital setup turns your CRM into a live source of insight – helping you segment audiences, personalise engagement, and track the outcomes of your work. If the current state is beyond repair, back up what matters and build a cleaner, more useful system.
You don’t trust your data – or you’re not using it to inform decisions.
If you’re ignoring reports, second-guessing metrics, or struggling to extract anything useful, that’s a red flag. Digital maturity means having reliable, joined-up data that you can act on with confidence. Whether you need to clear out bad data or rethink how information is collected, start making your data work for you.
AI is being explored in pockets, but there’s no clear strategy.
If someone in comms is using ChatGPT but no one else is thinking about how AI might support fundraising, service delivery or operations, you’re missing opportunities. A digitally mature organisation doesn’t jump on trends for the sake of it – it explores new tools with purpose and looks at how emerging tech could improve impact or efficiency across the board.
Technology decisions are driven by urgency, not strategy.
If new tools are only adopted in response to crises or short-term gaps, you’re likely adding complexity rather than building capability. Digital maturity means planning for the future, choosing tools that integrate well, and investing in systems that grow with your organisation’s needs.
What’s Holding Us Back?
The usual things appear here, but all can be overcome if there’s willing.
- Funding: 69% of charities cite squeezed organisational finances as the biggest barrier to digital progress, but many are already spending fortunes on tools they aren’t using effectively.
- Skills and Leadership: Charity CEOs and boards to still be rating their own digital and AI literacy as poor. That’s no longer viable when 95% of UK adults own a smartphone that’s connected to the internet, 24/7.
- Capacity: Lack of time and headspace is just as big a barrier as lack of money. But the right tech can create more time & headspace.
(Sources: Charity Digital Skills Report 2025; Blackbaud’s The Status of UK Fundraising 2025)
Practical Steps to Level Up Without Burning Out
1. Start with Your Strategy
Work out where you want to be, & create a “digital roadmap” that aligns with your mission and capacity to get you there. This should be a list of organisational needs and outcomes, not a wishlist of shiny & expensive software platforms. You can then use that to assess which tools you need.
For example:
If data about donors, volunteers, beneficiaries and partners live in different systems (or spreadsheets), it will be difficult to see the full picture or coordinate engagement. A big CRM company may want to sell their system as the ultimate answer, but using multiple, smaller, specialist systems that communicate with each other (or that allow you to export data to another analysis) might actually be better suited to your organisations mission. It all depends on what you need.
Fix the Foundations
Before chasing AI, ensure your CRM, website, and data hygiene are solid. Messy, incomplete, duplicated, or inconsistent data won’t magically become useful by a CRM. Getting that data clean, and laying out the rules so it stays that way in future (e.g. consistent, standardised forms & required fields) lays the foundations for effective use of data going forward.
CRMs can be powerful tools when used effectively but (according to Blackbaud), only 21% of nonprofits feel they’re getting full value from their existing CRM
3. Build Confidence in Teams
Focus on everyday tools, user-centred thinking, and storytelling with data. These skills build long-term capability across your organisation. Confidence comes from staff knowing how to interpret a report, manage digital comms without bottlenecks, or adapt a campaign based on what the data shows them.
Even simple wins – like having shared dashboards, reusable content blocks, or agreed brand assets – can unlock time, autonomy, and consistency.
4. Integrate Slowly and Sustainably
You don’t need to overhaul everything, everyhwere all at once. But integrating your systems (CRM, email, website forms) can bring quick wins.
It’s Time to Boost Income & Impact
The charity sector doesn’t need to become Silicon Valley. But we do need to stop tinkering around the edges and start thinking like digital-first organisations – because our communities, supporters, and future demand it.
Want support planning your digital evolution? That’s exactly what Narrative is here for. Let’s help you do digital right – and do more good, more effectively.