We talk to Dr Francine Ryan, Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the Open Justice Centre at The Open University, about the project she is leading on responsible AI – including the free online courses they've developed – and how charities can get involved to develop...
Digital Skills
AI Policy guide for charity trustees: what to look for and red flags to avoid
Over the last year we have seen an explosion in charities' use of AI rising from 61% in 2024 to 76% of charities using AI in the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report. In this year's report I was excited to see that almost half (48%) of charities now have an AI...
How small charities are leading the way with AI innovation
Over the summer I had the privilege of facilitating the Charity AI Leadership Accelerator programme in collaboration with Microsoft, where we trained over 100 leaders from small and large charities. One of the most inspiring parts of the programme was hearing directly...
Using agentic AI to connect with supporters and funders
We chat to Chris Khalaf, CEO of Exquitech, a UK-based Microsoft Partner, in collaboration with Charity Excellence, about The Furry Fundraiser – a free AI-powered assistant built to support fundraising and capacity-building for UK charities. (Visit the Charity...
Preparing for civil society’s AI future: reflections from NCVO’s AGM
These speaking notes are based on Zoe Amar's presentation at NCVO's Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 15 October 2025. The text below has been edited for clarity and is not a word for word transcript. You can read more about the event on Third Sector and Civil...
What we’re reading this summer
It's been a year since the UK riots, when we saw racist and Islamophobic violence on our streets. At the time, I took great comfort from the books I was reading, which we recommended to charity leaders. In this blog I’ll be talking about three books I’ve read recently...
Helping small charities and communities grow their AI skills
We talk to Zoë Colosimo, COO at Neighbourly, an organisation connecting businesses and communities for social good. Zoë tells us about Neighbourly’s fantastic Ai123 campaign supporting small charities and communities to understand the basics of artificial intelligence...
Charity comms: helping charities get their voices heard
We chat to Rob Dyson*, a PR and comms consultant with over two decades of experience, including everything from strategic media relations to risk and reputational management, copywriting to social media, and strategies to internal comms. Phew, and that's just for...
Adopting AI: how two mental health charities are blazing a trail
Rethink Mental Illness and Mental Health UK have blazed a trail in adopting AI by launching a pioneering policy, organisation-wide training, and a cross-functional steering group – empowering staff to innovate. Their goal is to build an AI-native workforce, enhancing...
Early insights from the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report survey
By Nissa Ramsay, Think Social Tech The 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report survey is live and you can complete the survey here until 9am on Monday 28th April. With responses coming in daily, we hope we will reach 635 charities again this year. Our full report will...