There are more than 150,000 charities across the UK, from local food banks to international NGOs. These organisations tackle key social issues, including education, well-being and poverty relief. But many now face mounting challenges—from financial pressures to fundraising and volunteer shortages.
In 2025, with technology evolving at an unprecedented pace, digital participation is no longer optional. For many charities, embracing AI has become essential to continue delivering their work.
Ian McLintock, founder of the Charity Excellence Framework, an online platform that provides AI solutions for nonprofit organisations, shared a story about Mohamed.
“He runs a little education group for the kids in the mosque, but he has no chance of writing a funding bid because he doesn’t speak particularly good English,” McLinktock said. “Whilst he could speak five languages, English was the only one he wasn’t fluent in and he ran an engineering company. He was a very smart man, but he couldn’t fundraise for his charity.”
The Bunny AI system from Charity Excellence is a user-friendly virtual assistant designed to help charities by answering questions. It helped Mohamed write funding bids. Mohamed can chat with Bunny in Arabic or any other language, which, as McLinktock described, levels “the playing field” and makes it “accessible for everyone”.
According to the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report, 76 per cent of charities now use AI tools in their operations. This is an increase from 61 per cent in 2024. Strategic use of AI has more than doubled, from 11 per cent to 25 per cent in just one year.
Zoe Amar, founder of digital consultancy Zoe Amar Digital, said AI has become part of business as usual in the charity sector. “In 2024, we really saw AI start to embed itself,” she said. “Around 46 per cent of charities are now using AI tools for admin tasks–from drafting emails to summarising meetings. That’s a big jump from 32 per cent last year. Overall, confidence, skills and adoption are growing.”
According to Small Charities Data, smaller charitable organisations comprise 96 per cent of the UK voluntary sector. Amar said that in order to use AI effectively, non-profits need to identify where AI could help them achieve their goals. “Look at your processes. Where could AI save you a few hours a week?” she said. “That time could be redirected into service delivery. Having a simple, clear plan can help small charities build confidence and increase their impact with AI.”
While small charities might be focused on simply getting started, the concern for larger charities is often about how to scale AI safely. Data privacy and security are key issues; Amar said sensitive information, such as beneficiary details, must not be entered into programmes such as the free version of ChatGPT, where it could be accessed or used to train models.
She said: “To understand AI’s effectiveness and build the case for scaling, large charities should actively experiment and test AI tools in their everyday work. This pilot phase needs clear goals and requires tracking data to achieve that return on investment. It’s also important to foster a culture of continuous learning around AI use.”
Abbie Hill, senior data scientist at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, said: “We have a data governance team that makes sure data is used ethically and responsibly within legal boundaries. We have legal teams that help us with that.
“Whether it is a traditional AI training model or a new kind of generative AI technique, we always review how it might be used at the start of any project. We take a look and understand how much data is needed to go into the model, and what the right data is for the model. We always give it the minimum and never use personally identifiable information.”
As more charities adopt AI tools, sector leaders continue to emphasise the need for careful implementation. They say clear policies, ethical data use and staff training are essential to avoid privacy risks and ensure the technology delivers meaningful impact.
Cover image courtesy: Ian McLintock
