The absolute basics: what should all small charities have?
You don’t always need a big transformation project or need to be able to do everything
Earlier this month we held UKCharityCamp in Birmingham, an unconference for the third sector. Over 70 people came together to share knowledge, frustrations and solutions. It was a really inspiring day and something I’m always proud to be a part of.
One of the first sessions I joined was a chat about the digital tools that a charity actually needs to have. Small charities are often stretched thin — in time, in budget, and in capacity. But despite these pressures, they’re frequently told they need sweeping digital transformations, expensive tools, or complex systems just to “keep up.”
The truth? They don’t.
As Ross from Third Sector Lab put it in our conversation, “You don’t always need a big transformation project or need to be able to do everything.” And he’s right. The essentials for small charities aren’t flashy or complicated. They’re simple, people-first, and grounded in clarity.
Start with the people you help
Every charity exists to support someone, so that’s where the focus should begin.
What does their journey look like? How easy is it for them to find the information they need? What problem are you actually trying to solve?
Ross shared that after training thousands of people and running “have your say” sessions, the themes were often the same. Whether the challenge was strategic or operational, most charities weren’t struggling with training gaps — they needed support to look at their whole picture.
If the basics aren’t right, nothing else is
Time and cost are the two barriers that never go away. Charities want to know: will this be useful? Will it add value?
And the size of the organisation doesn’t really matter. If your foundational processes and systems aren’t in order, no new tool or platform will fix that. Understanding those basic workflows–what you do, how you do it, and why–is what reveals what’s actually needed.
Charities aren’t expected to know everything (nor should they be)
We ended up talking about a pressure that many small charities feel: the expectation to know how to do everything themselves. Build a new website. Set up a CRM. Manage a rebrand. Implement digital tools.
But that’s unrealistic.
Agencies and freelancers working with charities have a responsibility to equip organisations not just with deliverables, but with what they need for day-to-day sustainability. That includes handover, training, documentation, and realistic recommendations.
Still, the big questions remain:
How do you carve out time when you don’t have any?
How do you find budget when there isn’t any?
And how do we share knowledge better, especially when access differs by region, age, or digital familiarity?
Oversold and overtooled
One theme that kept surfacing was that small charities are often oversold on what they “need.”
From CRMs to digital platforms to big procurement projects — many organisations are convinced that complexity equals progress. But more tools don’t always help. Sometimes they only add confusion.
Data is a good example. Many charities don’t need a “data transformation programme.” What they need is help understanding what good data looks like, how to collect it consistently, and how to use it meaningfully.
Where do Boards fit into this?
The role of the Board is another piece of the puzzle. Boards often sign off on systems and budgets, but are they equipped to challenge unnecessary purchases? Do they understand what’s essential versus what’s “nice to have”? And are they too quick to pursue big tools without asking whether the charity has the basics in place?
These questions matter, especially for small organisations where every investment has an outsized impact.
So… what are the basics?
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution but it became clear that there were common things everyone in the session agreed would help charities and their digital presence:
- Clear understanding of who you serve and their journey
- Simple, functional processes that match your real-world operations
- Tools that support those processes (not overwhelm them)
- A culture where data is understood, not feared
- Support that empowers staff, rather than burdens them
- Boards that help charities stay focused on what really matters
I learned a lot over the day and this session especially reinforced that charities don’t need to “do everything.” They just need the right things and the confidence to ignore the rest.