Charity social media in 2026: Insights from the Charity Digital Skills Report

Social media strategy is moving up the agenda

One of the most encouraging findings in this year's report is the growing emphasis charities are placing on having a clear social media strategy.

36% of charities say developing their social media strategy is a priority this year, up from 25% in 2025. Whilst this might not seem like a dramatic rise, it points to a wider shift in how charities are thinking about social media.

For years, social media has often been treated as a reactive communications channel. Teams have been under pressure to keep posting, respond to trends, cover events and produce content at pace, often with limited time or resource. The result can be activity that feels out of place and without a true purpose.

The report suggests charities are beginning to step back and ask bigger questions:

• Who are we trying to reach?
• What role does social media play in achieving our organisational goals?
• Which channels are worth investing in?
• How do we measure success beyond likes and impressions?

This feels particularly timely as social media continues to evolve at an incredibly fast pace. Platform algorithms change constantly, audience behaviours shift, and AI is making content creation faster than ever. In a crowded digital landscape, having more content isn't necessarily the answer, having a clear strategy is.

A strong strategy helps organisations make better decisions about where to invest their time, what stories to tell and how social media supports wider organisational objectives, whether that's fundraising, campaigning, service delivery or community building.

For charities with limited resources, that's good news. Strategy isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things, more consistently.

Storytelling is at the core of social content

Storytelling has become a significant focus for charities in 2026, with organisations increasingly recognising that authentic, human‑centred narratives are essential to build trust, drive engagement, and represent communities with care. The report shows a decisive move away from polished corporate content and toward lived‑experience storytelling, user-generated formats, and informal video designed to resonate emotionally.

More than half of charities (52%) are prioritising storytelling featuring people with lived experience — rising to 67% among large charities — signalling a sector‑wide shift toward participatory, community‑led communications. Several groups, including global majority‑led, neurodivergent‑led, and disabled/deaf‑led charities, are adopting these approaches at even higher rates, often leading innovation despite facing greater resource constraints.

Alongside this, 47% of charities are focusing on sharing more video and informal co‑created content, highlighting a clear pivot away from top‑down messaging and toward bite‑sized, authentic formats that feel more human and trustworthy.

With more organisations prioritising lived-experience storytelling, they're also becoming increasingly aware of the responsibilities that come with it. The report highlights that collecting and sharing authentic stories isn't always straightforward. Nearly one in five charities (19%) say safeguarding, ethics or privacy concerns make it more difficult to gather lived-experience stories, underlining the importance of robust consent processes and ethical storytelling practices.

These findings are a reminder that creating authentic content isn't simply about telling better stories, it's about ensuring the people sharing those stories, and those managing them, are supported and protected.

Measurement matters more than ever

It's no longer enough to post content and hope it performs well. More charities are looking beyond vanity metrics and asking what their social media activity is really achieving. This year's report found that 35% of charities want to improve how they monitor and evaluate their social media performance. That's a positive sign that organisations are becoming more thoughtful about their digital communications, using insights to shape future content rather than relying on instinct alone.

This appetite for deeper measurement is strongly influenced by operational capacity. While smaller teams are trying to keep pace, the focus on monitoring and evaluation rises to 45% among large charities, who have more dedicated digital resources to analyse engagement and optimise performance.

Beyond social media, data has become a core organisational priority. Over half (51%) of charities now say that collecting, managing, and analysing data is a top focus for the year ahead, which is a substantial jump from 39% last year. This suggests that measurement is becoming embedded across the entire digital ecosystem.

As charities shift toward more strategic, insight‑led digital activity, the need for robust measurement frameworks, better analytics tools, and stronger data literacy becomes increasingly urgent.

AI could help here. Used well, it can speed up repetitive tasks like pulling together reports, identifying trends or summarising performance data, giving teams more time to focus on understanding what the numbers are telling them. But AI isn't a substitute for good judgement. Charities still need the confidence to interpret data, ask the right questions and make informed decisions based on the insights they uncover.

Ultimately, better measurement isn't about collecting more data - it's about learning from it. The charities that invest in building those skills will be in a much stronger position to demonstrate impact, improve their communications and make smarter decisions about where to focus their time and resources.

Growing online presence remains the biggest priority for charities

When asked about their digital communications and fundraising priorities for the next 12 months, the standout objective was clear: growing online presence and social media activity, with 59% of charities identifying this as a key focus, while 55% said improving their online presence and digital communications is an organisational priority.

It's something we're seeing a lot whilst in conversations with charities across the sector. Website traffic is becoming harder to grow through traditional channels alone, so organisations are increasingly looking at social media through a different lens. Social platforms offer an opportunity to reach larger audiences, connect with new supporters and communicate your values, impact and updates in a format people can consume quickly and easily.

Of course, there is one question that almost always lands in the social team's inbox:

"How do we make this go viral?"

Or, put another way, how do we get this in front of as many people as possible?

The reality is that social media has changed. Success is no longer about chasing viral moments. Instead, it's about getting the right content in front of the right people at the right time. That's how charities will successfully grow their online presence over the coming years.

So how do we make sure our content reaches the right people?

In comes the power of “social search”.

You may have heard the term floating around recently, but social search is essentially the shift towards people using social platforms in the same way they use search engines, actively searching for topics, causes and answers through social content.

At the same time, search behaviour is changing on Google too. Social content is increasingly appearing within search results and AI-powered search experiences. The report even highlights that some charities are already seeing the effects of this shift, with 37% of large charities in Wales and 31% of charities in Northern Ireland reporting that traffic to their website has fallen because of AI-powered search. This suggests that social media is becoming part of how people discover organisations, causes and campaigns.

If your social content isn't designed to be found, you're missing a growing opportunity.

A few quick ways charities can start winning at social search include:

• Create content around common questions and search queries related to your cause or organisation.
• Optimise captions, video scripts and hashtags around genuine keywords and questions people are searching for, rather than relying solely on creative copy.
• Connect eligible social accounts to your Google Business Profile.
• Work closely with SEO teams to align keyword research, messaging and campaign themes.

As social search continues to evolve, charities have an opportunity to think differently about social media. It's no longer just a place to publish content after the fact. Done well, it becomes another route for people to discover your organisation, understand your work and build trust.

Read our recent blog on the rise of social search.

Engaging the next generation of supporters

Alongside increasing online visibility, a quarter of charities identified growing a younger supporter base as one of their key priorities this year. It is an even greater focus for charities led by and for the global majority communities.

Building a pipeline of supporters for the future should be a vital aim for charities.

One of the biggest opportunities to reach younger audiences is through social media, particularly on the platforms where younger generations spend the majority of their time: TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat and YouTube Shorts - often the platforms charities are least active on.

Part of the challenge is that some platforms, such as Reddit and Snapchat, don't operate in the same way as traditional social channels where organisations can simply build a following and publish content. On the other hand, platforms like TikTok can be difficult for charities to gain traction on organically without significant investment in content creation.

As a result, paid social advertising is often the most effective way to reach younger demographics at scale.

However, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report, 58% of charities say they are not currently using paid social media advertising, meaning many organisations are missing a significant opportunity to build awareness and grow their supporter base, particularly among younger audiences.

Investing in paid social can play a crucial role in introducing your cause to new audiences and building long-term brand awareness with future supporters.

That said, advertising to younger generations requires a different approach.

Gen Z, in particular, are incredibly media savvy. They know the difference between an advert and native social content, and they quickly disengage from anything that feels overly corporate, polished or sales-driven.

The brands and organisations that perform well with younger audiences tend to create content that feels authentic and platform-native.

Think short-form videos filmed on a phone rather than a studio camera. Less polished content and more user-generated content styles. Adopting humour, personality and storytelling over traditional campaign messaging.

Influencers and creators also continue to play an important role. Younger audiences often place greater trust in creators than organisations themselves, making paid partnerships with relevant influencers a powerful way to build awareness and credibility for your cause.

Finally, speak directly to the motivations that matter most to younger audiences.

Many younger supporters want to make a positive impact on the world, but they also want transparency and authenticity. They want to know exactly where their support is going and what difference it will make.

Showing the tangible impact of donations, fundraising, or advocacy activity is therefore critical if charities want to build meaningful relationships with the next generation of supporters.

While platforms, algorithms and technologies will continue to change, the fundamentals remain the same. The charities that understand their audiences, tell meaningful stories and make informed decisions based on data will be the ones that build lasting relationships online. The findings in this year's report show the sector is already moving in that direction, and we're looking forward to working with charities to continue to evolve their social strategies over the coming year.