Charities & social enterprises sought for new Deloitte digital skills programme
Melanie May | 3 October 2023 | News
Deloitte is seeking up to 40 charities and social enterprises to join the third cohort of Deloitte Digital Connect: its programme to help charities scale their digital impact.
The programme, which is delivered in partnership with CAST, has supported more than 60 charities since it began in 2021 and Deloitte has invested over £1mn in it.
Successful applicants will receive six months of digital training, advice and support to make progress on an existing organisational digital project or challenge. The programme will provide one-to-one mentoring, masterclasses and workshops on digital design practices from Deloitte digital experts, as well as peer support and learning opportunities from CAST.
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Claire Burton, head of responsible business at Deloitte, said:
“As we enter its third year, I’m looking forward to the programme continuing to reduce the digital divide in the charity sector, helping charities to support the communities they serve. By supporting charities to develop their digital knowledge, we’re aiming to help them scale up the reach of their services allowing them to help more people in need.”
Deloitte is keen to see applications from charities and social enterprises that have a project or programme in the UK aligned to education, employment, equality, diversity and inclusion, early years services, financial inclusion, public health, security and justice or climate action.
To apply for the programme, charities must complete this application form by 23 October at 5pm.
Dan Sutch, co-founder and director at CAST, said:
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Deloitte for the third year running, to deliver the Deloitte Digital Connect programme to a new cohort of social impact organisations. Being able to harness the full potential of digital, data and design is critical for charities to deliver the support they provide to individuals and communities – and equally vital to ensure that civil society has an influential voice.
“We’ve collaborated with Deloitte to understand how previous participants’ insights and success stories can be used to finesse the programme in order to provide maximum value, not just to the next cohort of participants and their respective organisations, but to the sector as a whole – and we’re really excited about seeing the benefits come to life as this new version is rolled out.”
Impact so far
To date, the Deloitte Digital Connect programme has supported 63 charities through one-on-one mentoring, troubleshooting, workshops, peer support, device donations, and pro bono assistance from over 100 Deloitte volunteers. A total of 350 customised digital resources have been shared with the participants – and many of these have been made available to the wider social sector also.
A survey of the previous cohort reported that 93% found that they had learned the foundations of developing a digital strategy and 96% had learned user-centred design practices. All participants found the one-on-one support from Deloitte mentors useful to gain more skills, knowledge and confidence in making progress on their projects.
More help with digital
Last month, JustGiving and FundraisingEverywhere announced that they have joined forces to help charity professionals upskill digitally through a new online learning programme. Funding is available for 100 charity professionals to take part in Fundraising Everywhere‘s new six-month online training programme and develop their digital fundraising skills. More on this here.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.