How to Set Clear Digital Priorities in 2026 (and Actually Stick to Them)

For charity leaders, digital teams and trustees looking for clarity, focus and consistency at a time of year when everything feels urgent. 

Every January starts with good intentions… 

There’s something about the start of the year that makes even the most resource-stretched charity feel bold. New energy, new ideas, new optimism. Maybe this will finally be the year the website is fixed. Or the CRM untangled. Or that supporter journey overhaul actually gets done. 

And then… March arrives. 

Budgets wobble. Staff turnover hits. New fundraising priorities land. Someone in leadership hears that “AI is transforming fundraising overnight.” A trustee wants to know why your accessibility score isn’t perfect. And your tidy January plan starts quietly mutating into a list of 27 “top” priorities. 

If this feels familiar, you’re in good company. The Charity Digital Skills Report 2025 highlights a clear instability in digital planning: only 44% of charities now have a formal digital strategy - a decline from 50% the previous year. Combined with shrinking budgets, reduced headspace, and ongoing capacity pressures, many charities report that their digital plans quickly come under strain as the year progresses. The picture is clear: without a structured prioritisation process, even well-intentioned digital plans rarely stay intact for long. 

The good news: clarity is possible. Sticking to the right priorities is possible. And 2026 is shaping up to be a year where focus is not just helpful, it’s a form of organisational protection. With rapid changes in AI, accessibility standards, digital fundraising behaviour and charity regulation, charities that prioritise well will deliver more, reduce risk, and protect staff from burnout. 

This article offers a practical framework charities can use right now to identify their top digital priorities for 2026, get leadership buy-in, and, crucially, keep those priorities intact beyond Q1. 

Why “everything is important” leads to nothing getting done 

Charities operate in a world where the stakes feel high for every piece of work. You’re dealing with beneficiaries, supporters, trustees, regulators and constantly shifting external pressures. It’s not surprising that internally, everything can start to feel urgent. 

But here’s the problem: treating everything as urgent doesn’t increase your impact. It dilutes it. 

Common signs that a charity is struggling with prioritisation: 

Competing internal agendas 

Fundraising, comms, digital, volunteering and service delivery all push for different urgent improvements - and because they’re all valid, nothing gets properly prioritised. 

Technical debt that quietly grows 

Legacy hosting, outdated CMS platforms, inaccessible templates and security risks get buried under “more visible” work. 

Constant firefighting 

Staff lose the chance to do strategic work because they’re stuck reacting to ad-hoc requests and sudden “could we just?” tasks. 

The fear of deprioritising anything

Charities are mission-driven, so saying no feels uncomfortable, even when it protects resources. 

Trend-chasing 

Leadership hears about AI, TikTok fundraising, GA4, chatbot automation or “the death of SEO”, and priorities swing violently. 

The net effect? Nothing gets sufficient attention to generate real impact. The fix isn’t a tougher plan. It’s a clearer one with fewer, better priorities. 

The five-step framework for setting meaningful priorities in 2026 

To narrow digital priorities effectively, charities need a structured way to separate what feels urgent from what will genuinely move the organisation forward. The following framework brings together widely recognised best practice in digital transformation, governance and charity operations, and gives teams a practical route from “everything matters” to a focused, achievable plan for 2026. 

Step 1: Build a shared digital baseline 

Before choosing priorities, you need shared understanding of where you stand. Otherwise, you get the classic problem: people argue from different realities. 

Your baseline should cover: 

Website performance and technical health 

Run a quick Lighthouse or Web Vitals check and confirm your CMS/hosting setup is up to date. This gives you a fast sense of any security, performance or accessibility risks that could derail 2026 plans. 

User experience and supporter journeys 

Walk through key user tasks - donate, sign up, find support - and note where things feel slow, confusing or incomplete. Even a small amount of real user feedback can expose blockers that internal teams miss. 

Content and SEO performance 

Check how well your core pages rank and whether content actually answers what supporters search for. This shows whether you’re discoverable - and whether generative search tools are likely to understand your content. 

Accessibility 

Run an automated check and review whether staff understand basic accessible writing and design. This quickly highlights whether you’re meeting expectations or storing up risk for later. 

Data and analytics maturity 

Make sure GA4 is configured properly and that teams can access useful insight. If your data is unreliable, your priorities will be too. 

Digital fundraising effectiveness 

Look at conversion rates and where supporters drop out of donation or registration journeys. A few simple numbers can reveal where income is quietly leaking away. 

Internal capability and capacity 

Be realistic about what your team can deliver. Skills gaps, unclear ownership or limited digital confidence all influence what’s achievable next year. 

AI readiness 

Check whether staff are using AI tools safely, whether you have a basic policy in place, and where AI could save time or reduce duplication. 

Sustainability 

Review page weight, hosting efficiency and unnecessary scripts or files. Sustainable digital practice often overlaps with better performance and cost savings. 

Doing this well requires objectivity. User research and analytics help you avoid instinct-led planning, and a neutral audit can prevent internal bias. 

A shared baseline stops debates like: “Is our website actually a problem?” “Should we focus on fundraising journeys or accessibility first?” “Do we have capacity to adopt AI safely?” 

The answer becomes: “Here’s the data. Here’s what’s broken. Here’s what will unlock the most impact.” 

Step 2: Define the outcomes your charity actually wants in 2026 

Priorities only work when they’re anchored to real organisational outcomes. Without this, every request feels equally important - and the list grows uncontrollably. 

Start by agreeing what success in 2026 genuinely looks like for your communities, supporters and staff. Keep it simple and specific. 

Focus on beneficiary and supporter impact 

What needs to improve for the people who rely on you? Faster access to services? A clearer website? More reliable information? This keeps priorities mission-aligned rather than trend-led. 

Clarify income and efficiency goals 

Do you need to increase conversions, reduce manual workload, or simplify journeys? Link digital outcomes directly to income, capacity and cost savings.

Address risk and compliance expectations 

Accessibility, data protection, cyber security and AI governance are now core responsibilities. Decide which risks must be reduced next year to protect your organisation and stakeholders. 

Agree which digital foundations need strengthening 

Does your website need stabilising? Do teams need better content workflows? Is analytics unreliable? Foundation work may not be glamorous, but it often unlocks everything else. 

Make outcomes measurable 

“Improve the website” is vague. “Reduce donation drop-off by 20%” is actionable. Clear outcomes prevent priority creep and make leadership conversations far easier. 

Step 3: Identify the work that will deliver the biggest impact 

Once you’ve agreed your outcomes, you need a fair way to judge which ideas will genuinely deliver them. A prioritisation matrix does exactly that - it removes the guesswork and stops the loudest voice in the room setting the agenda. 

Score each potential project against what matters most. Use simple criteria such as: 

• Strategic alignment  
• Impact on beneficiaries/supporters 
• Income potential or efficiency gain 
• Cost and time to deliver 
• Risk reduction 
• Capacity required 

This turns “I think” into “the evidence shows”. 

Make trade-offs visible 

When everything is scored side by side, patterns emerge quickly: high-impact items rise to the top, low-value distractions sink, and overly ambitious ideas reveal themselves. 

Use the results to guide, not dictate 

The matrix doesn’t replace judgment, it supports it. It gives teams a shared language for tough conversations and makes it easier to explain decisions to leadership and trustees. 

Keep the list broad at this stage 

Capture everything that might matter, then let the scoring do the narrowing. This ensures good ideas don’t get dismissed too early. 

Step 4: Narrow your plan to the 3-5 priorities that matter most 

Once you’ve scored everything, it’s time to make the hardest - and most transformative - move: choosing the few things that will genuinely define your digital progress next year. 

Limit your focus to what you can realistically deliver 

Three to five priorities is the sweet spot. It’s enough to create meaningful change, but not so much that teams become stretched or unfocused. 

Be decisive about what makes the cut 

High-impact, achievable work should rise to the top. Anything low-impact, unclear, or dependent on major resources belongs in the “later” or “not now” bucket. 

Group everything into Now / Next / Later 

This stops good ideas from being lost while protecting the priorities you must deliver in 2026. 

• Now = the 3–5 priorities 
• Next = future candidates once current work is stable 
• Later = parked unless circumstances change 

Remember: saying no is actually saying yes to impact 

Fewer priorities don’t mean smaller ambition, they mean better outcomes, stronger focus and healthier teams. Spreading capacity thin is what slows charities down. 

Step 5: Put simple governance in place to keep priorities on track 

Setting priorities is one thing. Protecting them once the year gets busy is another. This is where many digital plans quietly fall apart - not through bad decisions, but through drifting focus, ad-hoc requests and the pressure to react to everything. 

A small amount of structure makes a huge difference. 

Set regular review points 

Monthly or quarterly check-ins keep priorities visible and stop them being replaced by the latest urgent request. These reviews should ask: Are we on track? Has anything fundamentally changed? 

Define what counts as a genuine exception 

Not every new idea is an emergency. Agree in advance what qualifies as a priority-changing event, for example, a security risk, legal compliance need, or critical service failure. 

Use a simple intake process for new requests 

A short form or central log stops work creeping in through side conversations and Teams messages. It also requires requesters to articulate the value of their idea. 

Be clear about who decides what 

Digital work derails fast when ownership is vague. Define decision rights early: who approves new work, who assesses impact, and who has the authority to say “not now”. 

Protect focused delivery time 

Ringfence time for deep work - even a few hours a week - so priorities move forwards consistently. It’s one of the simplest ways to avoid the “busy but not progressing” spiral. 

Avoiding the March Panic Pivot 

You’ve set your priorities. You’ve agreed your outcomes. You’ve even put governance in place. And then March arrives, and suddenly everyone has “just one thing” that absolutely has to be done now. 

This is the moment most digital plans start to slide. 

The March Panic Pivot isn’t caused by laziness or poor planning. It’s caused by pressure. New fundraising targets appear. Service teams need urgent updates. Leadership hears about a new platform, a new policy, a new risk. And because charities are built to respond, priorities quietly stretch until they snap. 

You can’t stop the world from throwing new demands at you, but you can stop them from derailing your year. 

Introduce a cooling-off period 

Not every idea needs an immediate yes or no. A two-week pause filters out knee-jerk requests and gives space to assess genuine impact. 

Capture everything in one place 

A central log (nothing fancy, even a shared sheet) prevents random requests from bypassing the process. It also shows leadership how much reactive work is being asked for. 

Use your prioritisation matrix as a filter 

Run new requests through the same scoring criteria as your January plan. If it scores low on impact or high on resource cost, the answer is simple: not now. 

Review priorities publicly 

Visibility creates accountability. When teams know priorities are reviewed together, fewer people push for off-plan work unless it genuinely matters. 

Protect delivery time ruthlessly 

Even one protected block of time per month keeps momentum alive. Priority work should feel immovable, not something squeezed in around the edges. 

2026 is the year to be deliberate 

Being deliberate in 2026 doesn’t mean slowing down, it means choosing with intention. When charities take the time to set a clear baseline, agree shared outcomes and focus on a small number of meaningful priorities, digital work shifts from overwhelming to achievable. Even in a busy, resource-tight year, this kind of clarity creates momentum that lasts far beyond January. 

This is your opportunity to set direction with confidence and follow through on it. And if you’d like support turning this into a practical, team-ready plan, the next step is ready when you are...