Three Things Charities Nailed in 2025 - and What We Can Learn From Them

At Giant Digital, we love celebrating the work we do with our wonderful charity partners, but one of the best parts of being in this sector is seeing the brilliant digital thinking happening beyond our own projects. 

And 2025 was full of it. 

Across the UK, charities were experimenting, refining, simplifying and innovating in ways that genuinely moved the needle for the people and communities they support. So we wanted to take a moment to cheerlead the sector a little, and spotlight some of the standout digital approaches we saw last year - the ones we think set the tone for smarter, more inclusive and more impactful digital work in 2026. 

1. Putting users at the heart of digital decision-making 

Blood Cancer UK – using user insight to drive clarity and impact 

One of the clearest digital success stories of 2025 came from Blood Cancer UK, whose transformation work shows what’s possible when user needs genuinely shape digital strategy. 

They introduced a structured Innovation Framework, invested in user research across teams, and embedded governance that ensured ideas were checked against real user insight before moving forward. The impact was undeniable: 

• A 78% increase in visits to key information pages 
• A new fundraising event that delivered 10 times the income of comparable initiatives 
• Stronger internal alignment around what users actually needed 

It’s a great example of how clarity grows when decisions begin with real people, not assumptions - and a reminder that user-centred digital design isn’t a luxury; it’s a strategic advantage. 

If you’d like to explore their approach in more detail, the Charity Digital Skills Report includes a great case study - along with several other inspiring examples of digital transformation across the sector.   

2. Moving from AI experimentation to meaningful, intentional use 

Prostate Cancer UK, Church Mission Society and others – using AI to deliver real impact 

AI was everywhere in 2025, but the charities that stood out weren’t the ones chasing trends - they were the ones applying AI purposefully, to solve real problems and improve real outcomes. 

Prostate Cancer UK used machine learning to analyse supporter behaviour, helping them shape a major fundraising appeal that delivered more than double the return on investment. 

Church Mission Society took a very different, but equally valuable, approach: using AI to automate manual accounting and reporting processes. By embedding AI into repetitive finance workflows, they saved around 200 hours and £50,000 a year, freeing up staff time for work that has a far greater impact. 

And globally, organisations like Rainforest Connection continued to demonstrate how AI can support frontline impact, using solar-powered listening devices and AI analysis to detect illegal logging and poaching the moment it happens. 

At a sector-wide level, the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report showed that 76% of charities are now using AI tools, with nearly half developing their own AI policies - a clear sign that the sector is beginning to adopt AI with intention, not just curiosity.  

The Third Sector Lab has a great roundup of these and other charities using AI well.  

3. Designing digital tools that put inclusivity at the centre 

WECIL – making complex information easier to navigate with ‘Cecil from WECIL’ 

Another standout example of digital progress in 2025 came from WECIL, a user-led organisation that supports disabled people to live independently. This year, they launched “Cecil from WECIL” - an AI-powered chatbot designed to make information easier to access for people with learning disabilities and neurodivergence. 

What makes Cecil so compelling isn’t the technology itself, but the thinking behind it. WECIL worked with partners to extract the knowledge of their human Navigators and map real service-user journeys into an accessible conversational interface. The result is a tool that behaves much like an Easy Read document - using plain language, clear structure and visual cues to help people understand and act on information that would otherwise feel overwhelming. 

Cecil went live in early 2025 and is already showing what inclusive digital innovation can look like when it starts with the lived experiences of the people it’s built for. It’s a reminder that when we design digital tools with accessibility at the core, we don’t just make things usable, we make them more human. 

You can try Cecil from WECIL for yourself by visiting their website here. 

Celebrating the sector - and learning from it 

Together, these examples say something important about where the sector is heading. Charities aren’t just keeping pace with digital change, they’re shaping it. They’re using insight to make better decisions, adopting AI with purpose, and building tools that make information more inclusive and accessible. It’s thoughtful, grounded, people-centred work, and it deserves to be celebrated. 

If this is what 2025 looked like, then 2026 has every chance of being even braver, even clearer and even more impactful. And we can’t wait to see what the sector does next.