Strategic thinking

Introduction

This section looks at the current standing of comms when it comes to strategic thinking, leadership and value.  We also explore how we can better support communicators to move more from the “doing” of operational tasks to the “thinking” of high-level strategy behind the work.   

We’ll also outline our findings on how adoption of AI and new ways of working can impact how we approach strategic decision-making.  

Strategies and processes 

When it comes to having strategies in place, we can see that charities are more likely to have a comms strategy than either a digital or data strategy. 

But only 44% of respondents say that their organisation has a formal communications strategy in place, suggesting that comms may be treated as a tactical or operational function rather than a strategic one. 

Some charities are struggling to move from intent to implementation, with more than a quarter (27%) saying that although they are working on a strategy, they’re not quite there yet. This is very similar to the past few years of data we have recorded, logging in around just over a quarter of respondents. The result suggests that there may be some inactivity or barriers to delivering a strategy.   

A key takeaway for charities is how having a clear strategy significantly impacts how communications is perceived – respondents with a communications strategy in place are more than twice as likely to feel highly valued (32%) compared to those in organisations without one (14%). Similarly, 31% of those with a digital strategy feel highly valued, compared to 20% of those without one. 

Actions charities can take for improving processes and strategic thinking  

• Integrate comms as a core leadership function: Make comms a strategic partner that’s involved in project planning, rather than a service provider, working to support other departments.  

• Formalise comms and digital strategies: Prioritise your comms strategy as a foundational framework, to help your comms team have the processes in place to be strategic about priorities and demonstrate their impact across the organisation. 

Understanding of comms at senior levels 

While the number of people telling us they believe there is a good understanding of comms at board or senior management level has risen significantly from 28% to 40% over the past year, there still appears to be an understanding gap between communicators and their leadership teams.   

Almost half (48%) still feel that their board or senior management team does not have a good understanding of comms.  

Leadership’s understanding of comms influences how comms professionals feel about their work and their role. When senior leaders are believed to have a good understanding, half of charity communicators feel highly valued. When they don’t, that number falls to just one in ten. 

Comments also suggest a tension between the value placed on internal and external comms expertise, with senior leaders appearing to invest more in external agencies for prestige projects (like video or rebranding) while freezing internal recruitment or salaries. 

Actions charities can take to improve understanding of comms at leadership level

• Include comms from the outset: Invite comms leads to strategic planning meetings before decisions are finalised, rather than treating them as a broadcast tool at the end of a project. 

• Regularly train and upskill your board: Building in comms information sessions for trustees and senior leadership teams can help to demonstrate the Return On Investment (ROI) of comms, highlighting the impact on brand equity, donor trust and overall delivery of your charity’s mission. 

• Highlight the impact of comms: Implement a reporting process that tracks not just metrics (likes/shares), but how comms activity has specifically moved the needle on organisational goals (donor acquisition or policy influence, for example). 

• Invest in internal growth: External expertise will always have its place. However, review when it’s right to rely on it and consider when   budgets are better spent on   training and upskilling your internal team to build longer-term institutional knowledge and capabilities. (Some external experts may also have ways to ensure projects are co-owned and co-delivered with internal teams.)  

The place of comms and structure of comms teams  

Looking at the changes in team size over the past few years, we can see a trend towards smaller and leaner comms teams in the charity sector.  

In 2020, only 32% of charities had a small team of 1-3 people with comms or marketing as part of their role – that figure has risen steadily to 43% in 2025. Over the same period, the number of charities who reported having 11 or more comms/marketing staff has dropped from over a third (37%) to just under 22%.  

These patterns suggest that even larger charities may be decentralising their comms or relying more on individual contributors who can work across specialities, rather than maintaining large departments. 

Medium-sized teams (4-10) have remained the most stable but are also currently trending downward, moving from 35% in 2024 (35%) to 29% in 2025. 

Unsurprisingly, there is a correlation between an organisation’s overall size and the number of people in comms roles, with 100% of those at small charities (1-10 people) having 1-3 people in comms or marketing roles. More than half (56%) of medium charities (11-100 employees) have small teams of 1-3 people, but a significant portion (40%) have between 4-10 people. 

Just over half (51%) of large charities (101-999 employees) have 11 or more comms staff and that growth continues as overall headcount gets larger, with 80% of extra-large charities (1000+ employees) reporting comms teams of 11+ people.

When we look at the impact of charity size on how well charity teams are communicating with each other, those working at small charities (1-10 employees) feel the most positive with 16% describing cross-team comms as very effective, the highest among all groups.  

Those at extra-large charities (1000+ employees) appear to struggle more with silos, reporting the highest ineffective rate at 32%. 

For context, across all responses, those that view cross-team communication as generally effective has dropped from 54% last year to less than half (48%).   

Our findings also seem to suggest that how effective people believe cross-team communication is within their organisation can influence how valued and happy people feel in their roles.  

Furthermore, comms is frequently cited as one of the first departments to face redundancies or budget cuts during financial uncertainty. At the same time, those in officer or manager roles (particularly in smaller charities) may be conducting higher level strategic work but are being paid at an entry-level or mid-level bracket. 

Anecdotally, there is also a perception that production-focused roles (such as content creation) are lower-paid and less respected than those who make publishing decisions, creating a hidden hierarchy that can lead to job dissatisfaction and siloed ways of working. 

“Jobs that explicitly state comms or social in job title have higher salaries vs jobs that are more production focused even when at the same reward band. The people who produce the content get paid far less than the people who decide how to publish it.” 

Actions charities can take to embed comms within their structure  

• Review role remits: Conduct an audit of job descriptions to ensure titles and salaries reflect the actual scope of work. If an officer is writing the organisation-wide strategy, they should be compensated and titled accordingly. 

• Create comms champions in non-comms departments: Train other teams on basic brand guidelines and storytelling to reduce possible bottlenecks for minor updates. 

• Make comms work visible: Use a centralised project management tool or calendar will provide visibility. This system should reduce the need for status update meetings or emails and helps other departments see exactly how much work the comms team has on their plate. 

• Review cross-departmental processes: Look at how requests are submitted and processes work. Create a shared understanding (ideally through documentation) to help everyone understand their part and how everyone is working together towards a shared outcome.  

AI adoption and its impact on strategic thinking 

65% of our respondents say their organisation is currently using AI tools, while 17% say they’re planning to.  

While AI is becoming more of a standard tool for large organisations, the data indicates that small charities are currently being left behind in the adoption curve. 

Those working at larger organisations are more likely to use AI – the highest adoption rate is at extra-large charities (more than 1,000 employees) at 82%. 

Small charities (1-10 employees) are the least likely to be using AI, with 31% saying they’re not using AI at all.  

When we look at other factors such as role level or specialisation, usage is relatively consistent across mid-to-senior levels (between 68% and 70%), but entry-level roles show the lowest adoption. 61% of those in senior executive or senior officer roles tell us they are currently using AI, but more than a third (35%) say they are planning to adopt AI.  

Internal comms and marketing specialists show the highest AI adoption rates, at 82% and 73% respectively, closely followed by those working in digital or social media roles, at 68%. 

Brand and PR roles demonstrate the highest rate of AI planning (at 30% and 42% respectively), perhaps indicating that they are currently assessing and evaluating AI tools before fully deploying them. 

Experience level shows a U-shaped trend where both those who are at the very start of their comms career (7 – 12 months in comms) and those who are very experienced are using AI more frequently. 75% of those who are just 7-12 months into their comms careers are using AI, perhaps indicating more use of support tools for onboarding new team members, more familiarity among digital-natives with emerging technology, or an increasing expectation for new starters to be “AI-literate”.  

Those who are 1-3 years into their career show the lowest relative usage (52%), while more than three quarters of communicators with 11 or more years of experience are leveraging AI to manage workloads (between 66% and 70%). 

Looking at our data in more depth, there appears to be a clear and positive correlation between the adoption of AI tools and the presence of broader organisational strategies.  

Charities that have embedded AI practices and guidelines are significantly more likely to have formal strategies in place across communications, digital and data. 

Almost half of AI users have a formal comms strategy in place, compared to just 26% of non-users. AI users are also more than 50% more likely to have a digital strategy (at 31% compared to 19%) and more likely to be ahead in data strategy adoption (27% vs. 17%).  

The data also suggests that the transition from simple usage of AI tools to governed usage (such as having an AI policy) further drives strategic adoption. Organisations that have gone through the process of creating AI guidelines are nearly twice as likely to have existing communications strategies compared to those without AI policies (58% vs. 32%). 

Our data indicates that AI can act as more than just a tactical tool for content creation, but as a catalyst for strategic thinking. If a charity is willing to experiment with AI, they are statistically much more likely to have invested the time in formalising their communications and digital goals. 

Actions charities can take to improve AI adoption 

• Start with the “why” (in a comms strategy): For the 74% of non-AI users without a comms strategy, the lack of a strategic framework may be a primary barrier to adopting new technologies. Without a strategy to understand why they are communicating, it’s much more difficult to work out how AI fits into the workflow. 

• Operationalise AI support and guidelines: Standardising your approach to AI can help reduce potential anxiety and increase confidence in staff to trial and test various tools. The data also suggests that many are planning to use AI, so providing the tools and training now can prevent a future digital divide. 

• AI adoption can support your digital and data thinking: To use AI effectively, charities often find they must first address their digital infrastructure and data quality. Thinking about what’s already in place, and what data or digital processes are helping you to achieve, can naturally progress your AI adoption. 

• Strategic questions for trustees to think about: Rather than starting with thinking about tools, trustees should support senior leaders in considering strategic questions to determine purpose. Is the team already using AI informally (and are they protected by a policy)? How does AI align with our core charitable purpose? What are the data protection (UK GDPR) implications of any chosen tools? How are we tracking and monitoring our use of AI (for example, do we have a human oversight process for all AI outputs)? What are the benefits of us using AI (for example, how will AI help us show our impact more effectively)? 

A key takeaway for charities is that AI adoption appears to be an indication of a charity more willing to be strategically active across other aspects of comms. Having formalised comms and digital strategic foundations in place can help charities to make the move towards implementing AI tools and establishing policies to support staff understanding and adoption. 

The important question to keep in mind, no matter what strategy or policy you’re focused on, is the “why”, and how it can ultimately further your comms and mission.  

Our data is showing that comms teams are getting smaller while the digital and strategic demands are likely staying the same (or increasing). This finding further highlights why a shift in mindset (and practice) from operational to strategic is so vital. With fewer people available to do the work, comms and marketing teams need to focus on high-value, high-impact strategic work to bridge the gap left by shrinking headcounts.