Digital blog

Scottish Government has sponsored a digital award at the Scottish Charity Awards for the past seven years. In the first year there was much discussion whether highlighting digital as a 'thing' was the right way to go. It should be part of everything that we do, so why should... Read more

Apparently, there is no substantive evidence that the quote widely attributed to Benjamin Franklin “Failing to plan is planning to fail” was ever said by him! Nonetheless, it is a wise adage and still as relevant today as it was in 1790 when Mr Franklin wasn’t saying it. Advance... Read more

In this second blog on our digital checkup learning, I’m looking at whether organisation size has a big effect on checkup scores. We know that larger organisations often have a bit more internal expertise, if they have an internal IT department. And some areas of digital and... Read more

Every year, about 100 organisations complete SCVO’s Digital Checkup. This is only a small proportion of the organisations we support, but it’s still a useful snapshot of how digital capability in the voluntary sector is changing over time. In this blog I’ll take a look at which... Read more

I think the whole world is captivated by the activities of the sporting superstars performing in Tokyo at the moment. Even those of us who are mainly armchair sports fans had a tear and a moment of joy watching Tom Daley on Monday. But did you know that cyber crime within elite... Read more

Applications for our next SCVO Digital Senior Leaders Programme with Third Sector Lab are open until 20 August - if you manage a charity, social enterprise or community group in Scotland & are passionate about developing your organisation digitally here are some reasons you... Read more

At this week’s DigiShift, we heard from Paul de Gregorio, founder of Rally and a leading digital engagement and mobilisation strategist. Paul’s talk was totally packed with insights, so if you have a bit of time it’s definitely worth checking out the recording on our YouTube... Read more

June is looking like it’s going to be an awesome month… already we have had a few days of sunshine, have celebrated youngest daughter’s “significant” birthday in a restaurant with food I DIDN’T HAVE TO COOK and… there is an abundance of new and exciting cyber guidance available... Read more

The Connecting Scotland programme has done some great things in the last year, delivering amazing outcomes including: 37,000 devices since the program launched to those most in need (That’s over 100 a day!)More than 1,600 contracts issued to organisations delivering support... Read more

Often when we talk about risk and digital, we get into discussions about privacy and cyber security. But there are other, more fundamental questions: Do you do something or nothing? How do you decide what to do first? How about ‘time is money’? All of these questions have an... Read more

Two recent reports help shed some light on attitudes and behaviour towards digital, providing insights on how we can target interventions more effectively. Ofcom have published their annual Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report, and Lloyds Bank have published their Consumer... Read more

What does digital change look like Before, During, and Beyond a pandemic? Although it feels like we’re living week to week or month to month right now, it’s sometimes useful to take a broader view and reflect on how things are changing over the longer term. SCVO has been... Read more

Hello! I am so excited to be writing my first blog as part of SCVO’s Digital Participation team, to introduce myself and tell you about our Digital in the House programme. Firstly, who am I? My name is Rory Brown, a Community Learning and Development (CLD) worker who has been... Read more

Feeding into wider conversations with Scottish Government around joined up digital strategies and lessons learned between third and public sector organisations has allowed me space to reflect upon the current significance of this for social housing and the two key areas that... Read more

2020 was a year of rapid change for all of us and it highlighted more than ever the need for everyone to have digital skills, as well as the urgency of the push to close the digital divide. In July 2019, WHALE Arts were happy to receive funding from the Digital Participation... Read more

Communication and collaboration are complex issues, especially for remote workers. The rapid switch to tools like Zoom, Slack and Teams can take its toll when the move isn't underpinned by good practice across the organisation. You can view a recording of the session on our... Read more

The Minority Ethnic Silver Surfer Project (MESS) at West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC), has been running successfully since 2014. Each year the project has evolved due to many factors such as the availability of new technology and the rapid changes in our modern... Read more

I leave SCVO this week and have been reflecting on the remarkable evolution achieved by myself, my team and the Scottish voluntary sector over this past year. evolution (n.) The process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms... Read more

In July 2019, Peebles CAN was excited to receive Digital Participation Charter Fund support to improve the digital skills of our garden volunteers. This was a fantastic project and, fortunately for our community, it began before lockdown giving people the vital skills they needed... Read more

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day! Here at Space and the Broomhouse Hub we have been laying our digital foundations for some time, taking steps to ensure equity of access and appropriateness of approach for all our service users. The Coronavirus pandemic has been... Read more

The Covid-19 pandemic has really highlighted that digital exclusion spans across the generations and emphasized the persisting inequalities that exist in our communities. Lockdown had an immediate effect on the way we engaged our service users at Forres Online. Our Digital... Read more

Right across the voluntary sector, organisations have moved faster and further than ever with digital change. But with squeezed budgets and stretched capacity, it can be very hard to know where to start. Here are 10 steps you can try now, that require no additional budget, just a... Read more

Is it just me, or does it feel like we’ve all been sprinting a marathon? There’s no question that organisations have responded rapidly and creatively to the coronavirus pandemic. An incredible amount of work has taken place across the country to ensure lifeline services have... Read more

Three new funds announced today will support people across Scotland to gain essential digital skills and internet access. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has been working with Scottish Government, BT, Cellnex and Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation to... Read more

With a mere 6 sleeps to go until Cyber Scotland Week kicks off in earnest, it is now time to shine the spotlight on the third sector catalyst network members who are pulling out all the stops to make sure #CSW2021 is epic for the voluntary and community sector in Scotland. To set... Read more

All this week, I have been nagging myself, and promising my colleague and partner in Cyber Scotland Week crime Siobhan Mercer, that I would write a blog on all the brilliant stuff planned… BUT this brilliant stuff doesn’t plan itself and it has been a busy week getting our cyber... Read more

I am sure that any trustee reading this will agree that their role is not for the faint hearted! There is lots to learn and understand about the organisation that you represent already, so you won’t thank me for bringing an additional burden to your door by mentioning cyber... Read more

We’ve all spent so much of 2020 trying to stay in touch with people while we can’t be in the same physical space. For many of us, that has led to a lot of ‘Zoom fatigue’. In my role at SCVO, lots of folk ask for tips on how to make it all a bit less tiring. There are a few things... Read more

From fake pets to brushing scams, Alison looks back at a bumper year of scamming. 2020 has been many things, including what could be described as the “Year of the Scam” (copyright – me... no citation to support this! :-). Cyber criminals and fraudsters have really gone to town... Read more

I work for a charitable organisation providing emotional and spiritual care and support to people in a variety of workplaces in the west of Edinburgh. I signed on to the Design Hop recently advertised by SCVO because I had a sense that I needed to up my digital game in order to... Read more

I signed up for the Design Hops course not really knowing what to expect. I’d read the course brief and it sounded like something that would be beneficial for us as an organisation. In the first session we looked at identifying our key issue, and our knowledge and assumptions... Read more

If there’s anything that COVID-19 has taught us, it’s that we don’t need 18-month long working groups to achieve significant change. That’s why we’re learning from the tech-sector to bring about fast-paced, action-orientated projects that will deliver the same high-quality policy... Read more

The Technology Enabled Care (TEC) Pathfinder project in Aberdeen came about as a result of conversations, between Police Scotland (North East) and ACVO (Aberdeen's Third Sector Interface), about the cyclical nature of abuse and how these experiences are supported by local... Read more

If digital is so brilliant, why do so many organisations struggle to make a success of it?Digital offers faster, slicker ways to communicate. Precious staff time stretches further, flexing around the ways you and your customers work - so that they can ask a question from their... Read more

Asking a potentially controversial question… am I alone in feeling a bit of webinar fatigue at the moment? I know, way back a long six months ago, there was an urge to fill our time productively – we chatted on Zoom, planned on Teams and booked ourselves on lots of educational... Read more

Citizens Advice Manchester provides free, confidential, impartial, and independent advice to people who need it. We want to make it as frictionless as possible to access our service. The easier it is to use it the sooner people will choose it. At the same time people are so used... Read more

“Online groups have been so successful. There’s so many unexpected benefits, we wish we’d done it before.”Vicki, Group Facilitator and Training Coordinator, Saje Saje Scotland is a small charity, working to reduce and prevent domestic abuse in Scotland. Their key aim is to give... Read more

SCVO Digital and Third Sector Lab have run 34 DigiShift calls since late March, reaching well over 2,000 organisations. We knew demand for advice and expertise on digital topics would be strong as lockdown hit. But we had no idea just how many people would take part, and how... Read more

Here at SCVO we have been undertaking a period of reflection, now that the initial storm of the Coronavirus has passed. Way back in March (oh, so long ago now) many organisations, just like ours, nimbly adjusted to the new set of circumstances. 84% of charities changed how they... Read more

SCVO Director of Development David McNeill recently wrote: We know the sector has been ‘Never More Needed'. Now is an opportunity to ‘build back better’ and not return to the status quo. Now is an excellent time for us all to pause, take stock and appreciate how far we have come... Read more

Regular readers of my blogs will have noticed that I appear to be somewhat obsessed with the idea of returning to the office. That is indeed correct, although I am not sure if I am motivated by the need to be around other humans or just further away from my biscuit tin! Anyhow... Read more

I admit that at the beginning of lockdown everyone at Housing Options Scotland was quietly confident that the new “work from home” instructions would be no problem for us. After all we have been remote working successfully for over a decade. Well we all know what pride comes... Read more

DataKind UK helps charities to use data to transform their impact, and most of their programmes are provided for free. In this blog, Executive Director Giselle Cory shares their tips for organisations wanting to become more data-driven. If you’re not sure how to make effective... Read more

The key message was clear. Pick a “no code” tool and get started! What the heck is "no code"? I’ve got to admit I had no idea! I struggled to write the event blurb for our DigiShift on flexible No Code technology - because I had no clue what our event was about! After the event... Read more

The Q&A session with the three expert speakers on our DigiShift on Data-Driven Charities was one of our most active sessions. Scottish charities are definitely interested in why and how to better use their data. Our expert speakers Steve MacLaughlin from Blackbaud made it clear... Read more

Working remotely means you need to find a balance between supporting your staff and volunteers to access your systems, and securing them against cyber attack. External cyber attacks are becoming increasingly indiscriminate. Assuming you will not be a target is no longer an option... Read more

Last week Lloyds Bank published their annual UK Consumer Digital Index 2020, giving us an overview of the digital inclusion landscape across the UK. This annual publication provides insights to attitudes and behaviours of those who are online and offline, a useful resource for... Read more

There has been an awful lot of misinformation and fake news around recently, often accompanied by scams. We held a DigiShift webinar with three industry thought leaders, who each explored a key question around managing risk and the impact of misinformation in the current crisis... Read more

We have all had to scramble over the past eight weeks. For many of us this has meant producing new content in a bit of a panic. There have been fantastic examples of content that meets a need. For example, I volunteered as a street champion. My local community group sent a... Read more

Our recent DigiShift zoom was packed with insights and inspiration from charity professionals working with children and young people. This blog pulls together ten great examples of organisations delivering digital services that you can learn from. Barnardo’s - WhatsApp as a tool... Read more

Everything seems to have changed so quickly in the last month, but some things are still the same and there is one section of society who seem to be having the time of their lives – the scammers, fraudsters and cyber-criminal fraternity. Never knowingly missing the opportunity to... Read more

Siobhan Mercer reflects on the insights and inspiration from an Ask Me Anything DigiShift session with the renowned Beth Kanter. The topics covered were virtual meetings, managing remote teams, and maintaining connection and wellbeing while social distancing. Have you ever... Read more

Govan Housing Association has been running a diverse range of Digital Inclusion projects for the last 4 years; however, with the rise of Coronavirus and the lock down that followed, we faced several challenges in continuing to deliver our Community Inclusion programme. To that... Read more

For the past 12 months, we’ve been working with 29 social housing organisations across Scotland to build a network of Digital Champions supporting tenants across the social housing sector. The impact of the project which aimed to embed digital inclusion within housing front-line... Read more

Irene Warner-Mackintosh, Director of Mhor Collective, looks at how Neighbourhood Networks are keeping inclusion at the heart of a shift to digital. Read more

The internet has become our lifeline during lockdown. Being online has become a huge part of how we now live our everyday lives. We must all work hard to ensure our digital offering is accessible to as many people as possible, so no-one gets left out. “The power of the Web is in... Read more

It’s hard to think of any event in recent times that’s galvanised change the way the coronavirus pandemic has. As a society we’ve adapted the way we access services and interact with one another. We’ve seen service delivery models move to digital platforms to enable continued... Read more

How user-led service design enabled Weekday Wow Factor to develop a fun and inclusive online service very quickly Read more

To Zoom or not to Zoom? That is the question... Zoom has quickly moved from a niche platform to a ubiquitous part of ‘lockdown life’. Along the way, the videoconferencing platform has run into controversy about its approach to security and privacy. So what’s been happening, and... Read more

Digital Service case study: Young Somerset worked quickly and carefully to move their counselling service online Read more

SCVO digital are helping charities think about how they look after privacy and confidentiality as they move their services online Read more

We recently published a blog about the importance of digital during an extended period of self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We invited people from the voluntary sector, public sector and housing associations to join us in an online community to start thinking about how... Read more

In the current health climate there is a growing emphasis on social distancing (taking steps to reduce social interaction between people) and self-isolation (isolating yourself from any contact with others). Those who already experience varying levels of social exclusion are... Read more

It goes without saying that things are pretty fluid around working and business continuity practices at the moment, and, as with any rapidly moving situation, it is important to identify trusted sources of information. The UK Government have announced today that they are moving... Read more

At SCVO we support lots of charities to grow their digital capability. As a team we work between Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow so we already work remotely as part of our day-to-day practice. But for a lot of charities, working remotely at short notice might be a bit more... Read more

Since joining the Digital Champions in Housing Network with SCVO, staff at Langstane Housing Association have made a huge effort to advertise the new service being offered, and it has paid off. We advertised using our social media page and website, issued a press release... Read more

Like many who attended The Gathering on 19 - 20 February 2020 at the SEC in Glasgow, I’m still digesting all the learning, interesting conversations and following up with lots of the great new contacts I met. I had a prime spot over the two days that allowed me to experience this... Read more

Castlehill Housing Association launched their tenant led digital inclusion activities on 20th February 2020. Digital Motivator, Catherine Coutts, Tenant Participation Officer, and Digital Champion who is also a tenant, Ken Wilcox, tell us more. What digital inclusion activities... Read more

SCVO launched The Catalyst, a ground-breaking initiative to support thousands of charities to make use of digital at The Gathering Read more

Irene Mackintosh, Mhor Collective @irenewarnermack, PhD Student at the University of the West of Scotland It’s always exciting when a new report comes out (or it is to me, but maybe I’m weird), with new statistics to pour over and thoughts to think, and so I was looking forward... Read more

Orkney Housing Association has been an active member of the Digital Champions in Housing project; working to embed digital skills support into our day to day interactions between front-line staff and tenants, helping them to benefit from being online. One example of this embedded... Read more

I have been aspiring for years to bring Orkney Housing Association into the 21st century and undertake everyday tasks more digitally. It got me thinking, how much post do I receive through my own letterbox each week? Answer – hardly any! I receive text reminders for dentist... Read more

At SCVO Digital, we’ve encouraged lots of charities to make more use of ‘flexible technology’. But what on earth is it, and how can it help charities work more effectively? First of all, it’s not about foldable phones, which are not much use to anyone at the moment. What we mean... Read more

There’s nothing like the turn of a decade to prompt you to step back and look at longer-term changes. The pace of digital change is notoriously fast, and getting faster. What does this mean over the longer term? And why is 2020 particularly important? Looking at the last 20 years... Read more

It seems that every week brings news of a different cyber attack – including those that impact our lives at individuals. (I am writing this on the week of the Travelex attack, when I had a friend travelling who’s only mention of payment was via the Travelex system). Cyber... Read more

In Scotland, 43% of the workforce are lacking in Essential Digital Skills. Although this is slightly ahead of the UK average (53%) we still need to improve. People who don’t have these skills are more likely to be older, female, be a part-time worker, have a disability or be... Read more

“We don’t build houses, we build communities” That’s what one of our Digital Motivators said to me at a meet-up this week. What’s a Digital Motivator? Good question! Earlier this year we started a new project working with the social housing sector in Scotland. This project felt... Read more

True confession time – as you would expect from someone working in the field of cybersecurity, I find the whole “industry” a fascinating minefield – the slightly shady criminal aspects, the big talk of nation state threats to critical national infrastructure, even what can be... Read more

‘Your answer to someone else’s problem is not the solution.’ The statement above was the statement that opened the ‘Scottish Government service design champion training’ that I attended last year. As a sector, more than ever in 2020 we need to ensure that our services are fit for... Read more

2020 is the Chinese year of the Metal Rat, and is the year of new opportunities, new beginnings and evolving. Digital for Good have an awesome opportunity for your organisation to grasp those new digital opportunities, to begin that new digital project and to realise... Read more

I'm the CEO of a small ( but fabulous) third sector organisation - and I can clearly remember life before computers, before mobile phones and before email. When I started work I had a Rolodex file on my desk with all my contacts. If I wanted to send a letter it took a minimum of... Read more

Last month, visitors to this site may have enjoyed a blog about the journey SCVO has been on to create a digitally confident third sector in Scotland by my colleague and Head of Digital, Sally Dyson. As a Digital Participation Officer, a large part of my role is to support... Read more

Sacro is a Scottish community justice organisation which works to create safer and more cohesive communities across Scotland. Sacro provides a wide range of services spanning all aspects of the community justice continuum. These range from conflict resolution to prevent disputes... Read more

We have been running a digital lending library at Govan Housing Association for almost three years and have found that it is a brilliant way to reduce barriers to digital participation. To date our library consists of 22 iPad, 15 laptops, 3 Digital SLR Cameras, Audio Recording... Read more

Over the past few months we’ve been working closely with colleagues at Glasgow Kelvin College to develop a brand new qualification for the housing sector in Scotland. This new qualification, Certificate in Digital Inclusion Project Management, is a credit rated qualification at... Read more

One of the issues facing those interested in digital inclusion research is the incredible speed at which new publications emerge: the sheer quantity of pertinent information, both coming from the field of practice and from academic study, can be overwhelming. Over the last few... Read more

Sarah Neary, Digital Participation Officer at West of Scotland Housing Association, shares her chat with Lily - a tenant she's helped get online. Lily, 83, has been receiving home visits from our Digital Participation Officer to learn more about her iPad. Here she tells us what... Read more

Trustees Week 2019 saw Third Sector Lab and SCVO Digital bring together charities and people working in digital industries to create greater understanding of how we practically get more digital folk on charity boards. Digital Trustees Scotland was part of the roadshow developed... Read more

I’ve been lucky over the last few months to be a member of SCVO’s Digital Champions in Social Housing project. It’s been great to meet other people passionate about supporting our residents and our organisations to get better at digital. I’ve also been lucky enough to receive... Read more

We often use the term digital trustees as if they’re a homogenous group of people all with the same skillset. They’re not! There are so many digital skills, from web development to digital marketing to cyber security. Choosing someone with the right skills for your board (as with... Read more

This June, I was lucky enough to be opening speaker at the Third Sector Lab Digital Trustees Scotland event held in Glasgow and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. The event brought together senior leaders from the voluntary sector with people working in the digital... Read more

Back in August we were delighted to welcome 19 new Charter Fund organisations on board, and earlier today we joined one of them, The Marie Trust, as they hosted a ministerial visit by Kate Forbes, MSP. Kate Forbes MSP with Frances McKinley, Chief Exec at the Marie Trust The Marie... Read more

This year our Digital Participation Charter Fund had an incredible level of interest and the standards were very high. With a limited amount of funding it’s always disappointing not to be able to invest in everyone. Fortunately, as part of our involvement in the One Digital... Read more

Two things help or hinder the progress of digital evolution in any organisation – culture and leadership. Charities led by a senior team who trust their staff and understand the potential of technology, whose culture is focused on openness, experimentation and entrepreneurship... Read more

In my last blog I described how I had spent a large amount of my first few weeks trying to get to grips with the cyber support landscape here in Scotland. I am delighted to say that progress has been made and I now know my cyber catalyst network members from my NCSC resources – a... Read more

We’ve always been impressed with how committed housing sector staff are to their work, but we were blown away when one Tenant Participation Officer attended our second Digital Motivators Bootcamp in Inverness on the 9th and 10th September with a recently broken ankle - they were... Read more

Southside Housing Association is participating in SCVO’s Social Housing Digital Champions Network. Having joined the SCVO’s digital motivators group back in April, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting digital leaders from across Scotland’s social housing sector to discuss and debate... Read more

Kicking off in 2016, our Senior Leaders Programme has worked with over 90 voluntary sector leaders. Using an action learning set approach, we have helped and supported them to successfully navigate the digital landscape and be a leader in the 21st Century. Our participants attend... Read more

Digital technology has long been celebrated for making the world smaller through its ability to connect people all over the world, with the click of a mouse or touch of a screen, in an instant. However, the feedback we were collecting during our IT sessions was uncovering... Read more

The next decade could bring some of the most profound social, economic, political and environmental changes in living memory. In 2030, Scotland’s population will be larger and older. The rise of artificial intelligence and automation will have radically changed the jobs market... Read more