A significant new report, AI in the Charity Sector 2026, published by Charity Excellence, has highlighted a growing and potentially damaging gap between the pace of AI adoption among charities and the level of board-level oversight and governance in place.
The picture the report paints is striking. The 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 76 per cent of UK charities were already using AI in some form.
However, the Charity Commission's own research found that just three per cent of trustees reported their charity as using AI at all. This figure rose to eight per cent among larger organisations.
AI is likely being used widely at staff and volunteer level, often informally and without trustee awareness, let alone board oversight, which may carry new and unique risks.
The Charity Excellence report assessed charities across three governance indicators:
All three were rated 'red', meaning that most charities have yet to take meaningful action in any of these areas.
Operational safeguards such as data protection and security are improving, but this reflects bottom-up adoption rather than strategic governance leadership from the board.
This matters for trustees in a direct legal sense. Regardless of whether a board is aware that AI tools are being used, trustees remain legally responsible for the risks that flow from that use, including data protection compliance, safeguarding risks and the potential for algorithmic bias to affect beneficiaries.
There is also a broader reputational dimension. Research by the University of East Anglia published in early 2026 warned that charities risk breaking a bond of trust with the public through unmanaged use of AI, particularly AI-generated imagery in fundraising campaigns.
Donors and beneficiaries have a reasonable expectation that charities using AI will do so thoughtfully, transparently and in a way consistent with their values.
The 2025 refresh of the Charity Governance Code explicitly addressed, for the first time, the need for boards to consider AI and technology risks.
Trustees should now regard AI oversight as an increasingly important governance issue.
Here are a few steps that organisations and their board of trustees should consider:
The governance gap around AI is a structural challenge, not a technology problem, and trustees do not need to be AI experts.
However, they do need to take reasonable steps to understand what tools are in use and satisfy themselves that appropriate governance is in place.
Boards that engage with AI early are likely to be better positioned to manage both the opportunities and risks that the technology presents.
Closing the gap between AI adoption and board-level oversight requires a clear-eyed, practical approach rather than deep technical expertise.
If you would like to discuss AI governance or risk oversight within your charity, our team would be happy to help.
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