Who we are
Charity IT Leaders (CITL) is 25 years old this year, and has been a registered charity since 2012. We're passionate about supporting all our member organisations to make the best use of their data, technology and digital capabilities to the benefit of those they support.
Since 2000, our mission has been to help make charities more efficient and effective through the use of their information systems, processes, and technologies. We help charities capitalise on the power of digital technology and use it as a key driver of business change and service delivery within their sector.
We support our unique community and its members to unlock the potential of IT and digital within their organisations and we provide them with opportunities for networking, knowledge sharing, and professional development.
Membership is inclusive for professionals at every level within digital technology and asociated specialisms across the voluntary sector, including senior, technical, digital, service management, and project leadership.
We’re committed to using our voice and platform to advocate for the sector and be a force for change. We want to make digital technology accessible and inclusive as a career pathway and recognised as professional and essential to any organisation’s success.
Our goal is to support digital technology professionals, at every stage of their career journey, and to use our collective skills, knowledge, and experience to help build future generations of digital technology professionals who will enable their organisations to deliver meaningful change to their beneficiaries.
We believe in a future when all charities and not-for-profits are able to deliver more and better outcomes for their beneficiaries, maximise efficiencies and amplify capacity, and play a key role in driving societal change and we believe that digital technology is the engine that drives this.
We aspire to be the go-to trusted advisor to the sector; the partner, and the change-maker on everything to do with digital technology and related disciplines. We also aim to ensure that digital technology is given the respect, credibility and voice it needs in order to deliver the best outcomes for charities and NFPs.
That means we need to elevate digital technology leadership. Digital technology specialists should not carry the sole responsibility for digital technology leadership. Leadership has to start at Board level and tech leaders need to have a seat at that table.
So we aim to empower, support and upskill current and emerging tech leaders to be credible, confident, and articulate. To demonstrate their value as trusted advisors, who see the whole organisation, not just their own discipline.
For many years, investment in technology was seen as taking funds away from the front-line delivery of services. Whilst change is happening, there is a significant amount of legacy and technical debt to deal with, and a considerable skills gap at trustee and exec level.
Making the case for investment in digital technology can be challenging, as it's not just about presenting the business case, it's also about demonstrating why the charity pound should be invested in tech, and how this investment will deliver benefits across the whole organisation.
At the same time as making the case for new investment, it's also become more challenging to secure the funding needed to deliver BAU and maintain existing solutions.
Digital technology professionals have to be experts in their own fields, and also need to be strategic, organisational thinkers, with well developed business skills.
CITL is in a unique position to develop from a networking body, providing support and education to technology practitioners, to being an umbrella body. We will work to help embed professional standards and good practice across the sector, and ensure senior leaders, emerging leaders, and digital technology staff at all levels in charities have the knowledge, skills and tools they need to deliver change powered by digital technology.
Our Members
We have a huge range of member organisations, including very large, international charities and smaller, locally or nationally-based not-for-profits. Our only joining requirement is to be a charity or NFP.
Our members represent the incredible diversity of causes across the charity sector, so whatever your organisation does, theres sure to be an organisation working in a similar specialism to you.
By becoming a CITL member, your organisation will access a dynamic, engaged and supportive community of digital technologists from the UK non-profit sector, all committed to delivering life-changing outcomes for people, animals, communities, medicine and health and the environment.
Our services are tailored for types of digital technology professionals, and related specialisms, working within charities and NFPs.
Join us
We have around 130 members and we are always growing. The more members we have, and the greater the cross-sector engagement, the bigger the impact we can have on behalf of members and non-members.
Becoming a member is easy. Simply complete our Member Application Form and we'll do the rest!
Not quite ready to join? If you have any questions or would like to talk to us or any of our members before you join please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can, usually within 48 hours.
