Over 210 organisations from across Northern Ireland took part in the survey between November and December 2023, with our key findings laid out below.
Restoration of Northern Ireland Assembly
An overwhelming 81.9% of participants expressed belief that the restoration of the NI Executive and Assembly would have a positive impact on society. Key priorities stated for an incoming Executive include addressing the cost of living crisis (40.2%), health and social care service provision (31.8%), mental health (50.7%), health inequalities (41.8%), and education (40.8%).
Digital Capacity
Despite the growing importance of digitalisation, no more than half of the participants rated their organisation’s digital capacity as excellent or good. Areas of struggle include understanding the potential of Artificial Intelligence (67.3%), inadequate training opportunities for staff (41.1%), and insufficient support for managing digital infrastructure (24.1%).
Future Trends
Looking to the future organisations highlighted the three challenges that they believed would affect their organisation. These included increased running costs (82.8%), reduction in funding sources (74.9%), and a prolonged cost of living crisis (71.2%).
Additional concerns cited included fundraising (58.1%), volunteer recruitment and retention (55.3%), meeting growing needs (52.1%), and competition from sectors with better terms (50.2%).
