Emerging Trends in Charity Digital Asset Management

21st July 2025

When working in the fast-paced and incredibly busy charity and non-profit sector it can be hard to stay on top of all the developments in technology.

Between launching new fundraising campaigns, managing volunteers and dealing with budgetary constraints, the important task of keeping yourself educated about best practices can seem impossible.

However, this is exactly why staying up to date with emerging trends in charity Digital Asset Management is so important, and in this article we’re going to look at four things you should be aware of right now.

Why innovation matters in the charity sector

Tough economic conditions, something we’ve become accustomed to over the last two decades, often impact public donations, while public and private sector funding can be varied and unreliable.

This is why innovation is so important for the charity sector. New technologies and process improvements can reduce costs, increase fundraising efficiency and maximise volunteer impact, but identifying those opportunities is hard when the team is always focused on the next fundraising campaign.

4 trends in Digital Asset Management for charities and non-profits

If you’re a charity or non-profit that’s struggling to improve processes and boost efficiency, we suggest focusing on the following four emerging trends, specifically in the Digital Asset Management space:

1. AI-powered automation
2. Digital upskilling
3. Integration with the entire charity tech stack
4. Greater focus on cybersecurity

AI-powered automation

Artificial intelligence isn’t new to DAM systems (ResourceSpace has been leveraging AI functionality for years), but the rapid development of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI in the last few years has taken this to the next level.

From complex prompts fed to GPT per metadata field to automated tagging of keywords and locations, as well as advanced facial recognition, through to automated metadata processing that can take text from an input field and generate an output, AI can save charity DAM Managers and marketing managers untold hours of time previously spent manually inputting data and creating content.

READ MORE: 6 metadata tasks automated with AI in ResourceSpace

Not sure if this functionality would be as beneficial to you? Take a look at how ResourceSpace’s automated metadata processing is working for organisations like MCC (also known as the Mennonite Central Committee), a relief agency working in more than 40 countries.

Previously, MCC was having to create alt text for every image uploaded to their ResourceSpace instance, which was incredibly time-consuming. What’s more, the editors uploading content to the DAM weren’t trained in content production and, in some cases, weren’t native English speakers.

However, thanks to our OpenAI integration, ResourceSpace is now able to automate this process, saving image editors a huge amount of time. It can translate the generated text into other languages too.  

Digital upskilling

According to the annual 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report, almost half (46%) of UK charities consider growing staff and volunteer skills a priority—and it’s clear from the data that this is an area of improvement for the sector as a whole.

Just 24% of charities consider themselves to have ‘excellent basic digital skills’, which is a significant reduction on 2023’s figure of 64%. What’s more, almost one third (29%) say that they’re not making the most of their website and that they’re poor at understanding website and analytics data (31%), which hasn’t improved since the year before.

However, knowing where to prioritise this upskilling to see the biggest returns isn’t necessarily obvious. The digital landscape has always evolved quickly, but the advent of AI and LLMs has made it harder than ever for people working outside of the marketing and tech industries to keep up.

Your Digital Asset Management system is a key area in this respect because it’s integral to every aspect of your online presence. Your DAM will be at the heart of your marketing and fundraising campaigns, storytelling and stakeholder management, so your entire team needs to be confident using the system and fully understand the relevant processes. An effective DAM training programme ensures a smooth implementation and comprehensive adoption across the organisation.

ResourceSpace customers benefit from full technical support, as well as regular system health checks, while your dedicated DAM Consultant will provide admin training and be on hand to answer any questions you might have.

The ResourceSpace team has been exceptionally good at support services. They make everything so convenient and efficient with the cutting edge technology.

Integration with the entire charity tech stack

As mentioned above, DAMs are no longer standalone systems, but are a critical component of your entire tech stack.

This is a trend across multiple industries, but particularly important for charities and non-profits that can benefit from the efficiency improvements that come from smooth communications between different software platforms, made possible thanks to integrations. 

For example, charity marketing managers no longer need to download assets locally to edit them within the Adobe suite, while they can also publish videos directly to social media platforms. Stories managers can create content more easily thanks to integrations with popular content management systems like Wordpress and Drupal.

ResourceSpace has empowered our staff to find and access the content they need independently while allowing us to keep centralised control of assets and metadata.

If your charity isn’t yet taking advantage of these kinds of integrations, now’s the time to start researching what’s possible with your current tech stack.

Greater focus on cybersecurity

Despite digital technology playing a critical role in a charity’s fundraising efforts, only 19% of UK charities have a formal cybersecurity policy, while only a quarter have carried out a cyber risk assessment.

Your budget is probably already stretched, but this should be a priority, and an increasing number of charities and non-profits are investing in external cybersecurity providers.

However, it’s still incumbent on the organisation itself to invest in technology that’s secure. ResourceSpace boasts a number of advanced security functionality, including:

• Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Time based one time password authentication (TOTP)
• Granular access permissions you control
• Multiple user privacy

READ MORE: Why you should take DAM security seriously

Ready to find out more about how ResourceSpace can support the security of your charity, as well as ensure you’re prepared for all of the trends we’ve discussed in this article?

Get in touch or book your free, 30-minute DAM demo below and we’ll show you how charities and not-for-profit organisations like yours are staying ahead of the curve and maximising donation ROI.