Indian non-profits trail businesses in digital maturity, survey finds
A report based on a survey of 500 Indian non-profits says most have yet to reach half of its digital-maturity benchmark, despite growing experimentation with artificial-intelligence tools. Digital for Nonprofits said organisations often use AI for routine tasks but lag in governance, analytics and more complex operational workflows.
Indian non-profit organisations remain behind other sectors in adopting digital systems and artificial intelligence, according to a report based on a survey of 500 organisations. Digital for Nonprofits, or D4NP, said in its State of Nonprofits Digitization Report 2026 that non-profits did not score 50% on its digital-maturity measure. The findings indicate that many organisations are still addressing basic digitisation while other white-collar workplaces are integrating AI into regular workflows.
D4NP founder and former Google executive Abhinav Chetan said non-profits were often late to technological trends. He said many were experimenting with AI, but mainly for conversations and routine tasks rather than complicated workflows. The report said organisations were showing interest in using large language models for reports and marketing.
It also said many were not making use of monthly advertising grants worth $10,000, leaving potentially significant free advertising support unused. Among the 20 signals assessed, only Child Rights and You was described as being on the right side of digital maturity. Chetan attributed the organisation’s adoption partly to the corporate backgrounds of its staff, which he said allowed digital practices to spread through the organisation.
The report did not suggest that non-profits were avoiding AI altogether. It said six in 10 Indian startups used at least one AI tool daily, while 85% used more than one tool. However, only about one in four had safeguards governing AI tools’ handling of sensitive personal data, and a similar proportion used online analytics tools.
Chetan said adoption had shifted towards greater use compared with the previous year’s survey. He expressed hope that organisations would move towards applications such as coding, landing-page creation and dashboard development.
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