IT Support for CharitiesIT support for charities that spends the money where the mission is.
Charities hold donor, beneficiary and volunteer data that is at least as sensitive as anything a law firm keeps, on a fraction of the budget and often with a mix of staff, volunteers and shared devices. We run the IT for charities of 5 to 150 people: Microsoft's nonprofit grants and discounts actually claimed, the security switched on, and the evidence trustees and funders ask for.
Who this is for
Registered charities, CICs and not-for-profits with paid staff, usually 5 to 150 people, plus volunteers and trustees, often across an office and outreach or service sites, with a treasurer or operations manager who has inherited IT on top of their job.
The Microsoft nonprofit offer, and why most charities underuse it
Eligible charities get Microsoft 365 Business Basic free for up to 300 users and Business Premium at a discounted nonprofit price of a few pounds per user per month, a fraction of the commercial £16.90. Business Premium includes Defender, Intune, Conditional Access and the data protection tools a charity holding beneficiary records needs. Most charities we meet are either on the free Basic plan with no security, or paying commercial prices because nobody applied for the nonprofit status.
We handle the eligibility application through Microsoft's nonprofit programme, move the tenant to the right licences, and configure the security that comes with them. The licence saving alone often covers most of the support cost.
What trustees are responsible for
The Charity Commission's guidance is clear that trustees are responsible for protecting the charity's data and systems, and that cyber attacks on charities are common and mostly preventable with basic controls. The NCSC's charity guidance lists them: multi-factor authentication, backups, patching, device protection and staff awareness. The ICO applies the same expectations under UK GDPR, and a breach of beneficiary data is both a regulatory matter and, for a charity, a reputational one with donors.
We put those controls in as standard and produce a plain-English summary each quarter that a trustee board can read in ten minutes: what is protected, what is not yet, and what it would cost.
Source: Charities and cyber security (Charity Commission), Cyber security for charities (NCSC), Advice for small organisations (ICO)
Volunteers, shared devices and personal phones
Charities rarely have one person per laptop. Volunteers share devices, outreach workers use personal phones, and trustees read board papers on whatever they have. Microsoft 365 handles this properly: frontline licences for shared-device users, shared device mode in Intune, app protection that keeps charity data inside managed apps on a personal phone and wipes only that data when someone leaves, and guest access for trustees that does not need a licence. We set it up for how the charity actually works rather than pretending everyone has a company laptop.
Donor and beneficiary systems
CRM and case systems such as Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Raiser's Edge, Charitylog and Lamplight hold the data that matters most. We protect the identities behind them with the same multi-factor authentication and Conditional Access as everything else, back up what the vendor does not, and close a leaver's access the day they go. Where a charity still runs a server for an old membership or finance system, we keep it patched and backed up until it can be retired.
Funders and grant conditions
Funders and commissioners increasingly ask for Cyber Essentials or an equivalent as a grant condition, particularly for charities delivering public services. The controls it requires are the ones we put in place as standard, and we take charities through certification at a fixed price so the next funding application is not delayed by a question about IT.
What is included
Helpdesk and monitoring
Unlimited support answered by an engineer, every device monitored and patched, for staff and, where the charity chooses, volunteers.
Nonprofit licensing
Microsoft nonprofit eligibility applied for, the free Business Basic grant and discounted Business Premium claimed, and licences reviewed each quarter so the charity never pays for a seat it does not use.
Microsoft 365 security switched on
MFA for everyone, Conditional Access, Defender for email and devices, sensitivity labels for beneficiary and safeguarding records, and retention set to the charity's policy.
Devices, shared and personal
Intune for charity laptops, shared device mode for shared ones, app protection for personal phones, and guest access for trustees.
Donor and case systems
Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce, Raiser's Edge, Charitylog, Lamplight and the rest protected, integrated and backed up where the vendor does not.
Backup, tested
Microsoft 365 and any server data backed up outside the vendor, kept in the UK, restores tested every quarter.
Trustee reporting
A quarterly plain-English summary for the board, and Cyber Essentials certification with the evidence funders ask for.
What is not included, and why
- The CRM or case management subscriptions themselves. Many have charity pricing; we help you ask for it, but you buy from the vendor.
- Fundraising, website or social media work. We will keep the website's domain, DNS and email secure; the content is yours.
- Teams Phone and connectivity are separate services, priced on the Teams Phone and broadband pages.
What it costs
Managed IT support for charities is from £35 per user per month, with security monitoring, device management and Microsoft 365 backup included. Microsoft 365 licences are at Microsoft's nonprofit prices once eligibility is confirmed, which for most charities means Business Basic free and Business Premium at a small fraction of the commercial price. Onboarding, the nonprofit application and Cyber Essentials certification are quoted as fixed projects after a discovery call.
How it starts
- 1Free IT Health CheckA short online check that benchmarks your security and business risk and tells you where you stand.
- 2Discovery callAn engineer, not a salesperson. What you have, what is broken, what it would cost to fix, in writing.
- 3OnboardingEverything moves across on a plan, with no gap in cover and nothing lost.
Questions people ask before signing
Is our charity eligible for free or discounted Microsoft 365?
Most UK registered charities and many CICs are. Microsoft confirms eligibility through its nonprofit programme, which we apply for on your behalf. Once confirmed, Business Basic is free for up to 300 users and Business Premium is discounted to a few pounds per user per month.
We have volunteers who use their own devices. How do you protect our data?
With Intune app protection: charity email and files stay inside managed apps on the volunteer's phone, protected by a PIN and encryption, and when they leave we wipe the charity's data and nothing else. For shared laptops we use shared device mode so each person signs in as themselves.
Can you present to our trustees?
Yes. We produce a quarterly plain-English summary of what is protected and what is not, and we will join a board meeting when the trustees want to ask questions directly. Trustees are responsible for this under Charity Commission guidance, so they should be able to understand it.
A funder is asking for Cyber Essentials. How long does that take?
Usually four to eight weeks from a standing start, less if the Microsoft 365 security is already configured. The controls are the ones we put in place as standard, and certification is a fixed-price project on the Cyber Essentials page.
We cannot afford enterprise IT. Is this for small charities?
Yes. Most of our charity clients are 5 to 50 people. The point of using Microsoft's nonprofit licensing properly is that a small charity gets the same protection a company pays £16.90 per user for, at a small fraction of that, and the support is priced per user so it scales with you.
Do you support our CRM?
We support charities on Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Raiser's Edge, Charitylog and Lamplight among others. We are not the vendor's helpdesk, but we protect the identities behind the system, handle the integrations with Microsoft 365, and back up what the vendor does not.
How much does IT support cost for a charity?
From £35 per user per month with security and backup included. With nonprofit licensing, a twenty-person charity typically pays less in total than it was paying for commercial Microsoft licences alone, and we show the comparison in the discovery call.