IT Support for Charities

The cyber risk charities face

Charities hold sensitive data on donors, service users and volunteers, often with small budgets and no in-house IT. According to the UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026, 28% of UK charities reported a cyber breach or attack in the previous 12 months, and phishing was the most common type, affecting 25%. The same survey found only 38% of charities use two-factor authentication.

The 2026 incident at Beacon CRM, where the supplier reported that compromised credentials were used to copy database backups affecting a large number of charity customers, showed that your data is only as safe as your suppliers. The Charity Commission and the ICO both issued guidance to affected charities.

We help with the practical basics first: MFA on every account, removing old users, backups you control and phishing awareness for staff and volunteers. See our phishing protection page.

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace on nonprofit terms

Microsoft retired its free grant of 10 Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences for nonprofits from 1 July 2025, replacing it with a discounted paid offer and continuing to donate Business Basic licences. Many charities only discovered this at renewal. We review your tenant, work out who genuinely needs desktop Office apps, Intune and advanced security, and who can use Business Basic in the browser, then move licences without losing mailboxes or files.

Google Workspace for Nonprofits remains an option for some organisations. If you are weighing the two, read our Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace comparison. Either way, we set up shared mailboxes for info@ and volunteers@ addresses, so you stop sharing passwords and can see who sent what.

We also check the settings that the licence change can quietly switch off. Moving people from Business Premium to Business Basic removes Intune and Defender for Business, so we confirm which laptops lose management and what replaces it before the switch, not after.

Donor CRMs, Gift Aid and the trustees' duty

Donor CRMs such as Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce Nonprofit and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT are often the most valuable system a charity owns. We cannot configure every CRM in depth, but we can make sure access to it is protected: individual logins, MFA, removing leavers, and checking which integrations and API keys connect it to your website, email marketing and payment providers.

Under Charity Commission guidance, actual or alleged cybercrime and significant data breaches are serious incidents that trustees should report, alongside any report to the ICO within 72 hours where a personal data breach is likely to put people at risk. If something goes wrong, we document what happened technically so your trustees have the facts they need to decide what to report.

Websites, donations and volunteers

Your website is often how people donate, volunteer or find help. We keep WordPress and its plugins updated, check donation and contact forms still deliver, renew SSL certificates and fix mixed content warnings that put donors off. If donation confirmation emails go to spam, we look at SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your domain.

Volunteers come and go. We set up a simple joiners and leavers process so new volunteers get the right access on day one and lose it on the day they leave. For smaller groups that mainly need everyday tech help, our tech support for charities page covers lighter-touch options.

Plans and prices for charities

Small charities that mainly need their website and email kept healthy often start on Essential at £25 a month + VAT. Business at £50 a month + VAT adds an hour of changes each month and priority support. Charities with staff teams usually choose Complete at £99 a month + VAT, which adds 3 hours a month and a helpdesk for Microsoft 365 and IT questions.

One-off work, such as a licence migration or investigating a suspicious login, is £45 an hour + VAT. Bigger projects are quoted. See our pricing.

What it costs

Support plans from £25 a month + VAT, or £45 an hour + VAT for one-off fixes. Pick a plan if you want it looked after every month, or pay by the hour for a one-off job.

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