Every pound a charity spends on IT is a pound not spent on its cause. We help North East charities and not for profit organisations get secure, reliable IT on a sensible budget, including making the most of Microsoft's nonprofit offers.
Funding is precious, so IT needs to be good value, predictable and focused on what actually matters.
Volunteers, trustees and part time staff come and go, and each needs the right access, set up and removed properly.
Charities often hold information about vulnerable people, sometimes including health or other special category data.
The Charity Commission has found phishing to be the most common type of cyber enabled fraud experienced by charities.
Microsoft has changed its nonprofit offers, and some charities need to review what they use and pay for.
Charities and not for profit organisations often run on donated laptops, a mix of personal and work email addresses and a volunteer who knows a bit about computers. That can work for a while, but it leaves the charity exposed: data spread across personal accounts, no reliable backups and nobody responsible for security.
Cyber Fits is a family run IT company based in Sunderland, supporting organisations of around 5 to 100 staff across Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Teesside, including charities. We focus on getting the basics right, using the discounts and free licences available to eligible organisations, and spending money only where it makes a real difference.
Microsoft runs a nonprofit programme for eligible charities and not for profits. At the time of writing it offers Microsoft 365 Business Basic as a grant for up to 300 users, which includes email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, along with discounted pricing on paid plans, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Microsoft has discontinued the grant that used to give eligible nonprofits 10 free Business Premium licences. Organisations that relied on it move off the grant at their renewal, so it is worth checking what you have, what you need and what it will cost. A common approach is to give most users the granted Business Basic licence and pay the discounted price for Business Premium only where its extra security and device management are needed. We can review your licensing and help with eligibility and setup. Offers change, so we always check the current terms with Microsoft before recommending anything.
The Charity Commission publishes guidance on protecting charities from fraud and cyber crime, developed with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). It reminds trustees that managing the charity's resources responsibly includes being aware of cyber risks. The NCSC's Cyber Security Small Charity Guide sets out practical, low cost steps: backing up data, protecting devices from malware, keeping devices secure and updated, using strong passwords and two step verification, and avoiding phishing attacks.
If something does go wrong, trustees may need to report it. The Charity Commission expects serious incidents, including fraud, to be reported, and a data breach may also need reporting to the Information Commissioner's Office. Having good backups, records and support in place makes that situation far easier to manage.
We can give you a clear written plan for your IT, with costs, which is useful when preparing funding bids or budgets. We will also tell you honestly when something does not need replacing, and help you prioritise so the most important risks are dealt with first. If your charity is aiming for Cyber Essentials, perhaps because a funder or commissioner asks for it, we can help you prepare.
We are a small, local team who explain things in plain English and treat your budget as carefully as you do. Book a free IT review and we will look at your setup, licensing, security and backups, and give you practical recommendations.
Eligible nonprofits can currently get Microsoft 365 Business Basic as a grant for up to 300 users, plus discounts on paid plans such as Business Premium. The free Business Premium grant has been discontinued. Terms change, so we check the current offer with Microsoft before advising.
Each volunteer should have their own account, owned by the charity, with access limited to what they need and multi factor authentication turned on. We set up a simple process so accounts are created and removed as volunteers join and leave.
Often, yes. We check that donated devices are still supported by Microsoft and receiving security updates, set them up securely and advise if any are too old to be safe.
Contact us straight away so we can contain the problem and restore systems. Trustees should also consider whether to report a serious incident to the Charity Commission, report fraud to Action Fraud and report a personal data breach to the Information Commissioner's Office.
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Book a free, no obligation IT review. We will look at your setup, tell you honestly what needs attention and give you a clear fixed monthly price.
