INDUSTRIESI10Not-for-Profit
Every dollar here
was donated.
IT for charities, NGOs, and community organisations. Technology spend in this sector is money that could have gone to the mission, which changes how every decision should be made, including whether to spend at all.
WHAT WE HEAR
The four sentences we hear most in your sector.
- 01
We cannot justify spending donations on software.
Often you do not have to. Microsoft and Google both run nonprofit programmes with free and heavily discounted licensing that a surprising number of eligible organisations have never claimed.
- 02
Volunteers come and go and nobody removes their access.
High turnover plus an informal offboarding process is the most common finding we make in this sector, and it is the one that matters most.
- 03
Our donor database is a spreadsheet somebody maintains.
Which holds personal information, often including financial details, and usually lives on one laptop with no backup and no access control.
- 04
The board wants reporting we cannot produce.
Because the data lives in four systems that were each chosen for good reasons at different times by different people.
THE STACK
The systems you actually run.
Not a list of logos. These are the platforms we support, migrate, and get called about in this sector. If yours is missing, it usually means we have not worked with it, and we will say so rather than nod along.
Nonprofit licensing programmes
The single largest saving available in this sector, and the one most often left on the table.
- Microsoft 365 nonprofit grants
- Google for Nonprofits
- Google Ad Grants
- TechSoup New Zealand
- Discounted hardware programmes
Donor and supporter management
Holds personal and financial information about people who trusted you with it, which makes it the system to protect first.
- Infoodle
- Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
- Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge
- HubSpot
- Donorfy
- Givealittle
Finance and reporting
Charities Services reporting and funder accountability both need numbers that reconcile without a week of manual work.
- Xero
- MYOB
- Fathom
- Grant reporting templates
- Power BI
People and volunteers
Turnover is the defining characteristic. Onboarding and offboarding have to be a process, not a favour.
- Microsoft Entra ID
- Google Admin
- Volunteer management platforms
- Rostering tools
- Shared mailboxes
WHERE WE HELP
Four things we do for not-for-profit specifically.
- 01
Claiming what you are entitled to
We check your eligibility for Microsoft and Google nonprofit programmes and get you onto them. For many organisations this alone covers email, collaboration, and security licensing for the whole team at no cost, which changes what the rest of the budget can do.
- 02
Access that ends when someone leaves
A joiner and leaver process that works for volunteers as well as staff, tied to something that actually happens rather than to somebody remembering. Given the turnover in this sector, it is the highest-value control available.
- 03
Protecting donor information properly
Supporter data out of spreadsheets and into a system with access control, backup, and retention. Donors give you their details and their payment information on trust, and that trust is difficult to rebuild.
- 04
Reporting the board can read
Numbers that reconcile, refresh on a schedule, and can be handed to a board or a funder without someone rebuilding them by hand the week before the meeting.
WHAT YOU ANSWER TO
The obligations that shape the work.
We make the systems match your obligations. We are not your lawyer or your compliance adviser, and where a question turns on interpretation we will tell you to take advice rather than guess on your behalf.
Privacy Act 2020
Donor, client, and volunteer records are all personal information. Charities often hold particularly sensitive information about the people they serve, which raises the stakes rather than lowering them.
Charities Services reporting
Registered charities must file annual returns and performance reports. That is a records and reporting problem before it is an accounting one.
Funder and contract requirements
Government and philanthropic funders increasingly attach data handling and reporting conditions to grants. These are usually agreed at application and forgotten by delivery.
WHAT IT COSTS
Nonprofit rates, per user, per month
We price this sector at reduced rates and we start by cutting your licensing cost rather than adding to it, because for most organisations the nonprofit grants cover more than they expect. We will tell you plainly when something is not worth doing on a constrained budget, which is not a conversation every provider is willing to have.
WHERE TO START
The services that matter most here.
FAQ
Questions from your sector
01Can charities get Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for free?
Eligible nonprofits can get substantial grants from both. Microsoft offers donated and heavily discounted licensing to qualifying organisations, and Google for Nonprofits includes Workspace alongside the Google Ad Grant for search advertising. Eligibility criteria apply and not every registered charity qualifies for every programme, so the first thing worth doing is checking properly rather than assuming either way. We handle the application.
02How do we manage IT access for volunteers?
By treating volunteer access as a process rather than a favour. Accounts created from a defined starting point, access by role so a volunteer sees only what their role needs, and removal tied to something that actually happens such as the end of a roster or a term. In a sector with this much turnover, an informal process means accounts accumulate for years, and that is precisely how a small organisation ends up with a serious exposure.
03Our donor database is a spreadsheet. Is that a problem?
Yes, on three counts. It holds personal and often financial information with no meaningful access control. It usually lives on one person’s machine with no backup, so a lost laptop is a lost supporter base. And it cannot support the reporting your board and funders increasingly ask for. Moving to a proper system is not necessarily expensive, and several donor platforms have nonprofit pricing.
04We have almost no budget. Is it worth talking to you at all?
Yes, and the first conversation costs nothing. Frequently the most valuable thing we do for an organisation in this sector is get its licensing right and fix two or three things that cost nothing but configuration, and we are content for that to be the whole engagement. We would rather be useful now and be who you call later than sell you something you cannot justify.
05What should a charity do first if it has done nothing?
Three things, in order. Claim your nonprofit licensing. Turn on multi-factor authentication for every account, which is free and defeats the most common attack. Get a real backup of whatever holds your supporter and client data. Those three cost almost nothing, take days rather than months, and remove most of the realistic risk.
06Do you actually understand how charities work?
The parts that matter for this: constrained budgets that must be justified, boards of volunteers with varying technical confidence, funders with reporting conditions, staff who are stretched, and a mission that always has a stronger claim on the money than the IT does. We would rather tell you not to spend than help you spend badly.
Start with your licensing.
It costs you an hour and it usually finds money. If we cannot find any, we will tell you that too and you will have lost nothing.
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