Managed IT for Nonprofits
A nonprofit runs on trust and a thin staff. The donor database holds names, giving history and bank details, the finance office moves grant money on a schedule funders audit, and the person answering IT questions is usually the operations director between two other jobs. NetSys provides managed IT for nonprofits on a month-to-month agreement. The donor and finance systems are monitored around the clock, Microsoft nonprofit licensing gets configured past the mailbox, and the security program is written in language a funder can read.
The short answer
NetSys provides managed IT for nonprofits, membership organizations and foundations: help desk and 24/7 monitoring for staff and volunteers, Microsoft 365 set up under Microsoft's nonprofit program with identity and email protections switched on, the donor database and accounting system kept patched and backed up with restores that have been timed, and the written policies, access records and training evidence that grant agreements and cyber insurance applications now ask for. Privileged access management, disaster recovery planning and AI automation for intake forms, gift acknowledgments and funder reporting are part of the same agreement. Board reporting comes in plain language. Eligible organizations get help claiming the licensing grants and discounts they qualify for; we confirm current offers rather than promise a specific plan.
Sound familiar?
- Donor and member records spread across a CRM, spreadsheets and a former employee's inbox
- A grant agreement that requires written security controls nobody on staff has time to draft
- Microsoft nonprofit licensing claimed years ago and never configured beyond email
- Volunteers and departed staff who still have access because offboarding was never assigned to anyone
- Donation forms and event payments that fall under card-data rules the board has never heard of
- A backup that lives on the same server as the finance system it is supposed to protect
A Help Desk Sized for a Lean Team
- Staff and volunteers call a help desk that puts an engineer on the phone
- Onboarding and same-day offboarding for staff, interns and board members
- A dedicated account manager with a real cell number, so the executive director has one person to call
- Program sites, remote workers and the main office covered under one agreement
Donor and Member Data, Protected
- Multifactor authentication and attributable logins on the donor database and accounting system
- Managed endpoint detection on every laptop, including the ones that go to events
- Email defense tuned for the fake-invoice and executive-impersonation lures aimed at finance staff
- Donation and membership payment flows kept within card-data rules
Grant and Insurance Evidence
- Written security policies that answer what funders and cyber insurers ask
- Retention of grant records for the period each award requires, with backups to match
- An annual risk review the board can read in one sitting
- Vendor access tracked for every platform that touches donor or client data
Microsoft 365 and Automation, Finished Properly
- Microsoft nonprofit licensing verified, claimed and configured beyond the mailbox
- SharePoint and Teams structured so program, finance and development files stay separate
- AI automation for gift acknowledgments, intake forms and funder reports where it fits
- Immutable backups of Microsoft 365 and the donor system, with restores timed
Managed IT for a nonprofit with four programs and one overworked operations director
A composite example of work we do, written so you can picture the first 90 days. It is not a specific client — our real, named engagements are in case studies.
The organization ran three program sites and a small central office. Donor records lived in a hosted CRM, but exports sat in a shared drive anyone could open, and two former development staff still had working logins. A new state grant required a written information security policy before the first drawdown. The Microsoft nonprofit grant had been claimed years earlier, and nobody had turned on multifactor authentication or backups since.
- An access review that removed departed staff, moved every remaining login behind multifactor authentication and gave the finance lead a privileged account separate from her daily one
- The Microsoft 365 tenant rebuilt with conditional access, Defender for Business and a SharePoint structure that separated program files from donor and finance data
- Immutable backups of the donor CRM exports, accounting data and mailboxes, with a restore performed and timed
- A written information security policy, an incident response plan and a training record, packaged to the grant's own language
- A Power Automate flow that files gift acknowledgments and logs them against the donor record, which took a weekly chore off the development team
The grant's security attachment was submitted with evidence instead of promises. The operations director stopped being the help desk. The board now receives a one-page security summary each quarter, and it reads like English.
Nonprofits IT FAQs
Do you provide managed IT for nonprofits with fewer than twenty staff?
Yes. Small organizations are most of our nonprofit work. A team of eight with three program sites carries the same exposure as a much larger one: donor records, bank access, a public reputation and no dedicated IT person. The agreement covers help desk, 24/7 monitoring, security, backups and Microsoft 365 management under one monthly fee, and it scales up or down as staffing changes, which matters for organizations whose headcount moves with funding cycles.
How much does managed IT for a nonprofit cost?
Pricing is per user per month and all-inclusive, so cybersecurity, help desk, privileged access management and disaster recovery planning are not separate line items. We do not publish rates because the number depends on headcount, sites and the systems involved, but a short call produces a firm quote. Eligible organizations also cut software cost through Microsoft's nonprofit program, which we help you verify and claim.
Can you help us get Microsoft 365 nonprofit licensing?
Yes. Microsoft offers granted and discounted licenses to eligible nonprofits through its nonprofit program. Eligibility runs through a verification process, and the specific offers have changed more than once, so we confirm what your organization qualifies for at the time rather than promise a particular plan. Once granted, we configure the tenant properly: multifactor authentication, conditional access, email protection, backups and a SharePoint structure, which is where most grant-claimed tenants were never finished.
Our funder is asking for a cybersecurity policy. Can you write it?
We write the policy and, more to the point, implement the controls it describes so the document is true. Funders and cyber insurers increasingly ask for multifactor authentication, endpoint protection, backups, staff training and an incident response plan. We put those in place, document them and keep the evidence current, so the next grant application or renewal is a matter of attaching files rather than starting over.
What happens to donor data if we get hit with ransomware?
If backups are immutable and restores have been practiced, the organization comes back from a clean copy and the incident becomes a bad week rather than a closure. NetSys has handled more than 30 ransomware incidents in three years with full recovery in every case, and the clients who had a disaster recovery plan in place were back within 24 hours. Donor notification obligations depend on state law, and we work through them with your counsel.
Do you require a long-term contract?
No. Nonprofit agreements run month to month like every other NetSys agreement. Boards and finance committees tend to prefer that, since it avoids a multi-year commitment that outlives a funding cycle. If we stop earning the work, you can leave with notice and take your documentation with you.
Guides for nonprofits leaders
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