Learn how outsourced managed IT can help nonprofits strengthen cybersecurity, support employees and volunteers, protect donor data, manage technology vendors, and plan IT spending more proactively.
Is Outsourcing IT Right for Your Nonprofit?
A managed IT provider can handle help desk support, network monitoring, cybersecurity, backup and recovery, long-term technology planning, and more for a nonprofit.
Why Do Nonprofits Outsource Their IT?
This can be useful when:
- Employees frequently need technical assistance.
- IT problems are being handled reactively instead of proactively.
- One employee has become the unofficial IT person.
- Leadership is unsure whether systems and data are adequately protected.
- The organization lacks specialized cybersecurity expertise.
- Technology spending is difficult to predict.
- An internal IT employee or small team needs additional support.
- Leadership does not have a long-term technology plan.
What Problems Can Outsourced IT Solve for Nonprofits?
1. Employees Spend Too Much Time Dealing With IT Problems
Most nonprofits need to provide technology support to employees, volunteers, program staff, and other users. If this responsibility has fallen on a non-IT employee their time is not being used efficiently. An outsourced help desk gives users a dedicated resource for resolving password, device, software, connectivity, and other day-to-day technology issues.
This can become especially useful when volunteers or seasonal users need to be added and removed from systems or when employees supporting fundraising and programs cannot afford to spend time troubleshooting technology themselves.
2. Nobody Is Proactively Monitoring Your Technology
Managed IT providers can proactively monitor networks, devices and infrastructure to identify technology issues that need attention before they become larger disruptions. Services like patching, device management, network maintenance and ongoing system monitoring can all be seen as proactive monitoring.
Instead of waiting for an employee to discover a problem, outsourced IT provides ongoing oversight to help identify and address potential risks earlier and help prevent cyber attacks.
3. Cybersecurity Has Become Too Complex to Manage Internally
Nonprofits may have donor contact information, payment or financial records, employee information, and data related to the people or communities they serve. Protecting that information may require more cybersecurity expertise and technology than a small internal team can reasonably manage on its own.
Working with an MSP can give nonprofits access to a broader team of cybersecurity professionals and enterprise-grade security tools without requiring the organization to hire each specialty in-house or license and manage every tool independently.
4. Your Organization Needs Better Backup and Recovery Planning
For a nonprofit, losing access to critical systems can affect more than office productivity. An outage or data-loss could interrupt fundraising, donor communications, employee operations, or the systems staff rely on to deliver services. Managed backup and recovery services help establish how critical information and systems will be restored after an incident.
It is also worth asking whether the provider has a dedicated projects team or specialized engineers who can handle larger initiatives that go beyond day-to-day IT support. Projects such as replacing servers, moving systems to the cloud, upgrading network infrastructure, or implementing a new backup and recovery solution may require different expertise and resources than routine help desk support.
5. IT Spending
Nonprofits often have to balance technology investments with program, staffing, fundraising, and other priorities. Outsourced IT can give leadership access to vCIO guidance to plan for upcoming replacements, security needs, and larger IT projects before they become unexpected expenses.
6. There Are Too Many Technology Vendors to Manage
Nonprofits may rely on a combination of internet providers, Microsoft 365, fundraising or donor-management platforms, accounting software, cloud applications, phone systems, cybersecurity tools, and other technology vendors. When something goes wrong between those systems, nonprofit staff may be left trying to determine which vendor is responsible.
A managed IT provider can serve as a technical point of contact, help coordinate issues between vendors, and evaluate how different technologies fit into the organization's larger IT environment.
In-House vs. Fully Managed vs. Co-Managed IT for Nonprofits
Nonprofits generally have three options for managing IT: maintaining an internal IT staff, outsourcing ongoing IT responsibilities through fully managed services, or using co-managed IT to supplement an existing internal IT team. The right approach depends on the organization's internal resources, technology needs and areas where additional expertise is required.
In-house IT
In-house IT means a nonprofit employs its own staff to manage some or all of its technology environment.
The challenge is that a small internal team may be expected to cover everything from employee support to cybersecurity, networking, cloud administration and strategic planning which can cause staff burnout.
Fully managed IT
Fully managed IT means an outside provider takes responsibility for most or all of the ongoing IT functions defined in the organization's service agreement.
This can be useful for nonprofits that do not have dedicated internal IT personnel or want to transfer day-to-day technology management to a specialized provider.
Co-managed IT
Co-managed IT is a shared-support model where an MSP supplements an existing internal IT team with resources such as help desk coverage, cybersecurity, monitoring, network support, specialized expertise or project assistance.
The right model depends on the nonprofit's existing employees, technology environment and the gaps it needs to fill.
What Should Nonprofits Look for in a Managed IT Provider?
Consider asking prospective providers:
- Who responds to support requests? Determine whether you'll work with a consistent support team or a general ticket queue.
- What cybersecurity capabilities are included? Ask specifically about endpoint protection, monitoring, vulnerability management, zero trust, backups and security awareness.
- Is support available remotely and onsite? Remote support can address many problems, but some infrastructure issues require someone physically at your location.
- What happens outside business hours? Understand after-hours monitoring and support responsibilities.
- How are new employees and departing employees handled? Account provisioning and deprovisioning should be part of a documented process.
- Will someone help us plan our IT budget? Look beyond immediate troubleshooting to lifecycle and technology planning.
- Do you have dedicated project resources? Ask who handles major infrastructure upgrades, cloud migrations, server replacements, network redesigns or new technology implementations, and whether project work is included in your agreement or scoped separately.
- How will our environment be documented? Good documentation helps support teams understand devices, networks, vendors and configurations.
- Can you work with our existing IT employee? If you have internal IT resources, ask about co-managed options.
- How will our technology strategy be reviewed? IT planning should evolve as the organization's mission, employees and technology requirements change.
What Can Outsourced IT Look Like for a Nonprofit?
Consider a hypothetical midsized nonprofit with a dozen of employees, a volunteer network, a donor database, Microsoft 365, fundraising software, and no dedicated internal IT department.
The organization could work with an MSP to provide:
- Help desk support for employees and authorized users
- User account and access management
- Network and device monitoring
- Cybersecurity and protection of sensitive information
- Backup and recovery
- Support for technology vendors and cloud systems
- Technology budgeting and planning
Nonprofit leadership would continue making decisions about mission priorities and budgets, while the MSP handles the technical responsibilities defined in the agreement.
For a nonprofit that already has an IT manager, the arrangement could look completely different. The internal IT manager might retain responsibility for applications and strategic projects while an MSP provides help desk coverage, cybersecurity, monitoring and escalation support.
Why Consider Usherwood Office Technology for Managed IT as a Nonprofit?
Usherwood Office Technology works with nonprofit organizations that need to balance limited technology resources with data security, reliable operations, and long-term IT planning.
Its managed IT services include help desk support through its Technical Assistance Center, proactive monitoring, cybersecurity oversight, vendor management, and dedicated vCIO guidance for technology planning and budgeting.
For nonprofits that already have internal IT staff, Usherwood Office Technology also offers co-managed IT for organizations that need additional cybersecurity expertise, technical resources, project support, or after-hours coverage without replacing their existing team.
If your nonprofit is evaluating whether outsourced managed IT makes sense, Usherwood Office Technology's managed IT team can help assess your current environment and identify areas where additional support, cybersecurity or long-term technology planning may be useful.
