EAC specialises in IT support for charities with between 20 and 150 users, currently working with five charities across London, Maidenhead and Aylesbury. The focus throughout is commercial quality IT delivered at a cost a charity can actually justify, not a discounted version of a generic business package.
What should charity-specific experience actually look like?
A charity carries the same legal duties as a commercial organisation, often on a fraction of the budget, and trustees are accountable for the controls that are in place whether or not anyone has explained them to the board. That means a specialist provider needs to understand charity governance as well as technology, not just offer a cheaper version of a standard IT contract. Ask how many of a provider’s current clients are charities today, not how many they have worked with at some point in the past.
Why does local, on-site support matter more for charities?
Charity teams in the 20 to 150 user range often include volunteers using their own devices rather than a uniform fleet bought by IT. That mix creates problems a remote fix can’t always solve, from unsupported laptops to printers that need setting up on site. Engineers who can travel out to wherever your team is based, rather than only answering tickets remotely, matter more here than in a typical commercial office of the same size.
What data protection and compliance issues should we expect?
Donor records count as personal data under UK GDPR, and fundraising activity is regulated separately from general data protection law. That means a charity’s compliance position is not simply a smaller version of a commercial company’s, it is a distinct set of obligations layered on top of the usual rules. A provider working with charities regularly needs to understand both strands, not just generic data protection advice written for any small business.
What does IT support cost for an organisation of this size?
For organisations with between 50 and 200 employees, managed IT support typically costs between £65 and £175 per user per month, with the exact figure driven by what’s included, such as backup, security tooling, licensing and how much on-site time is built in, plus the age of the estate being supported. As a monthly budget, a 25 person organisation usually sits in the £2,000 to £4,000 range, 50 people in £4,000 to £8,000, and 100 people in £8,000 to £16,000. Because charity spend often has to be justified against a specific grant rather than a general budget line, it helps to ask a provider to break down exactly what’s driving the number rather than accept a single bundled figure.
What happens when we switch to a new provider?
Onboarding runs in four stages. First, a discovery audit documents every device, user, licence and supplier, including anything already broken rather than inheriting it quietly. Second, monitoring, patching, backup and security tooling get deployed. Third is a handover period where the outgoing provider is still in place while both teams answer tickets, and finally service begins properly with a review at 30 days against what the audit found.
