Your charity’s digital maturity journey

Welcome to the Smartdesc November newsletter. This month we share how charities can be more digitally mature and offer the following resources: A blog on the five key stages of digital maturity for charities with illustrations Free Microsoft Cloud Security, Cyber Security and Data Protection assessments Free instructor-led MS365 training sessions Our next Quarterly Charity…

Cyber Essentials at ACEVO

ACEVO is the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. Together with their network, they inspire and support civil society leaders by providing connections, advocacy and skills. ACEVO approached Smartdesc as they wanted to achieve the Cyber Essentials certification, to prove their commitment to best practice with cyber security. Challenge Cyber Essentials is a government-backed,…

Cyber Security and other charity IT resources

Welcome to the Smartdesc October newsletter. This month we discuss how you can can strengthen your charity’s cyber security posture and offer the following resources: A blog on cyber security takeaways from our recent roundtable, and another on vulnerabilities you should be aware of Free Microsoft Cloud Security, Information Governance, and Cyber Security assessments The…

Cyber Security Updates You Need to Know About

In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, staying informed about cybersecurity threats is crucial, especially for nonprofits, who are the third most targeted industry in the world.  In this blog, we share three recent cyber security vulnerabilities you should be aware of, and instructions on how to protect yourselves from them.  Smartdesc are now offering charities a complimentary…

Charity Technology Roundtable – Cyber Security – Summary

Last week we held our third Quarterly Charity Technology Roundtable, hosted by Microsoft Tech for Social Impact. In this blog, we summarise our discussion on cyber security, including risk management, BYOD, reducing risk of human error and systems gatekeeping. Compliance Frameworks, Risk Management, Reporting​ It is good practice to define the framework(s) or standard(s) that are…

Increase your IT team’s capacity with hybrid outsourcing

Welcome to the Smartdesc September newsletter. This month we discuss the benefits of adopting a hybrid, in-house outsourced model for your IT function, including: A blog and video on how many large charities are adopting a co-managed IT structure, what this is and how to get started. The chance to come together with your peers to…

Co-managed IT: the benefits of hybrid IT outsourcing for nonprofits

In today’s digitally driven world, technology has become a central component of most charities – from managing operations, measuring impact, connecting with supporters, coordinating volunteers, and enabling organisations to develop new services. Indeed, in our Charity IT survey we conducted earlier this year, over half of the leaders that took part are considering outsourcing via…

Charity Digital Skills Report 2023: Our Analysis

The Charity Digital Skills report, now in its sixth year, is widely regarded as an annual barometer on digital maturity, skills and priorities across the nonprofit sector. It’s the digital sister of our own annual Charity Tech Leaders Report which focuses on IT infrastructure, M365 & cloud, outsourcing and cyber security. In this blog, we…

Information Governance & Data Protection Workshop for Charities – 17 October 2023

How do you keep your charity up to date with ever changing data protection law, GDPR standards, Subject Access Requests and data breaches? This is just one of the questions we answered in our Information Governance and Data Protection workshop for nonprofit organisations, in partnership with Charity IT Leaders. Andrew Coyle, our Director of Information…