Example: small charity ICT support plan

This is what a typical plan looks like for a small, volunteer-run charity whose technology has grown up by accident. The charity below is a made-up example, not a real client: every plan is built around the organisation in front of me.

Starting point

The Hub (not a real charity) runs a weekly drop-in with one part-time coordinator and twelve volunteers. Its tech has grown up over the years:

• Email lives in a shared personal Gmail account, and everyone knows the password
• Client records sit in spreadsheets on two volunteers' home laptops
• There are no backups, and a former volunteer may still have access
• Nobody is sure what the charity pays for each month

Assessment (£75)

We start with a one-hour assessment with the coordinator. I look at:

• Email, accounts and who has access to what
• Where files and client data are kept, and whether they are backed up
• Passwords and how they are shared
• Subscriptions and what they cost

The Hub gets a short written report: what is worth fixing, in what order, and roughly what it costs. If the Hub books further work, the £75 comes off the next invoice.

Goals

We agree three goals with the coordinator:

1. “Each of us has our own login, and we can remove someone's access when they leave.”
2. “Our files live in one place, are backed up, and survive a lost laptop.”
3. “We know what we pay for, and we stop paying for what we don't use.”

Plan

The Hub's plan, step by step

Step	What we do	Time
1	Move email to a proper charity account, with a login per person, using a free or discounted nonprofit plan where the charity qualifies	2 hours
2	Move files and client spreadsheets into shared storage with automatic backup	2 hours
3	Set up a password manager and remove old access	1 hour
4	Group session for six volunteers: logging in, finding files, staying safe online	1 session

Everything is explained as we go, and the coordinator keeps the admin logins, so the charity is not dependent on me.

What the Hub leaves with

• A login for every volunteer, and a simple way to add or remove people
• Files in one place, backed up automatically
• A list of subscriptions, with anything unused cancelled
• A one-page “how we do IT here” guide for new volunteers
• A direct contact for when something goes wrong

Cost

The Hub's plan comes to £285 in total, at charity rates.

Cost of the Hub's plan

Item	Cost
Assessment	£75
5 hours of setup at £45 an hour	£225
Group session, 6 volunteers at £10 a head	£60
Assessment fee credited back	minus £75
Total	£285

A fixed price for the whole job can be agreed before I start instead.