Trustees’ Week earlier this month provided the perfect opportunity to reflect on where your organisation is with its IT strategy, and to look at ways in which IT can help staff to be more efficient and impactful. Building an IT strategy often poses a challenge, especially for charities that may not have an extensive…
What is ISO 27001? ISO 27001 is an international standard for Information Security Management and provides a framework of good practice, including: Risk management Risk-based decision making Proportionate controls A checklist of good practice Why Mind chose ISO 27001 Charities are increasingly reliant on data and technology to deliver their missions. It is important that…
In today’s digital age, cyber security is more crucial than ever, especially for charities that may be seen as easy targets by cyber criminals. Although the technical aspects of cyber security can be daunting, focusing on a few key areas can significantly enhance your organisation’s security posture. Here are the top five areas charity leaders…
Welcome to the Smartdesc July newsletter. This month, we share our key takeaways from the insightful 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report. We also feature bespoke IT training, information on our friends Charity IT Leaders, and exciting networking and learning opportunities. Free charity IT resources Inconsistent IT skillsets often cause inefficiencies and a lack of confidence.…
Welcome to the Smartdesc June newsletter. This month, we share a new video on how WaterAid tackled their IT resource challenges with a co-managed approach. We also feature a webinar with Charity IT Leaders, exciting events, free Microsoft Cloud Security assessments, and more. Free charity IT resources We are excited to release our video case…
The charity sector has undergone significant transformation in recent years, with digital acceleration, shifts in working models, and increasing pressure on internal IT resource acquisition and retention. This has necessitated a rethinking of IT Service Management (ITSM) within the sector. In this article, charity IT specialists, Smartdesc, and ServiceNow’s nonprofit team ServiceNow.org share their advice…
In today’s digital age, charities need to continually adapt to leverage technology for greater impact. The digital maturity of a nonprofit plays a pivotal role in enhancing operational efficiencies, expanding reach, giving them a competitive edge and ultimately fulfilling its mission. In this blog, we explore the five key stages of digital maturity for nonprofit…
On 25 January 2024, we held our quarterly Charity Technology Roundtable in partnership with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact. We focused on the topic of getting IT resourcing right, discussing areas around: How are charities tacking the IT resourcing challenge? What models exist for for hybrid / co-managed IT team structures? How can hybrid / co-managed…
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…
The EU GDPR has been established data protection legislation in the UK and EU since May 2018. In the UK, the EU GDPR was replaced by the UK GDPR following Brexit in January 2021. Since Brexit, the UK Government has spoken about diverting away from the GDPR to a “more pro-growth and pro-innovation data regime…
