IT, donor management and cybersecurity for Canadian non-profits and charities

Challenges we see

Charities and non-profits in Canada do complex work with lean teams. The IT problems follow a pattern:

• Budgets built around programs, not IT. Technology spending competes with services, and funders often want administrative costs kept low.
• Accidental IT managers. An executive director or program coordinator ends up managing laptops, passwords and vendors on top of their real job.
• Donor and member data in many places. Spreadsheets, email lists, event tools, payment platforms and old donor databases each hold part of the picture.
• Grant reporting pressure. Funders expect outcomes, budgets and spending tied to each grant, which is hard when finance and program data live apart.
• Volunteers and turnover. Accounts are shared or never removed, and people leave without handing over files.
• Attackers target charities. Phishing, donation fraud and ransomware hit small organizations with limited defences.

How Promatics helps

Our managed IT services are scalable and cost-conscious: we handle strategy, maintenance and support so you know what IT will cost each month. For non-profits this typically includes:

• A fully remote, 24/7 help desk for managed-service clients, with priorities and response targets set in the service agreement.
• System design and networking for offices, program sites and shared spaces, with guest Wi-Fi kept separate from staff systems.
• Software licence management, including making use of the non-profit programs many vendors offer and keeping licence counts accurate as volunteers come and go.
• Hardware procurement and inventory, with asset records that survive staff changes.
• Cabling and phone systems for new sites.
• On-site systems maintenance where your service agreement includes on-site work.
• A layered cybersecurity stack aligned with recognized frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, sized for a small organization.

We set up Microsoft 365 with shared mailboxes, SharePoint sites and Teams so files belong to the organization rather than individuals, and our cybersecurity awareness training helps staff and volunteers recognize phishing and donation scams. A virtual CIO helps you plan technology spending in line with your budget cycle and funding applications, and privacy and compliance readiness helps you document how donor and client information is protected.

Prometheus for non-profits

Prometheus ERP includes a cloud-based non-profit edition that helps organizations engage and build meaningful relationships with their contacts. Easy-to-use tools automate workflows, increase capacity and reduce administrative stress. It covers:

• CRM and donor management.
• Grants and membership management.
• Email campaigns, marketing and communication.
• Analytics, reports and project management.

Because donations, grants, projects and accounting sit in one system, reporting spending against each grant becomes far simpler.

Canadian regulatory and operating context

• CRA records and receipts. Registered charities must keep adequate books and records, issue official donation receipts that contain the information CRA requires, file an annual information return and retain records for the periods CRA specifies. Systems should make receipts and supporting records easy to produce.
• Donor privacy. Whether PIPEDA applies depends on whether an activity is commercial, but Quebec's Law 25 and the British Columbia and Alberta private-sector laws can apply to non-profits in those provinces. Regardless of the law, donors expect their information to be protected and not shared without consent.
• Anti-spam. CASL governs commercial electronic messages. Registered charities have an exemption for messages whose primary purpose is raising funds, but other messages, such as event ticket sales or merchandise promotions, may still need consent and an unsubscribe mechanism.
• Accessibility and language. Organizations serving the public may need accessible websites and forms, and French-language communication for Quebec or francophone communities.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your obligations with CRA guidance and your advisers.

Questions non-profits ask

Can you work within a grant-funded project budget? Yes. We can scope a defined project, such as a donor database migration, with a written estimate in CAD that fits a funding application.