PTS provides managed IT support to charities, NGOs, social enterprises and schools in Hong Kong: a fixed monthly retainer covering the helpdesk, devices, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, security and the funder and audit paperwork, with the free or discounted non-profit licences you are eligible for set up as part of the service. ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000 certified, in Hong Kong since 2001.
Hong Kong’s charitable sector runs on thin administration budgets, staff who wear several hats and IT that was set up by whoever was available at the time. The result is familiar: a mix of personal and office accounts, donor spreadsheets on laptops, a shared password for the finance system, service centres that cannot reach head office files, and nobody who can answer the funder’s security questionnaire. PTS has supported Hong Kong organisations of this shape for more than two decades. We bring the discipline of a certified managed service to organisations that cannot justify an IT department, and we start by cutting the licence bill rather than adding to it.
Non-profit licensing, claimed and configured
Microsoft offers eligible non-profits Microsoft 365 Business Basic at no charge for up to 300 users and discounts on Business Standard and Business Premium; Google offers Google Workspace for Nonprofits free of charge. Eligibility is verified through the vendors’ own non-profit programmes. We handle the application, move you onto the right plan and stop you paying commercial rates for seats a grant would cover.
Donor and beneficiary data protected
Donor records, beneficiary case notes and volunteer details are personal data under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance like any other. We put the basics in place that a funder or auditor will look for: named accounts, multi-factor authentication, access limited by role, backups that have been tested, and a plain record of where the data lives.
Funder and audit questions answered
Funders, government departments and corporate donors increasingly send a security or data-governance questionnaire before they commit. We answer it with you from documented controls, and our own ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000 certification stands behind the answers.
Multi-site, bilingual and on site
Head office in one district, service centres in several more, staff and volunteers who prefer Cantonese: our engineers work in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and visit centres across Hong Kong under an agreed schedule, not only when something breaks.
Free tools
Where does your organisation's IT stand today?
The IT Maturity Assessment scores your organisation across devices, identity, security, backup and support in about ten minutes and gives you a report to keep or send to us. The PDPO Compliance Checker walks through the data-protection principles as they apply to donor and beneficiary records.
Who this is for
We work with organisations across the sector: subvented social-welfare agencies and their service units, grant-funded charities and foundations, religious and community organisations, social enterprises, special-needs and therapy centres, sports and arts bodies, and schools. For international and local schools, see our dedicated IT support for schools in Hong Kong page, which covers classroom technology and student devices in more depth.
The common thread is not size. It is that the organisation’s purpose is something other than IT, its money is accountable to someone else, and the people using the systems change often.
What a managed IT service for a charity includes
Helpdesk and on-site support
A named team that staff and volunteers can call, email or message in English or Cantonese during Hong Kong business hours, with scheduled centre visits and emergency attendance when something stops a service running. Standard cover is 09:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday; anything beyond that is agreed separately.
Accounts, joiners and leavers
Volunteers, interns, seasonal programme staff and board members come and go. We run the joiner and leaver process so every person has their own account, access ends when they leave, and the shared “office@” passwords disappear.
Devices and the donated laptop problem
Mixed fleets of donated and purchased devices are the norm. We bring them under management, encrypt them, keep them patched, and tell you honestly which ones are no longer safe to use for beneficiary data. Where you need to buy, our IT procurement team sources at the right price with the non-profit discounts applied.
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, done properly
Email on your own domain, shared drives that service centres can reach, Teams or Meet for the people who work from different sites, and the security baseline that the free and discounted plans already include but almost nobody switches on. Our Microsoft 365 setup service covers the migration if you are moving from personal accounts or an older host.
Security sized to the risk
Multi-factor authentication everywhere, phishing protection on the mailboxes that receive donations and invoices, backups of email and files that are restored and tested, and a short acceptable-use policy that volunteers will actually read. Our cybersecurity team can go further where a funder or your board asks for it.
Funder, government and audit reporting
An asset register, a licence register, an access list and a data map, kept current as part of the service, so the annual audit, a Social Welfare Department review or a funder’s due diligence does not become a two-week scramble.
Tell us about your organisation and we will tell you what the licences should cost before we talk about ours
Two business days to a costed proposal, or a few questions first if we need to see more. No obligation.
Grant-funded IT projects
Funders in Hong Kong often support one-off technology projects alongside recurring programme funding: a case-management or CRM system, a new website, Wi-Fi and devices for a new centre, or digitising a paper archive. These projects fail for predictable reasons: the scope was written to fit the grant rather than the need, nobody owned the data migration, and the system was handed over with no one trained to run it.
Our IT projects team scopes the project with you before the funding application where we can, runs the delivery to the funder’s milestones, and hands over to the same managed service that supports you day to day, so the project is still working two years later. Where the project needs a new office or centre fitted out, our office relocation and Wi-Fi design teams handle the physical side.
Why charities and NGOs choose PTS
Certified, so the answers stand up
ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000 certification means our security and service management are audited externally. When a funder asks who looks after your IT, the answer carries weight.
Vendor-neutral
We sell no platform agenda. If Google Workspace for Nonprofits suits you better than Microsoft 365, we will say so, and we will tell you which paid tools a free licence already replaces.
Hong Kong-based, since 2001
A local team that understands the building management rules in a public-housing estate centre, the Social Welfare Department’s expectations of a subvented agency, and that a Saturday programme means Friday is not a good day for a migration.
Proven in demanding environments
We designed and delivered the technology for a leading international school’s new sixth-form building and run the day-to-day IT for a Hong Kong business of similar scale to many agencies.
Our commercial approach
A charity’s IT budget is answerable to a board and to funders, so we keep it simple: a fixed monthly retainer sized to the number of people and sites, with the non-profit licences and discounts you are entitled to applied first. Project work is quoted separately with a clear scope, assumptions and exclusions, in a form you can attach to a funding application. We do not publish rates, because every organisation’s mix of sites, devices and funding is different; we will give you a costed proposal within two business days of understanding yours.
Charity and NGO IT FAQs
Does PTS offer discounted IT support for charities in Hong Kong?
We do not publish a charity rate, but we size every retainer to the organisation, and the first thing we do is make sure you are using the free and discounted non-profit licensing from Microsoft and Google that you are entitled to. For many organisations that change alone covers a meaningful part of the retainer.
Can we get Microsoft 365 free as a Hong Kong charity?
Eligible non-profits can receive Microsoft 365 Business Basic at no charge for up to 300 users and discounted Business Standard and Business Premium through Microsoft’s non-profit programme, subject to Microsoft’s eligibility rules, which generally require recognised charitable status. We handle the application and the move onto the plan.
We use Google Workspace. Can you support that?
Yes. We support both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, including Google Workspace for Nonprofits, and mixed environments where head office is on one and a programme team is on the other.
Does the PDPO apply to donor and beneficiary data?
Yes. Donor records, beneficiary case files and volunteer details are personal data, and the Data Protection Principles apply to how they are collected, stored, used and disposed of. We put the practical controls in place and keep the records that show it; we are technologists rather than lawyers, and we work alongside your legal adviser on policy wording. Our PDPO compliance checker is a useful starting point.
Can you help us answer a funder’s IT security questionnaire?
Yes. We answer it with you from the controls actually in place, which is far easier once they are documented as part of a managed service. Where the questionnaire exposes a gap, we tell you plainly and propose a proportionate fix.
We have service centres across Hong Kong. Can you support all of them?
Yes. We support multi-site organisations across Hong Kong, with scheduled visits to each centre, remote support for everything that does not need a visit, and connectivity between sites so the centres can reach the same files and systems as head office.
Can you help with a grant-funded IT project as well as day-to-day support?
Yes. Our IT projects team scopes and delivers one-off projects such as case-management systems, new-centre fit-outs and digitisation, and hands over to the managed service so the system keeps working after the grant period ends.
Do you support schools as well?
Yes. International and local schools are a long-standing part of our client base, with their own requirements around classroom technology, student devices and safeguarding. See IT support for schools in Hong Kong.