Charity & Non-Profit IT Disposal

The data charities hold

Many charities work with people in difficult circumstances: survivors of abuse, people with health conditions or disabilities, children and young people, refugees, people in debt or without a home. Case notes, support plans and contact details on a retired laptop could put someone at real risk if they fell into the wrong hands.

Charities also hold donor records, Gift Aid declarations, payment details and volunteer information. Trustees are responsible for making sure all of it is handled properly, including at the end of a device's life.

Common problems we see

• No IT department. Equipment is managed by whoever is most confident with computers, and retired machines end up in a cupboard.
• Personal devices. Volunteers and staff have used their own laptops and phones for charity work, which makes clear-outs harder to track.
• Donated equipment of unknown history. Machines given to the charity may still hold the previous owner's data as well as yours.
• Several small sites. Shops, projects and offices each holding a few devices.

Reuse first

We refurbish and resell equipment before we recycle it, which keeps working hardware in use and is usually the most environmentally sound outcome. For many charities that matters as much as the data destruction. Where equipment holds recoverable value, that value pays for the collection, so most charity collections cost nothing.

If you want refurbished devices back for your own service users or a digital inclusion project, ask us. We can process equipment and return it wiped and ready to use.

Documentation for trustees

Every collection comes with chain-of-custody records, and every drive is sanitised to NIST 800-88 Rev 2 Purge standard or physically destroyed. That gives trustees and your data protection lead a clear record of what happened. If you need every device listed individually with a Certificate of Destruction, that is our Premium service, where a fee may be charged to cover costs.

We can also provide reuse and landfill diversion figures on Premium, which some funders and annual reports now ask for.