Secure Charity Systems and Data Operations

A practical, moderately technical course for charity IT, data, CRM and business systems staff. Learn to secure supporter CRMs, finance, HR, volunteer and case management systems: identity and access, secure configuration, integrations and API keys, fundraising and beneficiary data, data quality and change control, vulnerability management for SaaS, logging, supplier assurance, backup and recovery, fraud controls and AI features. Finish with a capstone auditing a fictional charity's CRM and integrations.

Who this course is for: Charity IT officers, CRM and database managers, data and insight teams, business systems administrators, finance systems and HR systems administrators, and operations managers responsible for business applications. Assumes comfort with administering software platforms; infrastructure expertise is not required.

Self-paced online learning. Earn a Certificate of Completion on passing.

What you will learn

  • Explain the shared responsibility model for SaaS and map your charity's business systems and data flows
  • Implement strong identity, access and administrator controls, including access reviews and leaver processes
  • Securely configure CRMs and business systems, including sharing, exports, portals and audit logging
  • Govern integrations, automations, API keys and service accounts
  • Protect fundraising, Gift Aid and beneficiary data in line with UK GDPR, PECR and fundraising rules
  • Manage data quality, change control, vulnerabilities, logging, supplier assurance, backup, recovery and fraud controls
  • Assess and safely enable AI features in charity business systems

Course modules

  • The charity tech stack and shared responsibility
  • Identity and access
  • Secure configuration of CRMs and business systems
  • Integrations, APIs and automation
  • Fundraising and supporter data
  • Beneficiary and safeguarding data
  • Data quality, integrity and change control
  • Vulnerabilities and patching for SaaS and add-ons
  • Logging, monitoring and detection
  • Supplier assurance for business systems
  • Backup, recovery and resilience
  • Incident response and fraud controls in business systems
  • AI in charity systems
  • Building maturity and capstone