Managed Print & Photocopiers for Charities & Not-for-Profit Organisations
Every pound a charity spends on print is a pound not spent on its mission. For a sector under more financial pressure than at any point in recent memory, getting print infrastructure right isn’t an admin task — it’s a governance responsibility.
The sector at a glance
The Charity Commission recorded 171,173 registered charities in England and Wales at 31 December 2024. Their combined annual income was £101.87 billion and expenditure was £100.86 billion, a gap of £1.01 billion[2]. The previous year, 2023, had the narrowest income-to-expenditure margin in the five-year series, at £701 million. Employer National Insurance increases from April 2025 added an estimated £1.4 billion in costs across the sector[3].
Small charities — which make up over 80% of the sector — are feeling this most acutely. 72% cited squeezed finances as the reason they’re struggling to invest in digital infrastructure[5]. Yet they still need to print, copy, scan and distribute documents every day: donor communications, safeguarding records, funding applications, volunteer agreements, financial reports, campaign materials, and regulatory paperwork.
In this environment, an inefficient or overpriced print setup isn’t a minor irritation. It’s a drain on resources that should be going to front-line delivery.
The challenges charities face with print
Every pound is scrutinised — except the print spend
Charities operate under intense public and regulatory scrutiny over how they spend money. Donors, trustees, funders and the Charity Commission all expect resources to be directed toward charitable purposes. Yet print is one of those costs that routinely escapes proper analysis.
Print costs can be difficult to see when equipment, consumables, maintenance and IT support sit in different budgets. In Quocirca’s 2024 MPS study, 38% of organisations identified cost control as a leading print-management challenge[7]. Bringing those costs together gives charities clearer evidence for procurement decisions and helps direct more funding towards front-line delivery.
Multi-site operations with no central oversight
Many charities operate across multiple locations — head office, regional offices, retail shops, community centres, care settings, satellite hubs. Each site often has its own printer or copier, purchased at different times, from different suppliers, on different terms. There’s no single view of what the organisation is printing, where, or at what cost.
we are aspire, a housing association group, had 43 printers across 7 sites with no central visibility — staff printing 1.2 million pages a year with no way to track, control or influence that behaviour.
Sensitive data with inadequate protection
Charities handle significant volumes of sensitive personal data — beneficiary records, safeguarding information, health data, donor details, financial information, volunteer records. Under UK GDPR, this data requires the same level of protection whether it’s on a server or sitting in a printer output tray.
In Quocirca’s 2025 study, 56% of IT decision-makers said their organisation had experienced at least one print-related data-loss incident in the previous year[6]. Managed-print services can reduce exposure through secure print release, audit logging and appropriately configured storage controls. For the most serious UK GDPR infringements, the ICO’s higher statutory maximum is £17.5 million or 4% of total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher[8]. For a charity, even a less serious data-handling failure can damage donor confidence and regulatory standing beyond any financial penalty.
Volunteers and staff with limited IT support
Unlike many private sector organisations, charities rarely have large IT teams — many have no dedicated IT function at all. A significant proportion of IT help desk calls in any organisation are printer-related. In a charity where IT resource is already stretched, every printer issue takes time away from service delivery.
Volunteers, who outnumber paid staff by more than 3:1 across the sector, need print access to be simple and consistent. If it isn’t, they either waste time getting help or simply work around it.
Sustainability expectations from funders and stakeholders
Environmental responsibility is increasingly built into funding applications, partnership agreements and public reporting. Charities are expected to demonstrate that they’re reducing waste, lowering their carbon footprint, and operating sustainably — and that extends to how they use paper, energy and consumables.
Office workers routinely print thousands of sheets a year, with a substantial proportion of printed output ending up as waste. A significant number of documents sent to a printer are never collected. Visible waste undermines the message for any charity that relies on public trust.
Agile and hybrid working without the infrastructure to support it
Staff and volunteers may work from home, from community settings, from shared offices. They need to print and scan from different locations and devices without needing IT help each time. Most charity print setups weren’t designed for this — they assume everyone is in the same building, on the same network, using the same type of computer. The moment that changes, the friction increases.
How modern print management addresses these challenges
Understanding what you actually need before anything changes
The starting point is a conversation about how your organisation works: where your people are, what they need to print and scan, what devices you currently have, and what’s causing frustration. We establish what your charity needs before recommending equipment, so recommendations reflect how it operates.
Fleet rationalisation — fewer devices, better placed
One of the most common issues in charity print environments is too many devices, poorly distributed. Consolidating to fewer, more capable multifunction devices reduces hardware costs, energy consumption, maintenance overheads and the number of things that can go wrong.
When Toshiba reviewed we are aspire’s 7 sites, they reduced the fleet from 43 printers to just 7 strategically placed MFDs. The projected saving was two-thirds of their annual print costs. The Royal College of Surgeons of England went from 120 printers to 6 large A4 devices, one per floor, each configured for secure print release via security pass.
Cloud print management for location-agnostic access
Cloud-based print management eliminates the need for on-premises print servers and allows staff to print from any device — Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chromebook — to any enabled printer, at any location. A fundraiser working from home can submit a document and release it when they next visit the office. A volunteer at a community centre can print from their own tablet without needing IT to configure drivers.
Secure print release and access controls
With secure print release, documents only print when the user authenticates at the device — via ID badge, PIN, or mobile app. This eliminates uncollected documents, prevents sensitive information being left on output trays, and creates a full audit trail of who printed what, when. For charities handling safeguarding data, beneficiary records, health information or donor details, this is a practical GDPR compliance measure that can be implemented across the entire fleet from day one.
Scan-to-cloud workflows that replace paper processes
Modern MFDs are document workflow hubs. Staff can scan a document at the device and have it routed directly to SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, or email, with OCR applied to make it searchable and editable. For charities still relying on print-sign-scan-email-file cycles for gift aid forms, volunteer agreements, funding applications or safeguarding records, replacing those manual steps with one-touch scanning saves hours of staff time every week.
Predictable, transparent costs
Managed print typically operates on a cost-per-page model. The charity pays a fixed rate per page printed, covering the agreed toner, parts, engineer labour and maintenance; equipment purchase or lease is charged separately. Service cover follows the agreement; paper, excluded damage and additional or spare consumables may be chargeable. Print and scan network support is a separate subscription. This makes budgeting straightforward — critical for a sector where every financial commitment needs to be justifiable to trustees and funders.
The outcomes when these changes are implemented
Direct cost reduction
The evidence from charities that have moved to managed print is consistent. United Response saved £29,000 per year across their initial site transitions. we are aspire projected savings of two-thirds of annual print costs after consolidating from 43 devices to 7. Industry-wide, managed print consistently delivers 20–30% cost savings.
More money directed to charitable purposes
Every pound saved on print is a pound available for the mission. For smaller charities, even a saving of £3,000–£5,000 a year can fund a volunteer coordinator, a community event, or an equipment upgrade. In a sector where the gap between income and expenditure is narrowing, operational savings aren’t marginal — they’re strategic.
Stronger data security and GDPR compliance
Secure print release, user authentication, encrypted hard drives, automated data deletion and full audit trails bring the print environment into line with the same security standards applied to IT systems. This reduces breach risk, supports GDPR compliance, and provides trustees with assurance that personal data is being handled appropriately across all channels — including paper.
IT and admin burden reduced
When the supplier manages toner, maintenance, firmware updates, driver deployment and fault resolution, internal staff are freed to focus on what they were actually hired to do. United Response highlighted this as one of the most valued outcomes of their transition: “we no longer need to worry about re-ordering of toners.”
Environmental credibility
Fleet consolidation, duplex defaults, mono-first policies, secure print release, automated toner recycling and energy-efficient devices all contribute to measurable environmental improvements. Modern managed print platforms can report on paper consumption, CO₂ reduction and energy savings — data that feeds directly into sustainability reporting, funding applications and annual reports.
What to look for in a print partner
Charities have specific needs that not every supplier understands. When evaluating a managed print partner, it’s worth considering:
- Do they take time to understand your organisation first? A supplier that recommends products before understanding the problem isn’t a partner — they’re a salesperson.
- Do they understand the charity sector? Experience with multi-site, budget-constrained, compliance-driven organisations matters. Ask for references from similar organisations.
- Is the contract transparent and flexible? Charities’ needs change — sites open and close, teams grow and shrink, funding cycles affect activity. The contract should accommodate this without penalty.
- Do they offer proactive support? Remote monitoring, automated supplies, and rapid response times should be standard — not premium extras.
- Can they demonstrate measurable outcomes? Cost savings, usage data, security improvements, environmental impact — the supplier should be able to report on all of these in terms that make sense to trustees and funders.
- Do they offer charity-specific pricing? Some manufacturers and suppliers offer discounted or subsidised pricing for registered charities and not-for-profit organisations. It’s always worth asking.
The bottom line
The charity sector can’t afford to treat print as an afterthought. In a financial environment where every pound of expenditure is scrutinised, where data protection obligations are non-negotiable, and where environmental responsibility is a condition of credibility, print infrastructure is a governance issue — not just an operational one.
The good news is that the solutions are proven, the savings are real, and the outcomes are measurable. Charities that take print seriously are redirecting thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — of pounds back into the work that matters.
Sources: [1] Charity Commission — Annual Report 2024–25, [2] Charity Commission — Annual Return 2024 Analysis, [3] NCVO — Employer NICs Impact, [4] NCVO — The Road Ahead 2025, [5] Charity Digital Skills Report 2024, [6] Quocirca — Print Security Landscape 2025, [7] Quocirca — MPS Landscape 2024, [8] ICO — UK GDPR and DPA 2018 maximum fines
Statistics cited above are drawn from the sources listed. Illustrative examples and ranges presented elsewhere on this page reflect our operational experience delivering managed print services to UK charities and not-for-profit organisations.
Is your charity overspending on print?
Talk to us about your setup — even if you’re not sure what you’re currently spending, we can help you find out and show you what’s possible.