If your charity’s phone setup is a mix of personal mobiles, an ageing office line and a system chosen when you were a smaller team, you’re not alone. Most charity phone systems weren’t planned. They just grew. And practically no one explains what the right setup looks like for a charity your size.
That can make choosing a new telephony solution needlessly challenging. Every provider has features to sell, but your charity may not need all of them. Equally, choosing the cheapest possible option can force you to replace it again when your team grows or your working patterns change.
This guide walks you through the main options, where each one works well and where it falls short, and which setup fits your charity’s size and way of working. That includes helplines, volunteers and hybrid teams. And if you’d rather have someone look at your current setup for you, Qlic’s telephony audit can help.
Your Charity’s Telephony Options at a Glance
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Charities realistically have four main telephony options:
- individual mobiles
- desk handsets running on hosted VoIP
- Microsoft Teams calling
- softphone or mobile apps.
There is no single option that is best for every charity. A small, fully remote organisation has very different requirements from a multi-site charity handling hundreds of incoming calls. Before comparing providers, it helps to start by understanding what telephony is and what the different systems do.
Option | What it is | Good for | Falls short when | Main features |
Individual mobiles | Staff use their own or charity-issued mobile phones, each with its own number. | Very small or fully remote teams with low call volumes and no shared line to answer. | Callers need one number to reach you, calls go unanswered when someone is unavailable, or you need visibility of call volumes. | Basic calling, personal voicemail, texts |
Desk handsets on hosted VoIP | Physical desk phones that run over your internet connection, with the system managed in the cloud by your provider. | Office-based teams, reception desks and people who prefer a familiar phone on their desk. | Most of your team works from home or on the move, or your office internet connection is unreliable. | Shared charity number, call routing, phone trees, call groups, voicemail to email, call reporting, call recording |
Microsoft Teams calling | Making and receiving external phone calls directly inside Microsoft Teams, using a laptop or the Teams mobile app. | Charities already working in Microsoft 365 that want calls, chat and meetings in one place. | Staff are not comfortable using Teams, you rely heavily on desk phones, or you have not budgeted for the additional licences required. | Charity number in Teams, call routing, call queues, voicemail, call transfer, presence |
Softphone and mobile apps | An app that puts your charity’s phone number on a laptop or mobile so staff can make and receive calls from almost anywhere. | Hybrid and remote teams, outreach workers and volunteers who need to call as the charity rather than from a personal number. | People need a phone that works without a laptop or smartphone, or connectivity is poor where they work. | Charity number on any device, call routing, call transfer, voicemail to email, call history, call recording |
The main difference between these options is not simply whether calls use a handset, laptop or mobile. Modern cloud telephony can give staff access to the same charity number and call-handling features across several devices.
As Qlic’s Neel Mavji explained in the Future of Telephony webinar:
“Cloud Telephony supports flexible working by allowing staff to make and receive calls from anywhere using laptop or mobile or Teams integration while still presenting the organisation’s main phone number. Features like call routing, voicemail to email, AI call summary and mobile apps make staff easier to reach, improve call handling and reduce reliance on one physical location.”
Moving away from an old landline also does not automatically mean changing the telephone number that supporters, service users and partners already know. With number porting, there is no need to lose your number simply because you are moving to VoIP.
Which Telephony Setup Fits a Charity Your Size?
The best phone system for your charity comes down to three main factors: how many people you have, how spread out they are, and how critical inbound calls are to your services.
A setup that works perfectly for a ten-person charity can become frustrating and difficult to manage with 100 people. At the same time, a small organisation rarely needs to pay for the same call-management and reporting features as a large multi-site charity.
Matching the system to the way your charity works helps you avoid both problems: paying for functionality you do not use today and choosing a system you will outgrow tomorrow.
Small Charities (up to 20 people)
Small charities often start with the simplest available option. Staff may use personal or charity-issued mobiles alongside a single office landline. In some cases, one employee’s mobile gradually becomes the unofficial “charity number”.
That can work when call volumes are low, but it creates problems as soon as more people need to answer enquiries.
What you likely need:
- One charity number that can ring more than one person
- Voicemail to email, so messages don’t sit unheard on a handset
- The ability to answer as the charity from a laptop or mobile, wherever staff are working
- A softphone or mobile app usually covers this without adding complexity
- If you are already working in Microsoft 365, Teams calling is also worth considering, since staff can manage calls in a platform they already use
What you don’t need to pay for yet:
- Detailed call analytics or complicated call queues
- A desk handset for every employee
- Multi-level phone menus. If you need one at all, a simple “press 1 for support, press 2 for fundraising” is usually enough
The honest trade-off at this size:
- Carrying on with personal mobiles costs very little, but makes the charity harder to reach consistently
- If the person whose number everyone has is on leave, callers have nowhere else to go
- It also blurs the line between personal and organisational communications
- A basic hosted system adds a monthly cost but gives you one consistent number that several people can answer
The sign you’ve outgrown it:
- Calls are regularly being missed
- Supporters are being given staff members’ personal numbers
- Nobody can say how many calls the charity receives
Medium Charities (20 to 100 people)
Medium-sized charities often find themselves dealing with the consequences of systems chosen years earlier. You might have an on-site phone system bought when the organisation was much smaller, a mixture of office landlines and mobiles, or separate arrangements that have developed in different teams.
Hybrid working adds another layer. Some staff may spend most of the week in the office, while others work remotely or travel between service locations.
What you likely need:
- Call routing, so callers reach the right team without being transferred repeatedly
- Call groups, so several suitable people can answer rather than relying on one person
- Basic call reporting, so managers can spot busy periods and plan staffing
- A mixed setup rather than one device for everyone: desk handsets for reception and office-based roles, with softphone apps or Teams calling for hybrid and remote staff
- All of it working as one connected telephony system. This is where modern telephony does more for helping charities stay connected than simply swapping one type of phone for another
- It’s an easier case to make to trustees if you are paying for what the charity actually uses, not features it might need one day
What you don’t need to pay for yet:
- Full contact-centre functionality, advanced queue analytics and supervisor tools, unless phone calls are central to service delivery
- A charity running a busy advice line may need far more than another organisation with the same headcount (see “When Size Isn’t the Whole Story” below)
The honest trade-off at this size:
- This is where choosing a telephony solution takes more planning
- You need to understand how different teams receive calls, where staff work and what happens when the first person can’t answer
- Staff may need some short training, particularly if they’re moving away from familiar desk phones
- If you combine handsets, apps and Teams calling, they need to work together, not become another collection of disconnected systems
The sign you’ve outgrown it:
- Different departments are using different phone systems
- Callers are routinely passed from one person to another
- Managers can’t see enough about call volumes to plan staffing
Large or Multi-Site Charities (upwards of 100 people)
Large and multi-site charities are more likely to have inherited separate phone systems, suppliers or contracts across different locations. Some may also have legacy lines that are increasingly expensive or difficult to manage.
At this scale, telephony is less about individual phones and more about creating one manageable communications platform.
What you likely need:
- A single platform connecting sites, office-based teams and home workers
- Easy call routing between locations
- Reporting that gives managers enough information to understand demand and make staffing decisions
- Call recording for particular roles or services where appropriate, backed by the right data-protection processes and policies
- Consistent handling for callers, whether they reach head office, another site or someone at home
What this looks like in practice: Qlic’s work with Gingerbread is an example of this kind of consolidation. Gingerbread moved from a legacy phone system to the Elevate Voice VoIP platform, enabling cloud-based communications across office, home-working and support environments. The new approach brought desk phones, mobiles and laptops into a more integrated setup, with call routing helping enquiries reach the appropriate team and reporting giving managers greater visibility of call activity.
As Ella from Gingerbread explained:
“The Elevate system has given us a central number, direct lines where needed, and a simple phone tree that helps make sure calls aren’t missed when individuals are unavailable. The setup was quick and straightforward. It’s made day-to-day call handling easier and given the team a clearer, more dependable way to manage incoming enquiries.”
What you don’t need to pay for yet:
- The highest feature tier for every member of staff
- A receptionist, helpline manager, occasional caller and back-office employee may need very different things
- Matching licences and features to roles prevents unnecessary spending
Qlic’s Head of IT Communications points out that one of the most common setup mistakes is “paying for the same licence or handset for everyone, even though their teams work very differently.”
Qlic’s approach is to break it down by role: “We normally break it down by what people actually need: who needs a handset, who can use Teams or a mobile app, who needs call queues, and who actually needs AI or CRM features. This keeps costs down while giving the right people the right tools.”
The honest trade-off at this size:
- Moving a large organisation needs careful planning
- A staged migration reduces the risk of disrupting services, especially with several sites and important public-facing numbers involved
- More users means more call flows, permissions and devices to configure
- If calls are recorded, you need clear GDPR policies and processes covering access, storage and retention
The sign you’ve outgrown it:
- Sites can’t easily transfer calls between each other
- Multiple contracts and bills have become difficult to track
- Nobody has a complete picture of how calls are handled across the organisation
The wider charity sector is already moving towards hosted systems. Qlic’s 2026 research found that 40% of charities use a Hosted VoIP phone system, while 14% are still using older on-site phone systems and 11% are operating a mixture of different systems. That does not mean every charity needs the same technology, but it does demonstrate how established hosted telephony has become.
When Size Isn't the Whole Story
Headcount is valuable, but it should never be the only factor you use to choose a charity phone system.
Some organisations have much more complicated call requirements than their employee numbers suggest. If any of the following apply to your charity, it can be useful to think about the capabilities described in the next size band up.
You run a helpline or advice line. A ten-person charity operating a busy helpline may need more sophisticated telephony than a 30-person organisation that receives only a few external calls each day. If a missed call could mean someone failing to access important support, call queues, out-of-hours routing and reporting become much more valuable.
For example, instead of a caller repeatedly reaching voicemail during a busy period, a queue can hold the call until an adviser becomes available. Reporting can then illustrate to managers when demand is highest and help them plan cover.
Volunteers take calls on their own phones. Volunteers should not have to publish or routinely share their personal numbers simply to make calls on behalf of the charity. A mobile or softphone app can allow them to make and receive calls using the charity’s number instead.
That helps protect the volunteer’s privacy while also giving service users a consistent number and identity when communicating with the organisation.
Your staff work in the community. For charities delivering outreach services, a traditional office handset may be of little use for much of the day. Staff need to remain contactable while visiting service users, attending community venues or travelling between locations.
In that situation, having the charity number available through a mobile app can be more practical than putting a desk phone at every workstation.
Your staffing changes throughout the year. Seasonal campaigns, short-term projects and grant-funded posts can cause user numbers to rise and fall. Look for a telephony setup and contract that makes it straightforward to add and remove users.
Otherwise, your charity can end up paying for unused licences long after a campaign or funded project has finished.
Your calls create admin. If fundraising, helpline or supporter services teams spend significant time writing up calls afterwards, reducing admin through call summarising can boost efficiency. As Neel Mavji explains:
“Charities often focus on making and receiving calls, but the real value is reducing admin. Calls can be recorded, transcribed and summarised, with information logged into systems like Salesforce or Charitylog. This can save teams a lot of time, especially across fundraising, helplines and supporter services.”
The key question, therefore, is not simply “How big are we?” It is “What happens when someone calls us, and what does our team need in order to handle that call properly?”
Why Charities Are Switching Their Phones Now
Most charities do not replace a phone system solely because they want new technology. Usually, something has forced the issue.
Common triggers include:
- the landline switch-off and the need to move away from legacy services;
- an existing telephony contract approaching renewal;
- hybrid and remote working making an office-only system impractical; and
- important calls being missed because the existing setup can no longer cope.
VoIP is still widely used. What is changing is how people access it. Increasingly, calls are handled through Teams, laptops and mobile apps rather than only through a traditional-looking phone on a desk.
So, what will replace VoIP? There is no imminent replacement that charities need to wait for. The more relevant change is in the range of telephony solutions built on modern digital communications and the devices people use to access them.
If you want to understand that shift in more detail, Qlic’s guide to cloud telephony for charities explains the technology and its benefits. And if the thought of changing systems is what has stopped you acting, it is worth knowing that with proper planning, migrating can be straightforward.
Choosing the right telephony solution is ultimately about matching the system to your charity’s size, working patterns and reliance on incoming calls. Get those three things right and you can avoid paying for unnecessary features while still choosing a platform that has room to grow with you.
If you would like help reviewing your current setup and understanding which option is appropriate for your organisation, get in touch with Qlic for more information.
