Ask different charities how they handle calls and you’ll get different answers: an office landline, staff mobiles, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, or a mix. Meanwhile, VoIP and cloud phone systems keep coming up, and the UK’s traditional phone network is being switched off.
This simple guide covers what each option can and can’t do, the downsides to plan for and how to choose a setup that fits your team.
Communication Apps vs a Phone System: What Does Your Charity Actually Need?
Communication apps are useful for everyday conversations, but they are not always a replacement for a proper charity phone system.
VoIP Explained: The Technology Behind Everyday Calling Apps
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) means making calls over an internet connection rather than a traditional copper phone line. If you’ve made a voice call through WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams or Zoom, you’re already acquainted with the idea.
As Neel Mavji, Head of IT Communications at Qlic, explains:
“A big misconception is that VoIP simply means replacing an old telephone with an internet phone. Modern VoIP can bring together desk phones, mobiles, Teams, call queues and remote workers into one system.”
Wi-Fi Calling, Mobile Calls and VoIP: How They Differ
It’s easy to confuse the three because they can all happen on the same smartphone.
- Mobile calls: normal calls made through your mobile network using the number attached to the SIM. They rely on mobile coverage and are usually associated with an individual user.
- Wi-Fi calling sends that same mobile call over Wi-Fi when mobile reception is poor. Your number and mobile plan stay the same.
- VoIP: sends calls over the internet through a communication app or phone system. In a charity phone system, staff can use the organisation’s number and calls can be routed between people instead of depending on one mobile.
Qlic’s telephony solutions for charities explain the different ways calls can be managed, and our guide to phones for remote staff covers the mobile side in more detail.
What Apps Can and Can’t Do for a Charity
Apps such as WhatsApp and Teams are brilliant at certain jobs. They can give staff and volunteers:
- quick internal communication
- instant messaging
- video calls
- an easy way to communicate while working remotely.
Problems start when informal tools gradually become the charity’s main way of handling external calls.
You may find:
- there is no single shared number
- helpline calls go to one person instead of a team
- there is little visibility of missed calls
- contacts and conversations sit on individual devices or accounts
- personal and work communications become mixed
- call recording or reporting becomes difficult to manage consistently.
If your charity’s main contact number is a staff member’s personal mobile and they leave, supporters and service users can lose the number they have always used to reach you.
A proper phone system makes call handling an organisational responsibility. As Dan Green, Head of Automation & Compliance at Qlic, explains in Qlic’s Microsoft Teams Essentials webinar:
“The call doesn’t go to everyone, it goes to one person. After a minute it goes to another person. You can structure it in a way where people won’t get deluged with calls.”
How conversations and recordings are stored also matters. You need to consider UK GDPR and your own processes for managing personal information, particularly where service users may be discussing sensitive circumstances. Our charity data protection guide covers this in more detail.
WhatsApp Business, Virtual Numbers and Calling in Teams
WhatsApp Business can provide a more organisational way to handle WhatsApp conversations, while a virtual number gives your charity a number that isn’t physically tied to one traditional landline.
For charities already using Microsoft 365, external calls can also be brought into Teams. Microsoft explains that, with Teams Phone and a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connection, Teams can make and receive external telephone calls as well as Teams-to-Teams calls.
Qlic’s Elevate Voice takes a unified communications approach, bringing calls, chat and other channels into one cloud-based setup that integrates with tools including Microsoft Teams, CRM platforms and WhatsApp, so staff aren’t constantly switching systems.
You can see this approach in practice in how the Florence Nightingale Foundation moved its calls into Teams.
Option | How it works | Best for | Main trade-off |
Communication apps | Apps such as WhatsApp or Teams using individual accounts | Quick internal contact and small, informal teams | Limited shared call handling |
WhatsApp Business or virtual number | A business profile or separate number managed through an app/service | Small charities wanting a dedicated contact number | May offer fewer call-management features than a full phone system |
Cloud phone system | Calls run over the internet and can be answered on desk phones, laptops, mobiles or Teams | Helplines, frontline services and teams across locations | Depends on connectivity and involves an ongoing service cost |
Traditional landline | Calls use the traditional phone network | Organisations that have not yet migrated | The traditional network is being retired |
If the terminology is still unfamiliar, our guide to telephony basics explains the main options.
Signs Your Charity Needs a Proper Phone System
Does your charity:
- need one main number that reliably reaches the organisation?
- currently have calls going to individuals rather than a team?
- struggle to see which calls have been missed?
- run a helpline or frontline service?
- have staff and volunteers working from different places?
- rely on a traditional telephone line?
- need call recording, reporting or CRM integration?
The more boxes you tick, the stronger the case for moving beyond standalone communication apps.
Do Charities Still Need a Landline?
The PSTN is being retired, with Openreach confirming 31 January 2027 as the deadline for moving traditional lines to digital services.
Openreach advises checking everything connected to your lines, not just desk phones, before the deadline.
Neel Mavji, Head of IT Communication at Qlic IT adds:
“With the PSTN switch-off approaching, it’s also important to look beyond the obvious phones. Analogue lines may still be supporting lifts, alarms, door-entry systems, payment terminals or other equipment, so moving to VoIP should be part of a wider review of legacy services rather than simply replacing handsets.”
Start by listing your telephone numbers, broadband connections and any equipment attached to old lines, and speak to the suppliers of any specialist equipment. Qlic’s guide to preparing your charity for the landline switch-off provides more practical guidance.
You also don’t have to lose a familiar number. Number porting moves it to your new provider; see our guide to porting your charity’s landline to VoIP.
That mattered to Community Action Redbridge:
“When we relocated, we were worried we might lose our long-standing main office number, the one our community has relied on for years to reach us. QlicIT managed the transition seamlessly, and the new cloud-based system has given us far more flexibility in how we manage inbound calls.”
For an overview of the changes, watch Qlic’s PSTN switch-off video:
What a Cloud Phone System Looks Like Day to Day
For your team, moving to cloud telephony mainly changes where calls can be answered. Callers still dial your usual number, and behind the scenes the call can be routed to a desk phone, a softphone on a laptop, a mobile app or Microsoft Teams.
An auto attendant can greet callers and direct them to the appropriate team, while call queues can control how incoming calls move between people.
Microsoft Teams Phone, for example, supports call routing, queues, transfers and calls across different devices.
See our guides to moving from a traditional phone system to cloud telephony and remote working best practices for more.
The Downsides, and How Charities Plan Around Them
The main downside is that your phone system depends on connectivity. Poor bandwidth, high latency or jitter can result in delays or broken-up audio, while an internet or power outage can disrupt calls if you have no alternative route.
Neel Mavji puts it simply:
“A cloud phone system can be excellent, but it still relies on the network carrying the calls. That’s why we look at telephony and connectivity together, rather than treating them as separate projects.”
Depending on how important calls are to your services, this could mean:
- using a suitable primary internet connection
- having backup connectivity
- configuring calls to divert to mobiles during an outage
- checking what happens to your equipment in a power cut
- testing failover rather than assuming it works.
You can explore connectivity for charities, protecting your charity’s communications against outages and choosing a reliable internet connection when planning that resilience.
Another common problem is that charities often haven’t actively designed their communications setup. As Neel explains:
“One of the biggest problems is that the setup has evolved rather than been designed. You can end up with legacy phone systems, individual mobiles, separate applications, old landlines and different solutions across different sites.”
Reviewing telephony is therefore a chance to simplify what you already have, rather than replacing every existing service with a modern equivalent.
Choosing the Right Setup for Your Charity
Start with how your people work:
- Who works primarily from the office?
- Who works remotely?
- Who answers the main number or a helpline?
- Who already spends most of their day in Microsoft Teams?
- Who prefers or needs a physical desk phone?
- Who needs call recording or reporting?
- Are there staff who need integration with a CRM?
- How might the team change over the next few years?
Giving everyone the same licence and equipment can waste money, so Qlic looks at how individual users work and matches equipment and functionality to their needs. As Neel Mavji, Head of IT Communications at Qlic, explains:
“We don’t generally recommend one approach for every charity. We recommend it by user and use case.”
Calling in Teams can make sense for an organisation already heavily using it, because staff stay in an application they know. Standalone VoIP suits people who want a traditional handset or more dedicated telephony features. The two aren’t mutually exclusive:
“Increasingly, a hybrid approach is the best fit. One person might use Teams on their laptop, a receptionist might have a physical handset, and another employee might primarily use the mobile app, while they’re all part of the same phone system.”
Once you’ve established what you need, look beyond the headline monthly price. Check:
- contract length
- exit fees
- notice periods and auto-renewal terms
- hardware costs
- installation charges
- call plan limits
- which features are included
- whether Teams integration costs extra
- call recording and reporting requirements.
Comparing cost per user, rather than a single figure against traditional line rental, gives a clearer picture when different people need different setups.
Our guides to choosing the right telephony solution for your charity’s size and telephony costs for charities can help you work through those questions.
Making the Right Choice for Your Charity
The right setup is the one that lets supporters, service users and partners reach the right person, wherever your staff and volunteers are working. Whether that means Teams calling, a cloud phone system or a mix of both, Qlic can review what you have now and help you simplify it. Book a free telephony audit or get in touch to talk through your options.
