“Transforming lives transcends profits for those truly engaged in charitable nonprofit work.” While Angela Stringfellow’s insight is right on, non-profit organizations facing funding uncertainty and reduced cash flow must constantly find creative ways to make the most of every dollar, because profits are vital in transforming lives.
In this article, I hope to provide you with free and almost free tools that will help your organization make the most of its every dollar while increasing productivity and output.
Business Apps & Digital Storage
1. Google Apps for Work – Google offers professional email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings and more. The apps are specifically designed for business and teams to share and collaborate securely. Because almost everyone uses Google and the interface is intuitive, these tools can also be used to effectively collaborate and keep in touch with your organization’s volunteers.
2. Dropbox – Use Dropbox to safely, securely, and easily store all of your documents as well as share and access them on your desktop and mobile devices. You can also use Drobox to collaborate team efforts on shared folders as well as share selected files and folders with non-team members.
Gmail
3. WiseStamp for Business – Using WiseStamp you can centrally manage your team’s emails from one dashboard. Make a small non-profit seem like a big one by having all your team members, and even volunteers, use the same email signature.
4. Streak – Stay on top of your connections with donors and volunteers with a customer relations management (CRM) system inside Gmail.
5. Boomerang – This must-have app makes it simple to schedule emails to be sent later, reminds you to follow-up on emails you sent but didn’t receive a reply from, and reminds you to act on actionable emails. The best part – it works within Gmail.
6. HelloSign for Gmail – Sometimes you need the urgent signature of a board member. With HelloSign you can sign, fill out, send, retrieve and save documents without a hassle.
Newsletter
7. GetResponse – Though there are a ton of newsletter apps out there and though there’s no free plan (there is a free trial), I recommend GetResponse because of the slew of features if offers and its amazing marketing capabilities which are so easy to use and so important for non-profits to take advantage of.
Scheduling & Meetings
8. Doodle.com – Trying to arrange a meeting that involves several people is a time-sucking hassle. Use Doodle to make scheduling simple.
9. World Time Buddy – The global village we live in makes it simple for you to have donors and volunteers around the world. World Time Buddy will be your best friend, enabling you to effortlessly compare multiple time zones, plan conference calls, webinars, international phone calls and web meetings.
10. Join.me – Is a powerful meeting tool that makes screen sharing easy and provides unlimited audio.
Time tracking
11. Toggl – Don’t let time fly. Toggl is a fantastic tool that makes it so easy to stay on track and ensure your efficiency as well as that of your team’s.
Fundraising
12. Fundography – Add an income stream to your fundraising event. Create an event on Fundography, share photos and invite guests. It’s that easy.
13. Twibbon – Use Twibbon to create your own microsite and increase awareness, raise money and create buzz around your campaigns using Facebook and Twitter.
Communication
14. UberConference – Use this app for your next conference call. It’s free and easy and you don’t need a pin number. It’s such a well-thought-out app, that you’ll never need to ask “who joined? or “who said that?”
15. Google Voice – Use Google Voice to make cost-free calls between each other, leave voicemail as easily as email, and much more.
16. Hellofax – Yes, some people still send faxes. With HelloFax you can conveniently send and receive faxes online.
Marketing
Social Media Management
17. Pagemodo – From creating photos and contests to scheduling posts, use Pagemodo to create a powerful social media presence, for free.
18. Post Planner – Triple your engagement in ten minutes a day. Save time, share great content and get status ideas with this great tool.
Graphics
19. Canva – Canva makes graphic design simple for everyone. Create professional graphics with the click of a mouse.
20. Social Media Image Maker – Resize and retouch your social media images for the most share-worthy pics!
21. Powtoon – Create animated marketing videos and video presentations to engage and delight your donors.
Outsourcing
22. Fiverr – The marketplace for creative and professional freelance services. Get small but necessary jobs done for just five dollars.
23. 99designs –The largest marketplace for sourcing graphic design talent.
What great tools are stretching your organization’s dollars? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.
