The Free and Low Cost Tools Your Nonprofit Should Be Using

This article was first published on the Starfish Impact Blog.

Despite an increased understanding of the real cost of nonprofit work, giving unrestricted dollars, and the need to build nonprofits’ capacity, nonprofits continue to be under resourced amidst an environment of increasing service needs. In that light, we’re listing some additional free or low cost resources that can help increase efficiencies, decrease costs, and better execute on programs or engagement.

Give your employees, donors, and supporters another way to give by inviting them to participate in one of these ‘round up’ programs. In aggregate, these small drops can add up to a significant amount. Check out Give Tide, Round it Up America, and Drops

Break up with your Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office subscriptions. While both offer nonprofit and educator discounts (find those here for Adobe and Office), there are now tools available like Canva, Prezi, and Easelly that do many of the same services at a fraction of the cost.

Amazon offers many ways to support your nonprofit from their Dash buttons which can be programmed as instant donation buttons like this man did for the ACLU, to Amazon’s Alexa which can use the Do Good skill to make donations by voice, and to AmazonSmile which donates .5% of purchases to the charity selected by the shopper.

Love a good fitness challenge? Want another reason to stick to New Year’s exercise resolutions? Check out Maximus Life and Charity Miles which both give your supporters the incentive and ability to be active and support your nonprofit with health based activities they are (possibly already) doing.

Have a small professional development budget? There are a number of online platforms that allow your employees to learn a new skill from their desk and within their budget. Check out Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Lynda.

Ready to use technology to make engaging with supporters easier? EveryAction, Social Press Kit, and Thunderclap offer different ways of magnifying your message to people who already know about you, and those that you’re trying to reach.

Did you miss our first list of resources for nonprofits? Check out The Free Nonprofit Services and Programs You Should Be Using and let us know your favorite tools.

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