
Nonprofits in South Africa, and around the world, are faced with the reality of digitally transforming their operations due to the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown restrictions.
Our friends at TechSoup South Africa have compiled this list of tech tools that your organisation can use to work remotely during the lockdown period. Some of the solutions are offered as a donation (free of charge) and some are heavily discounted.
Security
1. Bitdefender
Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security is software that protects networked laptops, desktops, servers, and virtual machines from viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, adware, rootkits, and other threats. Network protection is managed through a central console.
*Discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Video Conferencing
2. Zoom
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms.
Other digital meeting tool options include Skype, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp video calls or Google Hangouts.
Productivity and Administration Tools
3. Microsoft On-Premise
Office Standard is an integrated collection of programmes and services designed to work together to enable optimised information work. These include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype for Business etc.
*Discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisation.
4. Microsoft Cloud
You can empower staff and volunteers with the dynamic set of tools included in Office 365 nonprofit plans, living online. You can provide your team members with free email and online document editing and storage. And with video conferencing, instant messaging, and your own internal communication Yammer site, you can bring teams together from around the world.
*Donated and discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Streamline and manage your finances
5. Sage Accounting
Sage Foundation is committed to ensuring as many eligible nonprofit organisations benefit from Sage Business Cloud donations as possible. They want to support charities, social enterprises and nonprofit organisations like they do any other business.
*Donated and discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Marketing, marketing, marketing
6. Google for Nonprofits
Google Ad Grants is a donation program that distributes free in-kind advertising to eligible nonprofit organisations. Qualifying organisations are eligible to receive up to $10,000 per month in in-kind advertising within the AdWords search engine marketing platform.
Google Earth allows you to map the impact of your nonprofit organisation. Bring your nonprofit’s story to life with custom maps and global location data resources for nonprofits.
The YouTube for Nonprofit Program gives nonprofits access to unique YouTube features to help connect with supporters, volunteers, and donors. For many causes, video is a new but essential format for storytelling.
*Donated options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
7. MailChimp
With MailChimp’s marketing automation tools, you can send the right message to the right people at the right time via email. Upload your contact names into segmented audiences, use pre-created templates to create striking electronic newsletters or communicate in bulk via professional emails.
*Discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Collaboration
8. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments. The service integrates with an Office 365 subscription office productivity suite, including Microsoft Office and Skype, and features extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products.
*Available for free with Office 365 for nonprofits subscriptions.
9. Workplace by Facebook
Workplace is a collaborative platform run by Facebook. It’s a great internal communication tool, to chat with colleagues and volunteers with visuals, video and text, and offers social networks features, but in a corporate environment. The core features of Workplace are available for free.
*Donated options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Cloud Storage
10. Box.org
Box.org believes that those committed to doing good should have the best tools available to them. Box.org’s mission is to enable nonprofits to achieve their mission in a productive, competitive, and collaborative way. They provide nonprofits with simple and powerful content file management and collaboration solution for their most critical programme, development, and back-office initiatives.
*Donated and discounted options available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Google Drive (30GB storage space per user) and Microsoft OneDrive (1TB storage space per user) are also available to eligible organisations as a part of the Google for Nonprofits and Microsoft Office 365 for nonprofits programmes respectively.
Graphic Design
11. Canva
As a way to give back to the community, Canva offers free Canva for Work access for up to 10 members to eligible nonprofit organisations. Eligible nonprofit organisations with proper documentation qualify to get free Canva for Work access.
*Donated option available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
12. Pablo by Buffer
Creating compelling visuals for your social media could give your engagement a boost. And while most of us are probably not gifted designers, that shouldn’t stop us from creating great images to share. At Buffer, Pablo was created in order to provide everyone with a tool to create beautiful images they can share on social media.
- Available for free.
Social Media Posting Scheduler
13, Buffer
Buffer is a new and smarter way to share what you want to share on social media. Posts in your queue will be sent out automatically by Buffer, according to the posting schedule that you put in place. It’s like a magic box that you can use anytime to fill with Tweets, Facebook stories or LinkedIn updates. Just drop them in and you don’t have to ever worry about when it will be posted, it’s all taken care of.
*Discounted option available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
14, Later
Visually plan, schedule and analyse posts for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter with Later. Most popular for Instagram scheduling as later allows you to use the auto publish function and link in bio function.
*Discount option available in selected countries to eligible organisations.
Bonus resource
15 Free Social Media Marketing Bootcamp
Deputy Director of Phambano Technology Development Centre NPC, Samantha Barnard, is celebrating her birthday this year by giving all South African NPOs access to her popular social media marketing bootcamp, for free! This bootcamp will take place virtually from 30 March 2020.
Article by Samantha Barnard, Deputy Director of Phambano.