Free Technology for NonProfits

25 Feb

Free Technology for NonProfits

By: Natasha Ambo Business Systems / Technology Comments: No Comments

Today we are talking nonprofits. As a qualified nonprofit, do you know you can get free technology or deeply discounted technology? Powerful systems that can help you build your brand, collaborate, and manage your donors, grants, programs and campaigns?

Popular systems like Salesforce NPSP (a CRM app which was built for the everyday charitable nonprofit), as well as Microsoft Office 365, are used by large enterprises all over the world. You too can embrace their power because of your nonprofit status.

Below we talk about three major platforms you can access for free and how to do so:

Salesforce for NonProfits
Google GSuite
Microsoft Office 365

Salesforce for Nonprofits/ Education Free Technology

With Salesforce NPSP, manage your donors, grants, campaigns, programs, volunteers all in one place. Improve your engagement with constituents. Salesforce offers 10 free subscriptions to its Lightning Enterprise Edition via a program called The Power of Us.

The Salesforce NPSP tool is a CRM (customer relationship management) tool. It allows nonprofits to easily identify leads and nurture these leads. This leads to more donations, quicker and more effective reporting and more control over campaigns and programs. It enhances day to day operations, which leaves more time to spend on bringing in donations and planning programs.

1. Confirm your eligibility

To be eligible for this program you must provide legal documentation. Verify that you are “recognized as charitable, nonprofit, nongovernmental, educational, or social change organization in the country where you are located” (according to the salesforce.org website). For example, this can be your Articles of Incorporation or similar documentation. So first step is to ensure you have this proof of documentation.

2. Obtain a trial for Salesforce

Your must have an active Salesforce trial when applying to the program. Otherwise, you will need a new Salesforce trial. To obtain a Salesforce trial:

Go to https://www.salesforce.org/get-started/
Select the trial platform relevant to your type of nonprofit. A charitable nonprofit should select the Salesforce for Nonprofits (NPSP) trial:

Salesforce NPSP trial

Then select the option offering the free subscriptions and complete the sign up. This is the trial you need to work with the Power of Us program. Once you are approved through the program your trial will become an official instance. You will then have 10 free licenses.

NPSP free edition

Once submitted, your org (your instance of the Salesforce platform) will be created.

The Salesforce trial is for 30 days. Hence, you must aim to complete the Power of Us application within this time.

3. Complete the Power of Us application

Make sure to have the following on hand:

System Administrator info

Someone from your organization who will hold the main login account for Salesforce. This user will have full rights on Salesforce. After, other administrators and users can be added as needed.

Executive approval

Name and email of someone in an executive position in the organization.

Your VAT/Tax/EIN number as applicable to your location.

Go to Power of Us page.
Click on Apply to start.
You will first be asked to log in to your Salesforce trial, then complete the application.
Await response regarding approval from Salesforce, which should be provided within 10 days.

Google for NonProfits Free Technology

Google offers free technology for your employees from its Google products. This includes GSuite for NonProfits. With GSuite you get free email accounts. You can use your own domain (branding) with your email. For example, use [email protected] instead of [email protected]. Other benefits include free access to other products from Google including Google Ad Grants, YouTube for NonProfits and Google Donation tools.

With GSuite, you also get access to all the popular Google tools like Google Docs and Google Drive. But, this is with the added advantage that each employee gets their own account for your organization. This makes collaboration within your organization more cohesive and centralized.

Google uses organization TechSoup to validate candidates for the program.

1. Confirm your eligibility

According to Google.com, “you must be registered as a charitable nonprofit in the list of approved countries and not be a governmental, hospital, healthcare, school or academic institution”. Academic institutions can apply for Google for Education, a similar program. Some countries may have more specific criteria so check the eligibility page to confirm whether you are eligible.

2. Apply for TechSoup Validation

Create an account with TechSoup – Go to https://www.techsoup.org/.
Once created, log in and add your organization to the account via the account settings.
The following information along with documentation of your nonprofit is needed:

-Legal name

-EIN

-Business address

-Contact info for executive at your organization as a reference

Wait for response regarding approval from TechSoup (2 to 14 days).

3. Complete Google for Nonprofits sign up process

Go to the Sign Up page.
Click Get Started button at top right.
You will be prompted to login with a Gmail account. We recommend creating a free Gmail account dedicated to your business, versus using a personal account. Use this account to log in. This Gmail account will become the default administrator for Google for Nonprofits. After, you can add additional administrators.
Complete the application. At some point you will be asked for your TechSoup validation. TechSoup must first validate you, before you can complete the Google for Nonprofits application.
Wait for email response regarding approval for Google for Nonprofits (up to 3 business days).

4. Enroll in GSuite for NonProfits

Once approved for Google for NonProfits, you are now eligible to enroll in GSuite for NonProfits. Follow Google instructions here to enroll. Important steps from this to take note of:

-You must first register for a basic GSuite account trial.

-Then you will need to upgrade to the nonprofit version (GSuite for NonProfits). Do this by logging into your Google for NonProfits account and enrolling in GSuite for NonProfits.

Wait for response regarding approval for enrollment in the product (up to 3 business days).
Once you are enrolled in GSuite, you can start adding user accounts and email addresses via the GSuite Admin Portal. Email addresses will reflect your business domain (e.g. @mybiz.org).

Takeaway from all these terms:

Google for NonProfits – This is a separate account you must first register for to be eligible for nonprofit products.

GSuite for NonProfits – One of the nonprofit products you can enroll for once eligible.

Office 365 Free Technology

Microsoft offers free technology for employees in its online tools. This includes free email accounts where you can use your domain (branding) with your email, e.g. [email protected] instead of [email protected]. Employees also get access to popular tools like SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. SharePoint allows you to build portals to help collaborating with your employees. Microsoft Teams is used for messaging and conferencing.

Microsoft, like Google, uses the organization TechSoup to validate candidates for their nonprofit program.

1. Confirm your eligibility

According to Microsoft.com, the organization “must be a nonprofit or non-governmental organization with recognized legal status”. Make sure you have documentation proving your eligibility.

2. Register with Microsoft

Go to Registraton page.
Click Register to start the application.
During registration you will be prompted to log in with a Microsoft account or create a new one. We recommend creating a free account dedicated to your business, versus using a personal account. This account will be the default administrator for the Microsoft Nonprofit Portal.
Complete the application. Information will be sent to TechSoup to verify your organization’s eligibility. TechSoup will contact you separately if addtional info is needed.
Wait for response from Microsoft regarding approval. You can keep checking the Microsoft Nonprofit Portal for updated status. This could take up to 20 business days.

3. Enroll in products

Once approved, Microsoft will email results and link to the Microsoft Nonprofit Portal. There you can accecss nonprofit offers.
Select and configure the plans you want to use.

Once enrolled, set up your email accounts as needed for employees.

So there you have it. If you haven’t already, you can now access free nonprofit technology from these three major platforms. Google, Salesforce and Office 365 are just the tip of the iceberg though. Stay tuned for more tips on free technology and resources available to nonprofits.

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