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Apparo

Amplifying Nonprofit Impact

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Free Resources for Nonprofits – Improve Technology and Processes

We’ve curated a detailed guide to free resources and tools for nonprofits. Take advantage of these for nonprofit technology and process improvement.

Need help navigating any of these resourcing or putting them to work to help your nonprofit? Learn more about Apparo’s free Tech Therapy program.

Cloud Collaboration Platforms:  

  • Google Workspace for Nonprofits FREE Workspace offers a free plan that gives your nonprofit everything you need to get anything done, now in one place. All Google Workspace plans provide a custom email for your nonprofit and include collaboration tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more. 
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium FREE Best for small and mid-sized nonprofits that need email, Office desktop applications, cloud file-storage and sharing, web conferencing with IM, audio and HD video, and simple device management and advanced security features. Free for up to 10 users. 

Content Editing: 

  • Grammarly FREE Grammarly offers a free basic plan that can help catch spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. It’s quick and easy to run your written material through the checker and identify things to fix or adjust.  

CRM 

  • Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack FREE Salesforce offers 10 free subscriptions of Sales & Service Cloud Enterprise Edition for all registered nonprofit organizations. 

Design Tools: 

  • Canva for Nonprofits FREE Canva is an easy-to-use tool for creating graphics or editing photos for your website and social media channels. Drag and drop elements like text boxes, frames, backgrounds, icons, or uploaded photos to add intrigue to your graphics. Plus, see how to use the free tool for editing photos to use on your website. 

Email Marketing: 

  • Mailchimp FREE Mailchimp offers a free tier, where your nonprofit can send up to 10,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers a month. If you need to go up to a paid tier, Mailchimp does offer a 15% discount to registered nonprofits.  

Fundraising Tools: 

  • GiveLively FREE GiveLively is a free tool to support digital fundraising, event fundraising and peer-based fundraising.
  • Givebutter FREE Givebutter is a free donor management tool that supports raising funds, tracking progress and engaging supporters.
  • Funraise FREE Funraise is a collection of nonprofit fundraising tools designed to make raising more… more effortless. 

Grants Search Tool 

  • Grantmakers.io – Free grants search tool for nonprofits 

Online Advertising: 

  • Google Ad Grants offer a Google Ads account with a $10,000 monthly cap to all eligible nonprofits at no cost to you. With Google Ads, you can create text-based ads and associate them with different keywords to appear within the search engine. When someone searches for a keyword you’ve chosen on Google, your ad could appear above or below the organic search results for that phrase. 

Project Management: 

  • Asana FREE/DISCOUNT The basic version of Asana is free. The project management and collaboration tool can help you more easily organize, plan and manage nonprofit marketing projects from start to finish. You can even use it for your editorial process or content calendar. Asana does offer a 50% to registered nonprofits.  
  • Monday.com FREE/DISCOUNT Monday.com’s Nonprofit Plan includes 10 first seats for free, and a 70% discount per seat from the 11th seat. 
  • Trello FREE/DISCOUNT Trello’s Free Tier includes Unlimited Cards, 10 Boards, 10MB per file, unlimited Power-Ups. Applying for Atlassian’s Community License also includes free self-managed Data Center licensing or cloud subscriptions at 75% off list price 

Security: 

  • Have I Been Pwned FREE Check if your email or phone is in a data breach 
  • Lastpass FREE Save a password once, and it’s instantly available on a single device type. Remember one password to log in and have LastPass keep track of the rest. This free tool will automatically add usernames and passwords to any password-protected site that you visit. You can also use it to generate strong and secure new passwords and share them with other staff or volunteers at your nonprofit. 

Social Media Tools: 

  • Hootsuite for Nonprofits  FREE/DISCOUNT Easily manage all your social media and get results with Hootsuite. This tool has a limited free plan available to anyone, which nonprofits are welcome to use. However, this plan has limited features.  Hootsuite does offer up to 50% nonprofit discounts on Hootsuite Professional and Team plans. They also offer discount training programs for nonprofits.
  • Buffer FREE/DISCOUNT Schedule posts in advance with Buffer. The tool has a free plan and integrates with all of the big social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. You’ll be able to link up to three social media accounts and prep up to 10 posts per channel before needing to upgrade to a paid plan. Buffer does offer a 50% discount to registered nonprofits.
  • Planable FREE/ DISCOUNT Planning, collaborating, approving and scheduling your social media posts on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, TikTok, Google My Business and LinkedIn.  This tool has a free plan of 50 total posts to try it out before needing to upgrade to a paid plan.  Planable does offer a 30% discount to registered nonprofits.  

Stock Photos: 

Texting Tools: 

  • Twilio’s Impact Access Program provides eligible nonprofits and social enterprises with exclusive discounts and credits for Twilio products.

Website Analytics: 

  • Google Analytics FREE Google Analytics provides a look at who is visiting your website, how they’re getting there and what actions they’re taking once they arrive. Set up dashboards to take a more focused, bite-sized look at your website data on a regular basis 
  • Microsoft Clarity FREE lets you dig a little deeper into how visitors are behaving on your website. The tool allows you to look at heatmaps and recordings of real user sessions to see exactly which sections of your website are working as you hoped and which sections could use some love. 

Website optimization: 

  • Google Search Console FREE This tool helps you measure and determine web rankings and metrics. Learn more on how to optimize your search appearance on Google and increase organic traffic to your website through the Search Console Training.
  • PageSpeed Insights FREE Type in your nonprofit webpage and this tool will analyze the website page speed, desktop website performance, and mobile page speed.
  • Yoast – WordPress Plugin FREE If you are using WordPress, consider using Yoast for SEO recommendations. 

Free Digital Literacy and Trainings through Charlotte Mecklenburg Library 

  • Northstar Digital Literacy FREE Use Northstar Digital Literacy to assess your digital literacy skills in multiple key areas including basic computer skills, Windows, Mac OS, and MS Excel. Start by requesting your Northstar Learner Account to unlock your access! Requests will be completed within 3 days of receipt.
  • LinkedIn Learning | Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (cmlibrary.org)  FREE  Access a wealth of on-demand training on LinkedIn Learning.  Be sure to sign in through the library’s portal.  You will need your library card number and PIN 

Microsoft365 Training and Support 

  • Microsoft Nonprofit Training and Resources Visit this site to view courses designed for nonprofits focused on Microsoft365 tools. The courses are offered by TechSoup and Microsoft.  Most courses do require fees.    
  • Microsoft Office Courses FREE Learn the skills to be productive with Microsoft Office tools.   Microsoft Office Quick Starts  and visit here for interactive tutorials designed and offered by Goodwill’s GCFGlobal
  • Microsoft Nonprofit Tech Acceleration (NTA) program FREE The NTA for Black and African American Communities program provides nonprofits with technology grants and technical consulting to help increase the impact of their missions. There is no cost for qualified organizations. Qualified 501(c)(3) organizations have access to the grant and license offers, as well as the Onboarding Concierge services. 

Google Workspace Training and Support

Additional Recommended Resources 

    • Provides eligible organizations with donated and discounted software, hardware, services, and training.
    • Examples of TechSoup’s discounted products are Microsoft, Adobe, Zoom, QuickBooks, and Anti-virus.
    • Offers inexpensive helpdesk support
  • National Cybersecurity Alliance: Stay up to date on ways to keep your nonprofit secure. 
  • NTEN Supports organizations by convening the nonprofit community, offering professional credentials, and training, and facilitating community skill and resource sharing.  To Join: https://www.nten.org/membership/join/  Annual membership fee is based on a sliding scale. NTEN membership with all the accompanying benefits can now be purchased for as low as $25.  Member receive freebies and discounts including 50% off in-depth courses, Nonprofit Technology Professional Certificate, and workshops 

Free Resources for local nonprofits in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina 

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