Ask YC: Tools for non-profit organizations | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Tools for non-profit organizations

2 pointsiamwil4 comments

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.cabot.html

I was reading this article about donating cars to charity, and I was a bit surprised to learn that non-profits have to go through a for-profit organization to auction off the cars that they have.

In general, this led me to think about non-profit org problems (which are many). Every one that I know who's worked in non-profit before says that money is tight, and it's mostly based on volunteers who can be flaky and non-committal. The most glaring problem that I see are usually their basic IT needs, and getting the tools to coordinate and communicate. I can't help but feel there's an overlooked opportunity in an under-served market here. However, the only thing I can think of is consultancy, as most good tools they need have an open source version.

Anyone know what's currently done in this arena?

Here is the problem I see with open-source tools in the not for profit arena.

The person who knows how to use them, administer them, whatever, quits.

Specifically with web sites (my arena) We (Servee) work with a lot of non-profits. We give them organization, communication and web-management software, and they pay a subscription for us to be their web dept.

They're paying a subscription for hosting anyway, and they are usually willing to pay a little bit more to be able to call me when something is awry, and to be able to have full control themselves.

As far as the physical infrastructure of IT, I'd suggest that all non-profits go to Dell or Apple or somesuch. Again, your on-board techie may save you 25% by going through newegg and putting them all together himself, but when he leaves for college or decides that his other job is taking up too much time you are stuck.

Problem is that non-profits with money waste it, and non-profits without money can't afford to follow your advice.

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/npo/

techsoup.org is a great resource for non-profits looking for technical advice, services and products.

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