Nonprofits are often among the earliest adopters when it comes to technology and cloud computing is no exception. The chief factors to consider in cloud services are security, portability, reliability, and cost. The savings can be dramatic too. Check out William Grassie's article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy out how the Metanexus Institute shaved $176,000 of their annual budget by shifting to cloud based infrastructure.

Website

Registering a domain, purchasing hosting, installing an open source CMS like WordPress, and setting up a basic design theme can all be done affordably. It's not obvious, but it's not rocket science either. If your priority is to get a web presence up quickly for your new organization, you can always revisit design again. In the meantime focus on telling your story well, and use the blog portion of your site to engage your supporters. I'm not going to go into detail about the steps to setting up your nonprofit website quickly in the cloud. Others have covered that which you can check out here. 

Nonprofit CRM

Managing your nonprofit's database is key so you'll need a good CRM to help you manage all your donor relationships. Salesforce for Nonprofits is often looked to as a good choice because of their grant program that includes 10 free licenses. The downside of Salesforce is that the implementation costs to get your Salesforce instance configured the way you need can be prohibitive. If you're drawn to the power of Salesforce integrated featureset, Convio's Common Ground CRM which is built on the Salesforce platform may be a good alternative.

The blogosphere has been bursting with valuable resources and tips this week. Here’s a compilation of what’s on our radar that

How Five NonProfits Are Innovating With Mobile

With the rapidly changing world of technology, it’s now more important than ever that nonprofits understand the power of mobile and the shifting patterns in how people interact, get information, and share it. Holly Ross, Executive Director at NTEN did a great post over at Mashable that highlighted five nonprofits who are innovating with mobile. “And it doesn’t take an expensive investment in a custom built application to make mobile work,” said Ross.

Campaigns that Ross highlighted include the WNYC and NYT Bird Map, a texting campaign by California Teacher’s Association that connects supporters with state legislator and the Alliance for Climate Education, where students text in a pledge about one thing they will do to make the environment better. Check out the full article here.

 

Facbeook Launches New Resource Center for Nonprofits

Facebook launched a new resource center for nonprofits. The Resources tab features new nonprofit case studies, best practices, and tools. The discussion forum, which encourages nonprofit’s asking questions and getting feedback could be very valuable if Facebook had a dedicated Community Manger. At the moment though, it’s a lot of people promoting their initiatives and services. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next iteration.