

Ask YC: Tools for non-profit organizations - iamwil

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.cabot.html<p>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.<p>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.<p>Anyone know what's currently done in this arena?
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izak30
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.

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

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epi0Bauqu
<http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/npo/>

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

