Better Organization through Document Management Systems By Peter Campbell, June 2008 Is your organization drowning in a virtual sea of documents? Document management systems can provide invaluable document searching, versioning, comparison, and collaboration features. Peter Campbell explains. Read more>

A Few Good Methods for Processing Credit Cards

August 2008

It's not necessarily difficult or expensive to accept payments by credit card. We provide some tips and tools to process credit card transactions both online and off.  Read more>

A Few Good Online Conferencing Tools

July 2008

Adding visuals to a phone conference can make a big difference - perhaps by showing a document, software application or slides. Or maybe you want to conduct a more formal online seminar—sometimes called a Webinar. There are a number of affordable software packages that can help. We talked to a number of nonprofit professionals about the tools that have worked for them.  Read more>

Using Wikis for Internal Documentation

By Jeremy Wallace, March 2008

Documenting your organizational procedures can be a big help, but this information often languishes in obscurity and goes slowly out of date. Jeremy Wallace talks about how wikis - easily editable websites - can help. Read more>

Online Project Management Software in the Real World

By Michele Murrain and Laura Quinn, May 2008

Managing all the dates, documents, tasks and people associated with a project can be daunting, but online project management software can help. We present three case studies of nonprofits who have used packages like Basecamp, Central Desktop and Trac to help manage real projects.  Read more>

A Few Good Tools for Sharing Files with Distributed Groups

March 2008

Sharing and collaborating on files can be a challenge when your team isn’t together in one office. We asked six nonprofit professionals about the file sharing software that has worked for them.  Read more>

A Few Good Accounting Packages

February 2008

No matter its size or its budget, any nonprofit can benefit from the right accounting software. Find out what our experts have to say about QuickBooks, Peachtree, Fundware, The Financial Edge, Mas90, GreatPlains, and others.  Read more>

Six Views of Project Management Software

November 2007

There are many software applications that can help with project managment tasks - but also many different opinions on what types of functionality you might want.  We spoke to nine different nonprofit project managers to understand what software has been useful to them.  Read more >

Comparing Google Apps to Microsoft Outlook

By Laura S. Quinn, October 2007
With Google's recently announced Google Apps donation program - which offers organizational email, calendaring, and document sharing for free- there’s suddenly a quite viable alternative to Microsoft Outlook for many organizations. How does Google Apps compare to Microsoft Outlook for typical nonprofit needs? We take a close look.  Read more >

Behind Closed Web Sites: A Look at Three Nonprofit Intranets

By Laura S. Quinn, September 2007
Secure, staff-only websites, called intranets, are widespread in the business world and increasingly common among nonprofits. What are NPOs doing within these private Web sites? What are the benefits, and the costs? We profile three different administrative intranets. Read more >

An Introduction to Screencasting

By Beth Kanter, March 2007

Screencasts – movies that capture tasks performed on a computer – can be powerful communication and training tools, and you don’t need to be a Hollywood filmmaker to create them. Beth Kanter walks through why screencasts are useful, how to create them, and some of the software tools that help in the process.  Read more >

Vendors as Allies: How to Evaluate Viability, Service, and Commitment

By Steve Heye and Steve Lancman, January 2007
When you’re using enterprise software to help run your organization, the software vendor becomes a key ally – and the right relationship may be as important as features or price. Steve Lancman and Steve Heye recommend methods for comparing the intangible aspects of vendor services. Read more >

15 Ways to Use Software to Improve Your Organization’s Knowledge Management

By Laura S. Quinn, July 2006

You may have seen signs that knowledge isn't flowing easily through your nonprofit: Staff can't find documents, or research things that others already know, and decisions are made without full information. Software can't solve all your problems, but it can probably help. Read more>

Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

by Brett Bonfield and Laura S. Quinn , March 2006

For a while, Microsoft Office was the only office suite in town.  But in the last couple of years, a viable open source option has emerged: OpenOffice.org. Should you consider OpenOffice? Will it makes sense for your organization? What are the differences between these two office suites?  Read more>

Software Costs and Usage: Findings of a Nonprofit Sector Survey (PDF)

September 2005

Idealware surveyed 263 nonprofit technology staff members to understand how they feel about their organization's use of software. The results were interesting and a little alarming.  Download the report (PDF) >

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