11 Free and Discounted Software for Nonprofit Organizations

Doing good for other people deserves a lot of praise, respect and simply warm words. Especially when it is done on the organization scale. Those organizations that are called nonprofit do not set goals to make money, but to help people in need.

Nonprofit organizations are like businesses in some way. They also have to track and manage their activities, time, finances, create project management scope, etc.

The thing is that they do not have big budgets. At the same time, they need good tools to organize work in a proper way and fulfill needs. And of course, a manager should possess basic project management skills.

The total number of nonprofit organizations in the world is unknown. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States can’t give the exact figures for their country as well.

However, in 2015, the number of registered nonprofit organizations in the US made approximatelly 10% of the total workforce. This is the third largest workforce in the USA.

That’s why many developers and marketers strive to assist them in their good acts. They do in their own fashion: they offer discounts for their products or even open a lot of paid features for free.

Management software for nonprofits at a discount

In this article, I cover 11 nonprofit management software tools that organizations can get for free or with a good discount. At the same time, they get full functionality and other bonuses.

1. Google Workspace

Category: business productivity.

This app represents an entire brand for better productivity and collaboration. It includes software for management that has popularity all over the world: Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Google+, Drive, Docs, Sheets and some others.

With the help of the software, users can collaborate and communicate from anywhere, stay in touch with each other 24/7, keep data in secure space, keep schedules and appointments, and track time.

Details: Google Workspace for nonprofit organizations.

2. GanttPRO

Category: project management and planning tool based on Gantt charts.

This project management software visualized with Gantt charts has a very user-friendly and intuitive interface. To figure out how everything works here, a user needs only a few minutes. The software for nonprofits allows managing one as well as multiple projects with team members on one screen.

This cloud-based team project management software serves great for illustrative and visualized project management. Users can:

• Сreate and assign tasks.
• Сonnect tasks with dependencies.
• Track progress.
• Work with virtual resources.
• Work with costs and budget.
• Collaborate with team members (comments, attachments, mentions, notifications).
• Work with the baseline.
• Track and log time.
• Export projects.
• Share projects.
• And many more!

Details: GanttPRO for nonprofit organizations.

3. ProofHub

Category: project management.

ProofHub brings everything and everyone involved in a project on the same page. This powerful tool for project management makes the entire job quite easy by providing a seamless project management solution for organizations and businesses.

The cloud-based software can be used by almost anyone for any project. It organizes everything in your project that beneficially distinguishes it from some ProofHub alternatives.

The platform can be used to collaborate seamlessly, deliver timely, and organize evenly.

It offers varied features for sharing unique ideas with everyone (Discussions), reviewing designs on the page (Proofing), tracking all work (To-dos), quick chatting (ProofHub chat), improved planning (Gantt charts), jotting down ideas (notes), and keeping all your digital assets (files).

Details: ProofHub for nonprofit organizations.

4. nTask

Category: project management, timesheets tracking.

nTask is an ideal app for non-profit organizations to manage their simple and complex projects without any hassle. It equips users to track time, assign task, give due dates, manage workflows using Kanban Boards and Gantt charts.

It is an all-in-one tool to track all the work activities and help notify your team of all the tasks assigned to them to meet deadlines. Set priorities, create task dependencies, set milestones and manage project financials in real-time to get an overview of the progress.

The issue tracking and risk management feature with risk matrix is more suited for NGO’s operation management. This is one of the most affordable project management application in the market.

Details: nTask for nonprofit organizations.

5. JIRA

Category: bug tracking system, project management software.

If your nonprofit organization is engaged in software development, this very powerful app for software development is of great help. JIRA is an all-in-one tool that allows all team members to plan, track and manage all activities and focus on faster and smoother development.

With this nonprofit management software, users can create tasks and assign them to users, plan sprints, set priorities, and discuss work in a transparent way. All data are available in real-time, so it is easier to increase the team’s productivity.

One of the great pluses is that there are many JIRA integrated options with popular tools and software as well as plugins, for example, Gantt chart plugins for JIRA.

Details: JIRA for nonprofit organizations.

6. Basecamp

Category: project management software.

The tool allows gathering all project-relevant information in one place and having it centralized and organized. Everyone involved in a project is fully aware of the duties and know where all information can be taken.

This nonprofit management solution organizes everything in your project. All communication happens inside the tool and information is centralized so you can manage everything in here. Basecamp offers six core tools for tracking all work (To-dos), for posting messages (a Message Board), for quick chatting (a Campfire), for posting milestones and deadlines in general (a Schedule), for organizing assets and notes that are needed for others (Docs & Files) and for gaining the insight from teams (Automatic Check-ins).

Details: Basecamp for nonprofit organizations.

7. Slack

Category: messaging platform, collaborative software.

The messenger serves well for communication within different teams and channels. The tool was characterized as the fastest growing business app in history. It has integrations with more than 100 other popular services.

Slack has main categories inside of it. They are Team and Workspaces, Channels, Messages, Search, and Notifications. You can communicate and share links within your nonprofit organization inside of public as well as private channels. You can also send direct messages.

Details: Slack for nonprofit organizations.

8. Kanbanize

Category: portfolio Kanban software for Lean Management.

This software is for lean project management with the help of the Kanban board. It allows keeping an eye on all projects at once. Management with this nonprofit software gets simpler as the Kanban approach gives a good visualization of plans.

This software for project management is visualized with the help of  the Kanban board – absolutely different from the Gantt chart approach. It offers a digital board for each project with tasks that are to be performed. It also offers team collaboration, real-time updates, and visual feedback. Kanbanize project management software also has the Analytics module that is stated as the most vaunted feature by developers.

Details: Kanbanize for nonprofit organizations

9. Quick Base

Category: low-code application development platform.

This powerful software serves great for many purposes such as project management, people, data and processes management and others. To say it in general, Quick Base allows creating detailed databases to manage anything you just need.

Quick Base management software is an online database builder. Here, you can create calendars, customize CRM tools, collaborate with a team and manage tasks, keep employee information thus providing resource management, empower customer service, etc.

Details: Quickbase for nonprofit organizations.

10. Dropbox

Category: hosting service.

With this management software, your documents are always at hand. All data saved in Dropbox are automatically synchronized with all your devices. Users can also share files be it pictures or video to anyone even without the Dropbox account.

This nonprofit management solution makes collaboration with your team much easier thanks to smart synchronization. Users can upload photos and then share them with others for collaborative teamwork. With Dropbox, there is no more necessity to send emails with edited pictures. As soon as a file was edited in a shared folder, all others will get the update.

One of the main advantages of the management software is the simplicity to work in and with it.

Details: Dropbox for nonprofit organizations.

11. Harvest

Category: time tracking software.

The software allows time tracking from any of your devices be it Web, your phone or another application. Harvest can boast its intuitive and simple interface where your nonprofit management team will understand everything in minutes.

Harvest offers users to track their time and manage projects. Time tracking options are available in the easiest ways. Users can track time while working or enter minutes and hours after they are done. It has integrations with a lot of other apps and, what is more important, with many project management software tools.

The app offers powerful reporting so you can track in real-time all your time and budget in a project. There is also the possibility to send invoices online.

Details: Harvest for nonprofit organizations.

12. Timecamp

Category: time tracking software, productivity software.

Using this management software in your nonprofit organization, you can track time in your projects and get budget under control.

This software offers nonprofit organizations more than just time tracking. If you track hours spent on work, you can analyze how to be more productive at work and boost your efficiency.

The software is really easy to use. It has integrations with a lot of other project management software.

Details: Timecamp for nonprofit organizations.

Summary

Nonprofit management software is not limited to the list above. Many other great tools will let you and your nonprofit entity manage all things pretty well.

There is no specific rule on how to choose the best tool for your aims. Many of them are great. Only through trying you will learn what software works best for your nonprofit purposes. But you can start with the tools from our list.

Do you have your favorite tools for nonpofits? Tell us in the comments!

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