Choosing the right tools isn’t always easy but it is essential for your nonprofit’s digital effectiveness.
There are many free tools for nonprofits, but they can be hard to find and choose.
Use this list to learn more about top free tools in 10 key categories that can take your nonprofit’s online presence to the next level.
The Google Ad Grant – Top Free Marketing Tool
$10,000 every single month as an in-kind advertising grant is huge for many nonprofits. The Google Ad Grant is a phenomenal free tool that too few nonprofits know about or know how they can make the most of it.
It can drive thousands of visitors to your nonprofit’s website every single month.
You can even fundraise with the Google Ad Grant.
Mailchimp – Top Free Email Tool
You still need to be using email to be effective online. Mailchimp is one of the best email software providers out there. And you can have up to 2,000 contacts and a limited number of monthly emails free of charge. It’s a great way to send out your email campaigns and is powerful enough to scale with your nonprofit.
You should also think about email segmentation for more effective fundraising.
Mailchimp also offers a 15% discount for nonprofits if you get in touch and another 10% for enabling two-factor authorization for their pro plans.
Canva – Top Free Design Tool
Canva is a great design program that’s also very collaborative. If you’re working on a design with someone else, you can easily share it with them.
They have an excellent free version but also offer the pro version of Canva for free for registered nonprofits.
It’s easy to use, they have a great free design school and with the pro version you have access to a lot of great free graphics and images too.
Slack – Top Free Internal Communications Tool
If you need a way to communicate with your team on the fly, then slack can help. You should be careful here – you don’t want to let slack become a distraction. But it’s free and a great way to work with your nonprofit’s team.
Slack has a nonprofit program and offer some of their paid plans for free or for huge discounts.
Trello – Top Free Productivity Tool
Trello is a free tool that lets you collaborate with others. There are thousands of ways your nonprofit can use trello to be more productive. It can really help organize your projects, help focus on the right projects and collaborate.
It’s also not as real-time as slack so if your team prefers to work at a more focused pace, you could keep most of your internal communication here.
Trello also offers 75% off of some of their plans for qualifying nonprofits.
Hootsuite – Top Free Social Media Tool
You can add up to three social profiles here and schedule up to 30 posts free of charge with Hootsuite. Hootsuite can help you organize your nonprofit’s social media work.
It’s not expensive to upgrade if you need more than that but for many small to mid-sized nonprofits the free plan is more than enough. Hootsuite offers nonprofits up to 50% off of their paid plans as well.
GSuite – Top Free Collaboration Tool
As part of the Google for Nonprofits program, you can use basic GSuite for free which at full-price costs $6/user. You can use Gmail with your nonprofit’s domain name free of charge.
You also get extra storage with Google drive. When you’re working on a collaborative document like a spreadsheet, presentation or regular document, it’s much easier to use Google docs so everything is saved.
Learn more how nonprofits can use Google Drive.
Facebook Groups – Top Free Community Tool
If your nonprofit thrives on community driven action then Facebook groups are a free way to get your community moving. While it’s great to send out an email newsletter or a Facebook post, they often become one-way channels.
A Facebook group is a great way for your nonprofit’s community to really feel like they are a community and interact with you and your team. Facebook has also been pushing groups and they have a lot more organic reach than Facebook page posts.
Lastly, fundraising on Facebook is becoming more easier and more effective.
Donorbox – Top Free Fundraising Tool
There are many fundraising tools available to nonprofits. One of the best and most flexible is Donorbox.
They offer their donate form for free (minus normal processing fees from Paypal for example) for up to $1,000 in total monthly donations. After that it’s just 1% of the donation fee so it can scale with your fundraising efforts fairly cheaply. If you don’t raise much money one month you also don’t pay a fee.
It’s quite easy to set up and really can take your donation form on your website to the next level. You can also host the donation form on their site but it’s better on your site.
Hubspot – Top Free CRM
There are a number of paid CRMs that might be a better fit for nonprofits as they are tailor-made for nonprofits. However, if you are just starting out or don’t want to spend money on a CRM, then Hubspot might be a great choice. They offer their excellent CRM free of charge to everyone. It’s a very powerful tool and can really up your nonprofit’s game when it comes to communicating with the right people at the right time. If you’re not convince, you can also learn about some other free CRMs.
Check Out TechSoup
One bonus tip – check the product offerings at TechSoup. Many software products and even hardware products can be donated to your nonprofit or offered at a large discount.
Conclusion
Nonprofits can be more much productive and effective with the right toolbox. It’s worth the effort to research and try new free tools for nonprofits that can help your nonprofit accomplish it’s mission. It might take some time starting out, but it could save you and your team a lot of time in the long-run.
If your nonprofit needs help deciding which tools to choose then please set up a Digital Evaluation – a free resource for nonprofits. TreeRoots has used hundreds of tools and can help you choose the right tools to accomplish your mission more effectively and efficiently, saving your nonprofit time and money.