Cloud Computing

Exciting news -- Google has launched Google for Nonprofits in Canada! As of June 9th 2014, Canadian Registered Charities, Canadian Federal Nonprofits, and Canadian Provincial Nonprofits can now apply to join the program, which offers access to Google’s suite of free products and tools.

There are many reasons why your nonprofit might want to use a survey, from getting donor input to conducting research to inform your mission and programming or asking for feedback from volunteers or program participants. In this review, we’ll take a look at how FluidSurveys works and how it can support you in reaching these goals.

Many nonprofits are considering working in the cloud due to its low-cost benefits and Microsoft is well aware of this trend. They recently opened their popular cloud solution, Office 365 for Nonprofits, to the list of cloud computing options for the Canadian nonprofit sector.

As nonprofits, we don’t have a lot of time, especially for IT - so a great way to get a good, reliable system to meet a range of office administration needs is to use a cloud suite such as Google Apps or Office 365.

These are everyday challenges faced by many nonprofits in Canada - and since email and documents are something you need to access a daily basis, not having good systems results in a lot of productivity loss over the long term. That’s why this edition of TechSoup Battles will focus on online productivity suites that will address these challenges: in particular, Google Apps for Business and Microsoft’s Office 365 for Nonprofits.

Google Apps is a popular option for nonprofits, however it seems that many people are confused about the file/documents part of the suite, Google Drive (GDrive). In this post I’ll discuss whether you should be using GDrive for your files and explain how to set it up for use at an organization.

Would you like to be able to access email and files on the go, work with staff and volunteers at different locations, and keep your IT costs down? Good news - Office 365, one of the leading solutions for bringing your back office to the cloud, have donated and discount plans for nonprofits and charities in Canada.

Votre personnel est-il réparti sur des sites différents? Disposez-vous d'un budget limité pour l'assistance informatique et, par exemple, les installations et les mises à niveau? Votre personnel et les bénévoles de votre organisme ont-ils besoin de travailler à partir de dispositifs personnels, tels que leur téléphone intelligent ou tablette? Votre organisme à but non lucratif ou de charité est peut-être prêt à migrer vers le nuage. Mais peut-être éprouvez-vous quelques inquiétudes à l'idée de travailler en ligne, notamment si vous traitez des informations sensibles. Microsoft Office 365 pour les organismes à but non lucratif vous permet de disposer des deux environnements: l'environnement sécurisé avec toutes les fonctions disponibles des logiciels installés et l'accès collaboratif, où que vous soyez, au nuage.

Are you the type of person that keeps all of your tasks in a spreadsheet, or use Excel to manage your projects? Maybe you have looked at other project management tools but found it to be too cumbersome and requires a steep learning curve. If so, you might want to consider Smartsheet.

Is your organization working for a better way to coordinate your work in an online, flexible way? In this Jane vs. Tierney review on project management tools, I’ll be looking at Huddle.