More Free Services for Nonprofits
Summary: Highlighting more free services and resources available to nonprofits to help you deliver your mission: From free photographs to help you tell your nonprofit’s story to free software.
Because the first article: Helping You Help Others: Free Services & Resources for Nonprofits was so popular, we went trolling for more free services that will help your nonprofit. In the first article we featured free videos from Animoto, free things like computers and furniture from Throwplace and Gifts in Kind International, and lots more free stuff from Grassroots.org. In this edition, we share everything from free photographs to help you tell your nonprofit’s story to free software. Enjoy!
Pictures
PhotoPhilanthropy connects nonprofit organizations with photographers around the world to tell stories that drive action for social change. If you need a photographer to help you tell your organization’s story, just fill out this form to be matched with a volunteer photographer.
Flickr is the most popular site for uploading, storing, and sharing photos. Nonprofits can get a free pro account through TechSoup here. You just have to pay $6 for admin fees. Flickr can be used two ways: it’s a great place to post photos from your organization to share with the world, but it can also be used to find free photos under the creative commons license.
Videos
YouTube is the largest video sharing website. If you have 501c3 status, you can get a free account that includes:
ñ Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
ñ Rotation of your videos in the “Promoted Videos” areas throughout the site
ñ The option to embed a Google Checkout “Donate” button — and to fundraise without transaction costs.
Ready to get started? Fill out an application here. If you want to know how to make your YouTube video go viral, we can tell you that too! See: How to Make Your Nonprofit Video go Viral
Marketing
Pimp My Cause brings together worthwhile causes with talented marketers who provide transformational input pro bono. These marketers include: innovators, strategists, advertisers, graphic designers, web developers, public relations specialists and researchers.
Google Grants offers up to $10,000 per month of free AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. Google AdWords ads work to drive traffic to your organization’s website. When someone searches in Google for keywords related to your organization, your ad appears. They are very successful at driving traffic and Google is very generous with the amount of organizations that can receive this grant, so don’t be afraid to apply.
Project ConnectAD connects charities in need of professional design with volunteer designers in need of experience or exposure. Services include: website design, graphic design and videography. Coincidentally, ConnectAd also offers a service to help charities apply for and manage Google Grants.
Fundraising
Got Change? is a great, new website that allows you to collect donations for your cause completely free. FirstGiving and JustGiving work similarly: they allow you to set up a fundraising page and collect donations, but they take approximately 15% off each donation. Got Change? doesn’t charge a thing!
Software
Mobify allows you to create a spiffy mobile version of your website with little technical expertise. They offer free basic service to non-profits. You can e-mail them at sales@mobify.me with “non-profit” in the subject line to get the discount. For more on building a mobile version of your website, check out Going Mobile: a How-to Guide for Nonprofits.
QuestionPro is survey software that allows you to do online research. The Non-Profit Waiver Program offers registered non-profit organizations free access to QuestionPro for data-collection and analytics for as long as they need. Get the details here.
Sumac is giving back to non-profits by offering the software
free
to organizations with less than 500 contacts and at highly
discounted
prices to larger organization.
