It’s commendable how technology adds convenience to one’s life. From building a website to automating your entire sales and marketing functions, there are many online tools available. In this article, we’ll cover some of these powerful online tools that are designed to help you lighten your nonprofit’s workload and optimize your operations. The best part? All these tools have a free version, so you can test out which features work for you before deciding whether to upgrade to a more premium, paid version. Without further ado, let’s jump straight to this power list.
Wix/Squarespace/WordPress – With the ability to make or break the credibility of your organization, a website is your nonprofit’s most important marketing collateral. What once seemed like something only doable by only professional coders has now been simplified enough for the average user to create a beautiful, comprehensive website. WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace offer an easy-to-understand, code-free experience to build your NPO’s website. While these services offer free versions, they’ll usually charge a small fee when it comes to connecting your domain and hosting your site.
Google Analytics – The most powerful tool for analyzing your website’s metrics that is free to use. The capabilities of this tool are endless. Read our post about the powerful things you can learn while using Google Analytics here.
Campaign URL Builder – This tool allows you to build unique URLs that you can more easily track via Google Analytics.
Mailchimp – For all the email addresses you collect and reach out to via email, Mailchimp offers an excellent email marketing solution. The free version allows you to maintain a database of up to 2000 contacts, and also includes a 1-step automation feature. This means auto-replying to a donor in your database is as simple as a click.
Last Pass – This is a password management tool that lets you manage all of your organization’s passwords. While the paid version adds an additional layer of security by auto-generating difficult-to-hack passwords, the free version only allows you to store the passwords you set.
Zapier – One of the simplest automation tools that can make your marketing team’s life so much easier. Zapier lets you automate your workflows. The free version also allows for 5 Zaps with multi-step automation workflows. For example, updating a spreadsheet every time someone fills a form on the website and adding their email ID to your Mailchimp contact database is a 2 step automation that can be achieved through Zapier.
Mailtrack.io – A lifesaver for when knowing whether or not a person has opened an email is important. Mailtrack is a tool that’s compatible with Gmail, and the free version of Mailtrack notifies you via email/push notification every time someone opens a mail thread. Their latest update also allows for email tracking on mobile devices.
CamScanner – Need to scan a document? Look no further than CamScanner. This tool automatically identifies the edges of a document and is quite easy to use. With no limit on the number of documents you can scan, the free version mandates the inclusion of the company’s watermark on every scanned document.
Slack – Have a team of more than 2? You should try Slack for your internal communication. This tool is easy to set up, easy to access, and a great alternative for emails when it comes to having quick conversations.
Paypal – An easy-to-create and manage payment tool that lets you send and receive donations. While the product is totally free to use, the service provider usually has to bear a small fee on every transaction. The percentage depends on the country you live in.
Grammarly – Profession, error-free writing is essential when it comes to building your nonprofit’s credibility. This is where Grammarly comes in. Available as an extension for your browser and now offline as well, the free version of Grammarly is a very helpful tool that corrects errors, gives suggestions, and analyzes the tone of your words.
Bitly – The free version of Bitly allows you to shorten a URL and track the number of clicks. So, using a Bitly link for every online/cloud collateral you share with your donors can help you understand how many people are opening it, the source, and the location.
Google Forms, Typeform, Survey Monkey – while ‘Google Forms’ is completely free, the other 2 have a free and paid version. These are great online tools to build surveys and feedback forms to collect data from your community. The free version of Typeform and Survey Monkey include basic question formats and usually have a limit on the number of people who can fill out the survey.
Canva – A free-to-use design tool that lets you create everything from social media posts to flyers and emailers.
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