We serve those who serve the Lord!
Mail Chimp
Type:
free
Type:
subscription
Type:
commercial
Platform:
Web 
Mail Chimp is an alternative to expensive mailling list services. With offerings to fit every organization and mailling list size, Mail Chimp has great value for the smaller church or organization. The "Forever Free" plan allows you to store up to 2,000 email addresses and send out up tp to 12,000 emails a month. If you don't send regularly or if you have tens of thousands of subscribers, they have plans for that too.
Donor Tools
Type:
subscription
Platform:
Web 
Donor Tools is an online donation mangement software. Pricing ranges from $5/mo for 1 fund and no pledge or Quickbooks support to $60/mo for unlimited everything. In between is a $30/mo or $300 year level which gives you up to 30 different funds as well as pledge and Quickbooks support. Until recently, they had a free account, but that, alas seems to have gone the way of many free things in this economy. However, they are still one the most economical online donation management tools out there.
GoodSearch and Goodshop
Type:
free
Platform:
Web 
GoodSearch and Goodshop are an organization that helps you raise money for your organization by giving money to your cause whenever you search using their search engine or shop at one of the companies that donate through them.How does this work? You sign up your organization and set up an account with GoodSearch/Goodshop. Then you tell all your friends and supporters to add GoodSearch as their default search engine and download the GoodShop toolbar for their web browser. You will be given a link to send to them to that lets them link the contributions received from the merchants back to your organization. Then, the next time they shop online at places like Amazon and Ebay - those companies will donate money to you! It costs you nothing. Its costs your friends and supporters nothing! The companies make the donation as part of their charitable giving plans. You can also put a box on your website. Just like we did.
If you'd like to support us - just click the "Get our Toolbar" link in the GoodSearch/GoodShop block in our sidebar. Right there. On the left. You see it - the big Blue and yellow box that says GoodSearch. Click there. Thanks!
TechSoup.org
Type:
free
Platform:
Web 
If you are a non-profit or church with any sort of program that qualifies as "not strictly a religious purpose" i.e. helping those in poverty, day care, after-school program, etc then you must know about TechSoup! Techsoup offers technical resources for non-profits at ridiculously low prices. Software and hardware are provided by the manufacturers and TechSoup operates as the liaison between non-ptofits and tech companies that want to donate. How about a copy of MS Office Professional Plus with Software Assurance for $31 (Retail:$499.99)? Adobe Creative suite for $160 (retail: $1,899.00)? QuickBooks Premier Non-profit Edition for $45 - $99 (1user/3user) (Retail: $319.95 - $799.95)These are just a few examples of what's available at TechSoup. You must be a 501(3)(c) and meet the guidleines established by each individual donor.
Livescribe SmartPens
Type:
commercial
Platform:
Web
Platform:
Mac
Platform:
Win 
Liz, our Founder, takes her Smartpen to every meeting so that she doesn't miss a single detail to help our clients build a better website...a better ministry...a better community!
Livescribe Smartpens are a must for students, educators, administrators, and anyone who needs to remember or share oral, written or graphical information. Record everything you hear, write and draw. Save and share interactive notes to your computer, iPad™ or iPhone™.
While you're writing, your Smartpen is remembering–linking everything you hear to everything you write. Later, simply tap on your notes in your smart notebook to replay the recording. Now you can find and get what you need, instantly, with a tap.
Open Office
Type:
free
Platform:
Mac
Platform:
Win
Platform:
Linux 
Don't want to pay outrageous prices for Microsoft Office? Don't want to use online tools like Google docs because you need to be able to work even when you aren't connected (like maybe lounging in the yard or at the beach)? There is an alternative! Its Open Office available at OpenOffice.org. Its a FREE - yes FREE - office suite that is compatible with MS Office. It has a word processor that reads and writes .doc documents just like Word. It has a spreadsheet program that reads and writes .xls documents just like Excel. It has a presentation program that reads and writes .ppt files just like Powerpoint and it has a database program that can connect to many popular database formats like JDBC, ODBC, MySQL - even the Mac OSX address book! PLUS it has a drawing program - something MS Office doesn't include!There are versions available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Yours for the taking. Save yourself a couple hundred bucks and join the ranks of open source fans.
Omni Outliner
Type:
commercial
Platform:
Mac Omni Outliner by The Omni Group is one of my favorite programs - and no - I don't know of an equivalent program for Windows. I have however, seen many requests for one especially from people who use Mac at home and Windows at work. So what is it? Its an outline on a grid - kind of a cross between a word processor in outline mode and a spreadsheet - only better! If you are the kind of person who likes - or needs - to get organized, its a great tool. If you spec out things to do, or need to organize things like who will do what task and by when and whether or not its completed - its a great tool. You can easily add in more items at any level without messing up all the formatting and having everything go weird on you like in a word processor. Its easy to indent and doesn't mess things up to add in another level - like on a spreadsheet. And it's easy to use and easy to learn.
Linux
Type:
free
Type:
shareware
Platform:
Linux 
Linux? What's Linux? To understand what Linux is you have to understand a few other terms first.
Operating System aka OS. An operating system is the software that runs on your computer and talks to the machine and the programs you run on your computer. Operating systems are available in different versions for different platforms. A platform is a family of operating systems. They usually run on specific types of hardware (computer systems). Windows is a platform. Macintosh is a platform. Linux is a platform. Unix is a platform. Of course its not really that simple. Linux and Macintosh are variations of Unix. And Linux has several variations as well. These are sort of like versions - but they may be by different companies or organizations.
So Linux is a platform. Linux is usually installed on PC computers - the kind you run Windows on. There are many varieties of Linux. Some of the most popular are RedHat, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Suse. These are operating systems. Why should you consider Linux? Here are a few good reasons why non-profits and churches should look at Linux:
