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If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member. INTRODUCTION It's summer in the global North and the IT ought to be easier! We are focusing this issue of NTEN Connect on "software as a service." This is a term, sometimes denoted by its acronym "SaaS", that describes the delivery of software applications over the Internet in an on-demand environment. There are two key issues for an industry moving towards software as a service: 1. SAP founder Hasso Plattner rightly notes that "delivering software over the Internet would present a critical challenge to traditional business models ... who mainly install software for their customers at their premises"; and 2. It changes the way that nonprofits administer and deploy IT (which has implications for the NTEN community, of course). To untangle some of the issues, we have a stellar line-up of resources and opinions. Google staffer Jess Daniel describes the new Google Apps for nonprofits launched last week at an event co-hosted by NTEN, Sonny Cloward -- an NTEN friend and close colleague -- gets into the nitty gritty of using a hosted app in a nonprofit setting, the team at Convio describe the changes a nonprofit may experience as it moves into a SaaS environment, and our own Brett Meyer reviews a series of white papers on software as a service by Kintera. As every month, our How To and Community Buzz sections are full of good advice and resources from the ever-resourceful NTEN community. On an end note, it is a bit ironic that I am writing this from rainy South Africa, where I spoke at an ICT conference about NTEN, and where the Internet is slow and spotty. SaaS presumes high speed Internet access to be useful, and alas, most of the world does not have that yet. In the meantime however, happy summer to all of the NTEN members and community! 
Jess Daniel, Google
IT infrastructure is hard work for any organization. Having worked at a nonprofit prior to coming to Google, I know that the combination of long-standing legacy systems and limited resources certainly doesn't make things any easier. Now that I'm member of the Google Apps team, I spend my time working on simple but powerful communication and collaboration tools for organizations. And so it's with special satisfaction that I share this bit of news: Google has extended the Education Edition of Google Apps to registered 501(c)(3)s. You may already be familiar with Google's standard suite of free hosted services, including private-label email, calendaring, and online-document sharing. But the Education Edition offers a number of value-added admin features at no additional cost, including email migration tools, phone support for critical issues, and extensibility APIs. (Ads are also optional, in case you're curious.) There's no need to take my word for it, though: if you attended NP.IT recently -- the Google-NTEN midsummer mixer -- you may have bumped into a few nonprofits with their own Google Apps success stories. At the end of the day, enabling good works through Google Apps -- in any capacity -- both inspires and humbles us. We're excited to offer this worthy sector a low-investment, feature-rich IT choice. Find out more or apply for an account. 
Sonny Cloward, Independent Consultant
With Google's announcement extending its free Education Version of Google Apps to nonprofits, charitable organizations are situated better than ever to leverage On-Demand Productivity Tools (a.k.a. SaaS: Software as a Service). By no means is Google the only on-demand office productivity player: Zoho, ThinkFree, and Goowy are also viable contenders. Google, however, is making its services extremely attractive and accessible to nonprofits, not only through their donation of Google Apps to nonprofits a la the Salesforce.com model -- underwriting the donation via a sustainable for-profit revenue stream -- but by providing tight integration between their products and desktop/offline apps. The biggest challenge for Google Apps and other on-demand productivity suites is making the case to nonprofits: What is the value proposition making the transition from their current systems and processes a worthwhile investment? Of course there are the cost saving incentives, both in terms of infrastructure and management. There are no doubt both advantages and liabilities over traditional desktop applications, but the beauty of web apps is that they augment rather than replace systems. To that end, let's take a look at how an organization might use a suite of on-demand productivity tools, in this case, Google Apps, as part of their system.
Convio, Inc.
The delivery of software applications as a service (SaaS) is fast becoming the preferred model for nonprofits to manage fundraising, advocacy, communications, marketing, and constituent relationship management. The vision of SaaS is to help nonprofits do things they could not do before, create efficiencies and reduce costs, and drive better results. But why should a nonprofit choose to travel the SaaS route? When using a SaaS provider, nonprofits experience change in four areas:
Brett Meyer, NTEN Communications and Web Manager
Convio provides an excellent overview of why nonprofits should consider software as a service. Those who want more detail shoul take a look at the 3-part Kintera White Paper. The first part, "Rent or Buy: Why Nonprofits Need Software as a Service" details the "Top Seven Benefits of Software as a Service", including the low up-front implementation costs (#1) and up-to-date technology (#4). One thing some organizations may have overlooked as a benefit is the ability to access SaaS applications remotely (#6) without having to set up complicated remote access software. Because SaaS products are accessed through a web interface, any staff member with a browser and an internet connection can be productive, anywhere, anytime. HOW TO: PUT TECHNOLOGY TO USE
Your guide to resources that will help you put technology to work for your cause.
More on Selecting SaaS Solutions > InfoWorld published a field guide to back office, messaging and CRM solutions available from SaaS vendors. IW also featured a brief piece asking companies currently using SaaS applications to weight in on their appeal. > A more focused article on TechSoup compares tools you can use to manage simple web sites, while the Nonprofit Matrix offers detailed listings on a host of possibilities and 5ThirtyOne compares Project Management software. Advocate Online > For an overview of the new tools available to online activists, read Alan Rosenblatt's new article on Idealware, "Affordable New Tools and Strategies for Online Activism". Alan covers a lot of ground in few words. Learn from Beth Kanter > Beth has provided some great resources to the nonprofit tech community, recently. Her screencast on using the integration of Google Adwords with Salesforce, as reported in our blog, inspired Salesforce to put up a page on their site devoted to helping Google Grantees apply for a salesforce.com Foundation grant. > Earlier, Beth put together a primer on Google Analytics screencast for NTEN, a terrific companion piece to our webinar featuring Google's very own Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. Or, if you have a soft spot for old media, take a look at Avinash's book, Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. It's already earned a place on my desk.
THINGS WE LIKE
A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.
COMMUNITY BUZZ
News and buzz from people and organizations in the nonprofit tech sector. Read our posts on the NTEN blog.
Citizen-Centered Funding > A new initiative by the Case Foundation, Make It Your Own, seeks to encourage grassroots leaders involved in local and neighborhood level projects. As reported in the New York Times, the pool of candidates who submit ideas for improving their communities will be narrowed by judges, but the 4 finalists will be voted on by the public. Searching for Altruism > GoodSearch has added a layer to Yahoo's search engine to help nonprofits and schools. Select the organization you choose to support on GoodSearch's home page, and they will contribute -- giving away 50% of their advertising revenue, or about a penny per search -- to charitable causes. Through the power of aggregation, donations can add up quickly. > The Do Good Toolbar implements a similar idea, geared toward online shopping. They, too, promise to donate at least 50% of their revenue to charity, though their list of supported organizations is much smaller. Google Everywhere > Nonprofit technology has received two big boosts from Google in the last 30 days. First, Google officially launched its nonprofit outreach program for its Google Earth product, as we reported in our blog. Groups as diverse as Appalachian Voices and the Jane Goodall Institute are already using Google Earth to tell stories with their data. > Then, at an event co-hosted by NTEN, Google extended its Google Apps Education Edition to nonprofits. With Google throwing its weight behind Software as a Service, nonprofits will find it easier to spend more time working toward their objectives and less time worrying about back-ups, bugs, and other bothers. Mobile Campaigning > Nicholas Sullivan's You Can Hear Me Now chronicles GrameenPhone's efforts to extend telephone service in Bangladesh through microloans, along with several other examples of the power of cellular networking. You can watch a brief video interview with Nicholas about the project on YouTube. > For more information on how mobile campaigns can help your organization, be sure to read Robin Good's essay "Mobile Phones as Mass Media", as covered in our blog. You may also want to watch the NTEN webinar, Mobile Campaigns Made Easy, moderated by our very own Katrin Verclas. And don't forget to check out MobileActive.org, a resource for practitioners worldwide using mobile phones in social change work. Pizzigati Prize Deadline > The deadline for the $10,000 Antonio Pizzigati Prize For Software in the Public Interest is coming up on August 1st. If you are working on software for social change, you should definitely looking into it. For more information see our blog post.
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NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). |
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