Nonprofit Nerd

Open source water by schoschie

So someone at the nonprofit you work for needs to make a presentation for a meeting, but has no tools on her computer to create one? Can you afford to buy Microsoft Office? No? Time to start googling around for some low-cost alternatives.

The first thing to know about finding free or cheap software is that there is a lot of it out there. For nearly every major type of commercial software that a nonprofit organization is likely to need, there is some much less expensive equivalent available. That’s good news, but it gets more complicated. Software creators make their products available under a variety of licenses, and it’s important to know the difference between the different types.

So, here are a few terms that you should know before you go out searching the internet for free stuff. As you find sites offering free software downloads, check the license under which the product is being offered. It will likely fall under one of the following types:

• Free Trial. This usually means that the software is free to use for a limited amount of time. After that period expires, you will need to pay to continue using it.
• Shareware. Software is free to use, but certain features may be disabled unless you pay a registration fee to the software creator. Note: there is a wide range of opinion about what actually counts as “shareware”, so be sure to read the terms of use documentation carefully.
• Freeware. Like the name says, available to use at no cost. Freeware often comes in the form of small utilities designed to do a limited number of tasks. They are often created by programmers who are just starting out and looking for ways to show off their skills. That said, there are some excellent freeware tools around.
• Open Source. My favorite and the words I always search for when I’m looking for new software. Open source software is often created and maintained by a community of programmers rather than a single person. These projects often have some kind of nonprofit foundation or corporate entity backing them up, so the programmers may actually be getting paid for their work. Assuming that the project is vibrant and active, regular updates and improvements can be reasonably expected. There are also usually online user forums where people can ask questions or report bugs. There are currently open source analogs for Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and many, many others.

No matter what kind of license software is released under, there are a couple of important factors you should check before committing a lot of your time to using it.

The first thing to look for is the last time the software was updated. If the most recent version came out two years ago, it’s a good bet that the creator has stopped improving and supporting it. The software may still work fine for now, but don’t count on it for long-term use.

Secondly, be sure that the software will work with your operating system. This may sound blindingly obvious, but it can potentially save you a lot of frustration. Many of us working for small nonprofits have older computers that may not support some of the newest open source software. Fortunately, older versions that will run on your system are usually still available, and many of them are still actively supported. Open source products are also likely to have versions that run on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

I’ll be adding posts about some specific software products I use and like as I move forward, but the information above should help get you started.