Tools List

I realize this list is incomplete--what list wouldn't be? But this is a roundup of the urls of the free tools I like and use...many of them. I plan to start a toolbox at Social Source Commons for the Cool Free Tools List. So you can still get on board. Leave a comment with your favorite tools...or add to my toolbox as SSC!

Tools for Organizations

Open Office

Everything Microsoft Office can do, for free!

http://www.openoffice.org 

Drupal/Plone/Joomla

Open Source, Free, web site templates for interactive and community web sites

http://drupal.org/

http://plone.org/

http://www.joomla.org/

Constant Contact

Design and track your mass emailings

http://www.constantcontact.com

SurveyMonkey

Online surveys of your community, friends, clients

http://www.surveymonkey.com

TechAtlas

Technology assessments to accomplish your mission. Guided tech planning

http://techatlas.org/tools/Default.asp

Google Documents and Spreadsheets

Upload, edit online and download documents

http://docs.google.com/

Slide Share

Share your PowerPoint presentations on the web

http://www.slideshare.net/

Mapbuilder
MapBuilder lets you tag locations on a map and publish it on your own site.
Mapping is now easier than ever. It's free.
http://www.mapbuilder.net/

Video blogging tools:
All you need to start your own video blog or put videos on your existing web site or blog, all free:
http://freevlog.org
http://blip.tv
http://youtube.com (recently acquired by google)

WikiSpaces

Wikis are collaboration spaces for members of a team, a community or a work group.
http://www.wikispaces.org

Tools for Nonprofit Organizations

The fund raising pyramid

Chart your donations large and small with this little piece of graphic software

http://www.metgroup.com/content/index.php?pid=59

ChipIn Widget

Only one of several small squares you can add to your web site that will show the progress of a fund raising effort. Your supporters can copy and paste it easily to their own blogs, web sites, emails, etc.

http://www.chipin.com/

Also, see http://networkforgood.org for more free charity badges and donate buttons. 

Organizer's Database

Free Database to track and manage donors, monitor campaigns, send email blasts, etc.

http://www.organizersdb.org/

Salesforce if you're small enough

Manage contacts, relationships, projects, donors, volunteers...all in one place

http://www.salesforce.com

Dreamhost if you're a charity

Web hosting for free

http://www.dreamhost.com/

Continuous Progress

Free website for planning advocacy evaluation, with different tracks for funders and advocates.

http://www.continuousprogress.org/

PointK

Organizational planning with evaluation built in from the start using interactive tools. free tools and resources for assessment, accountability, communication, and program improvement.

http://www.innonet.org

CitizenSpeak

Free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations

http://citizenspeak.org/

Social Networks for anything

You have a cause? Create an online community, get members, exchange ideas.

http://www.ning.com/

Tools for Individuals

Climate Care:

A tool for figuring out how much carbon-dioxide you contribute to the global air, and then gives you places to donate to offset the amount you use.

http://www.climatecare.org/

SlimTimer

Down with timesheets when you can create tasks and then click on them one at a time to find out how much time you spend on any given project.

http://www.slimtimer.com/

GoogleEarth

Explore the world

http://earth.google.com/

Google Video

http://video.google.com/

Google Calendar

http://calendar.google.com/

Google Reader

Subscribe to the Internet sources you want to read

http://reader.google.com

Picassa

Find, organize and share your photos.

http://picassa.google.com

Gimp

Open Source PhotoShop. Photo retouching and manipulation.

http://www.gimp.org

WordPress/Blogger/LiveJournal

These are the primary blogging sites. You can sign up and blog away in minutes, free. Each of these has its plusses and minuses. WordPress allows you to create nonblog pages, just like a web site. LiveJournal has its great "Friends List" so you can see what others are saying with one click. Blogger allows for a very easy change in the way your blog looks.

http://wordpress.org/

https://www2.blogger.com/start

http://www.livejournal.com

Audacity

Free and open source for recording and editing sounds

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Skype

Free computer calling all over the world, to others on the Skype network

http://www.skype.com

Instant Messaging with MSN and Yahoo!

Not just for teens. Use these tools to communicate with co-workers, clients, and volunteers in faraway places.

Yahoo:

http://downloads.yahoo.com/

Windows Live Messenger

http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=MSNTDLINK

hotmail and yahoo and gmail

Free email services

http://www.hotmail.com

http://www.yahoo.com

http://www.gmail.com

Flickr

Photo sharing plus a world-wide community, social networking through photos

http://www.flickr.com

Frapper

Map your neighborhood, your city or the world for organization members, events, or just friends.

http://www.frappr.com/

LinkedIn

Professional online Rolodex of your contacts and their contacts and their contacts

http://www.linkedin.com

Sites to search for more tools

All kinds of Info from Tech Soup

http://www.techsoup.org

Social Source Commons

Toolbox extraordinaire! Share software tool information, get expert advice on tools.

http://socialsourcecommons.org/

Paul Lamb: Cool and Conscientious

A whole web site filled with cool ideas for using the internet to leverage support for your cause.

http://cooltool.ning.com/

Comments

[Ivan]

Check out this web-based database for non-profits, it is free for smaller data sets (50 records) and pretty cheap anyway, the UI looks quite good: www.wildapricot.com

[trish]

You'll have to be more than this to move me away from the Organizer's Database for membership and donor management. I'm not limited to 50 records to get the free version, and it has all the features that this one does.

[Nia.]

What a thoughtful idea. Thanks so much for this list, whether exhaustive or not it's certainly a good start and stimulates my thinking as I prepare for my next vacation, so to speak. All the best to you and your projects, Nia. :)

[Gil Heiman]

Thanks for this comprehensive and useful list.

Although biased, as I work for Collanos, I do recommend adding our free software solution, Collanos Workplace, to the list under Teamwork or Team Collaboration Solutions.

With Collanos workspaces you can share any files, have online discussions, and manage tasks, all in a single, consolidated space.
Built on peer-to-peer technology, Collanos Workplace software allows you to work anywhere, anytime, both online and offline.

Users will have the option to subscribe to premium features as we release them in the future but the base version will always be free and more functionality will added to this base version.
Cheers,
Gil
Collanos

[linux photoshop]

The list are great but the one thing that amazed me is Open Office, you can do all of your projects at the same rate as Microsoft Office.