Flickr Photo: Jeff KubinaI spent yesterday at the Salesforce Innovation for Nonprofit Success event in New York. It was a really fun event, and I met a whole host of really interesting people doing amazing work at their nonprofits.

I sat in on most of the sessions yesterday and heard a lot of interesting ideas. What really struck me, though, was that almost every session, including my own, had one theme running through it: the empowerment of nonprofits.

We are moving to a new model of software delivery for nonprofits, and it means more than convenience. Software as a Service is on its way. Google Apps provide just one example you're probably familiar with. Most of the Web 2.0 tools you use also qualify, from your blog software to Facebook.

They are always on, and always available. More importantly, they work the same whether you are Microsoft or Save the Bay. Software as a Service means that we all have access to the same platforms and all they can do for our organizations. It will help bridge the technology gap between nonprofits and the for-profit sector.

There's another benefit.

I also had the great pleasure of chatting with NTEN member Jeff Forster of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management yesterday. Somewhere in the middle of a conversation that ranged from the state of public school education to how to engage Executive Directors in technology conversations, Jeff said something really interesting about this new software delivery model.

In the old way of software delivery, the focus was on getting you to buy "the box" or choose the software. Once you made that HUGE investment, the big incentive to court you was gone.

Most tools that are delivered in the software as a service model are subscription based. They want to get you as client, but they only start to see a return when you stick around -- for a long time. SaaS providers need to keep you happy long term.

Will software as a service be right for every tool and every nonprofit? Probably not. But it can mean that some organizations will now have access to first class tools at an affordable rate.

If you want to learn more, there's a great discussion at CIO magazine.