Michelle Murrain, NOSI

Constituent Relationship Management systems are one of the bread and butter tools of nonprofit organizations: tracking donations, constituents, activities and the like are critical to accomplishing mission.

It makes sense then, that CRM and fundraising software are the most plentiful and mature software product vertical in the nonprofit sector. And there is an increasing amount of change and innovation in this realm: from open APIs on such stalwarts as Convio and Kintera, to newer open source alternatives like CiviCRM and MPower Open

The question is, how do the newer open source alternatives stack up to the long standing proprietary packages that people have gotten used to?

When I worked in West Africa a few years ago, GeekCorps Mali had just started on the project that became MoulinWiki, an offline version of Wikipedia that could be burned onto a CD and taken to schools and villages without Internet access. (I didn't work on it; I was just visiting because GeekCorps had a pool and it was incredibly hot out.) The project was possible because the software that runs WikiPedia is Open Source, and so freely editable and redistributable.

A number of factors contributed to the inspiration for MoulinWiki, not least of which was an awareness of the availability of Free and Open Source (FOSS) software. More nonprofit organizations might make use of FOSS as a springboard for projects, if they only knew more about the movement.

In fact, you may already be using more Open Source software than you realize.

John Kenyon, Nonprofit Technology Strategist

While open source software is a great concept, people don't just relate to concepts, people relate to people. Most of the people who make open source software for nonprofits do it to make your life easier in support of achieving your mission. While often portrayed as pale, anti-social "geeks" working in basements and living off junk food, like all stereotypes, this is false.

Dave Greenberg has worked in the nonprofit sector as Psychiatric Counselor in a Community Mental Health clinic, and has a Masters degree in Social Work. He also has experience engineering/developing large software systems for the electronic commerce and banking industries. Combining his skills and values, he is now part of the international core development team for CiviCRM, the built-for-nonprofit open source CRM software.

I talked to him about his work with open source software. His insights are important for everybody interested in nonprofit technology.

NTEN and NOSI are collaborating on a webinar series on free and open source software. Have questions about implementing open source software? Wonder about how Joomla or CiviCRM worked? Want to hear about people who've implemented open source applications? Learn about these things and more from FOSS expert Michelle Murrain!

Michelle Murrain and the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) have just published an update to their excellent "Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software: A primer for nonprofits". If your organization is considering a move to Open Source software (or if you want to push it in that direction), you should give this well-written guide a read.

The heart of the primer is found in Chapter 3, "How should you decide if FOSS will work for you?" Michelle writes, "All organizations should consider implementing FOSS. But in any organization, it is necessary to make a case for what can be a significant internal change." She then lays out a cogent overview of the costs and potential value of FOSS, with case studies to illustrate key points.