Social enterprises (also known as nonprofits) are no different than any other business when it comes to software requirements. In fact, I would argue that social enterprises require more software and expertise than the typical for-profit business does. The reason is because social enterprises have a “triple bottom line” to track and report.
The triple-bottom line requires that you accurately track and report multiple sources of income for individual and multiple programs, report individual and multi-funder financials, report cash and in-kind matches and, on top of all of that, track and report all of the demographic and social outcomes expected from each grant or funding source (except good ole’ earned income).
My background is in the for-profit sector and I can say without hesitation that social enterprises are more difficult to manage primarily due to these reporting requirements. And, oh by the way, very, very few funders will allow their money to be spent on “overhead” like hardware, software and the systems nonprofits so desperately need to actually provide the information funders expect. “But,” as Carl the FedEx presentation guy says, “I digress.” (If you want to read more about that unfortunate situation, please take some time to visit uncharitable.net).
So software is really, really important to the social enterprise, and like any other business, social enterprises gravitate to the industry standard, which is Microsoft. Fortunately, Microsoft products are available to social enterprises at very, very deep discounts. What’s not so fortunate is that Microsoft puts restrictions on the number of titles that can be ordered and the number of orders that can be placed in a certain timeframe. A nonprofit with ~20 or more employees needs:
- A productivity suite - Office 200X
- A collaboration platform - Sharepoint with Client Access Licenses
- A mail server - Exchange with Client Access Licenses
- An operating system - Windows 7
- A server - Windows 2008 Server with Client Access Licenses
What About Google Apps?
In December of last year, our organization switched from Exchange to Google Apps for mail hosting. I have to admit that I wasn’t completely on board with this idea. I will also admit that I am actually a fan of Microsoft in many ways, and that Microsoft has been good to SDFF.A Microsoft representative has been on our Board since we formed in 1999. But my ambivalence regarding Google Apps wasn’t a matter of being beholden to Microsoft, it had more to do with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But our Manager of Tech Services wanted to switch for three main reasons:
- Reduced internal technology overhead (goodbye Exchange server)
- Bigger mailboxes and less mailbox management
- Better mobile interface
So we come to today and the introduction of Wave for Google Apps, not to mention a slew of other products and services including the Google Chrome Web Store, which makes everything about Google Apps more interesting.
And wouldn’t you know it, the subject of our next Microsoft order is on the front burner. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, we can’t order everything we need, and NOBODY FUNDS OVERHEAD, so something has to go. I guess the plan to move back to Exchange can be dropped.
Needless to say, we’ll be taking a much closer look at what Google Apps can do for us and our customers in the coming weeks.
Related Links
San Diego Futures Foundation
Google Chrome Web Store
Google Apps for Nonprofits
Google Announcements
Uncharitable.net
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Nonprofit Starvation Cycle
The San Diego Futures Foundation (SDFF) was created to help bridge the digital divide in San Diego County. Among it's programs, SDFF provides technology services to social enterprises.
