Finding free web services for your non-profit fundraising group can be a challenging prospect. Where do you begin? Who do you ask for free services? Will anyone even provide these services for free or at least at a discounted rate?
Luckily, there are several resources on the web that bring you into contact with individuals who will provide free web services for your non-profit fundraising group. Whether these services or actually free or are offered at a reduced price, they can help your group start or maintain a web presence and also provide consulting on attracting visitors, or efficient web design.
Services Grants at Taprootfoundation.org
Another such website is Taprootfoundation.org. This site also helps to connect professionals of various types to the fundraising groups who need their help. Their unique approach includes services grants.
While everyone is familiar with traditional cash grants, services grants are grants of professional services that will help fundraising groups to maximize their effectiveness. These grants can include professionals in web design to create the all-important web presence for your non-profit group. To take advantage of these free resources your non-profit will have to meet certain grant criteria and will have to make it through the grant-making process.
While this will take some work, the possible end result of free web design and other professional services could catapult your non-profit into new levels of effectiveness without overtaxing your financial resources.
Also read: 9 Tips for Running a Marathon Fundraiser
Resources and Volunteers at Idealist.Org
Another great resource is Idealist.org, where those who wish to volunteer can meet up with those who require volunteers. It can be difficult to gain support through ordinary means and this site helps to direct you to those who are eager to join up with the efforts of fundraising groups.
This website is comprised of individuals who either require volunteers or who wish to volunteer their time and skills to help worthy causes. This is wonderful in that you can see all the people who wish to help out and you can get an idea of all the services that you might be able to use. You may not have previously realized that there are volunteers out there to help not only with simple tasks but also with skilled endeavors such as web design.
The services you could find through this site are practically limitless. You may find local volunteers for hands-on fundraising jobs, or remote volunteers for such jobs as web design, or creating e-mail newsletters. There is generally no cost as the people you will find are volunteers but this can only be confirmed on a case by case basis.
Volunteers may come to this site and offer up any services that they feel may assist charitable organizations. This website brings together a wonderful cross-section of professional skills and abilities that can be put to good use to further charitable interests. With thousands of listings under the heading of ‘Volunteers’ alone, the scope of this website becomes clear. There are so many individuals out there wanting to help that you could find a plethora of professional services for free to further the lofty goals that you have for your cause.
Volunteer Match
VolunteerMatch.org aims to match non-profits up with volunteers as the name implies. These volunteers may be well meaning individuals without specific skills or they may be professionals in web design or other areas.
While you will have to pay for access to the site in order to get your hands on certain services, their fees are a small price to pay for access to this resource. Aside from just matching you up with volunteers, VolunteerMatch can also help you to coordinate your volunteer programs. This help may begin with online recruitment of volunteers and can progress from there. You can learn how to manage your volunteers and how to make your organization a great place to volunteer. Depending on your membership with this site, you can gain access to tools such as Tracking & Reporting, Basic Recruiting Tools, and Monthly Account Summary just to name a few.
It may take some time and effort to reap the rewards of these websites but often no more time or effort than you would have to put into services that you would have to pay for.
Also read: Crafting Volunteer Job Descriptions
TechSoup.org
Get discounted or free software and hardware at TechSoup.org.
Free or not, if you decide to work with a service or volunteer through one of these websites, putting the details of your project or job in writing (even if it’s only through an e-mail) will assure that both parties know what to expect of each other in their new partnership.