Idle time and productivity are two major concerns for every business organization around the world, whether they work for profit or not. There are, however, some remarkably effective productivity tools available online that a non-profit organization can employ to improve the productivity of its volunteers or employees.
Here we list a few favorites among the many tools that are available online for free, designed particularly for the purpose of boosting productivity levels across an organization. Non-profits can put them to use, and they can do so absolutely free!
Doodle is an amazing online tool for organizations seeking to boost their productivity levels. It syncs up with the computer’s calendar, and makes it ridiculously easy to find times to schedule meetings and appointments. There will be no more conflicts as Doodle will help ensure that you do not plan two activities for same times and dates. http://doodle.com/
Remember everything
Do you have too many tasks on hand, and find it difficult to remember what to do and when to do it? Make your life and your work more manageable with Evernote. It helps you organize your notes, files, and images, save your favorite web pages, improve your research and planning, and it remembers your personal preferences. http://evernote.com/
Store and access your files anywhere
Available to you if you have a Google account, Google Drive is the perfect document collaboration tool. It allows several employees within an organization to work on a single document, presentation or spreadsheet simultaneously, with the ability to add comments and control user permissions. Furthermore, documents on Google Drive can be accessed from any computer, anywhere once uploaded. https://docs.google.com
A free FTP solution
FileZilla is a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Connection which facilitates the transfer of large data files across computers within an organization. It also allows for easier and better management of server content, so that a non-profit organization can upload content to a single mainframe and its employees can simply download whatever they need from there. https://filezilla-project.org/
Remote support and online meetings
Free only for non-enterprise use, making it ideal for non-profit organizations, TeamViewer allows multiple employees to share a computer’s desktop environment. This promotes teamwork, allowing them to work simultaneously and share information without having to send and receive documents for each update. http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx
Easy time tracking
Yast allows an organization to track the time taken for several different activities. It helps improve staff performance, boost productivity, and determine the correct billing rates. It can be used to track employee arrival and departure times, how much time a particular task or project takes, how much time is being spent with each client or customer, and it can help determine how much time employees spend just idling around. http://www.yast.com/
Organize anything, together
Trello is a free of cost online tool designed to help people and organizations better organize their daily tasks and projects. It has an easy to use interface which allows employees to understand it quickly and to work in a swift manner, boosting productivity levels. https://trello.com/
Create a site as unique as you
All businesses need a website in order to have an online presence and to be visible to their target audience. A website provides an organization with an identity and serves as an information medium for their customers, clients, stakeholders etc. Weebly is a complimentary website creator that doesn’t require extensive web development expertise. http://www.weebly.com/
Secure, scalable and reliable groupware server
Kolab is an open source server which provides some the best free software for document collaboration, e-mail access, task management, note sharing, calendar organization, and news aggregation, etc. It is secure, professional, reliable and almost guaranteed to boost productivity levels across the organization. http://kolab.org/
Take control of your group’s finances
Now what kind of business would we be if we didn’t promote our own tools? Budget Builder software helps you better manage your finances. You can plan and then track your budget easily, and the software helps you determine your expenses to control overspending. It is remarkably easy to understand and to use, and performs your budget calculations in real-time. https://www.nonprofitcentral.biz/budgetbuilder/
A shared task list for your team
Asana is a web and mobile application designed to improve the way teams collaborate. Often times, project management software is feature-rich and frankly overkill for most organizations. Asana is as simple as it sounds. It’s a shared task list where you can assign tasks to users, keeping your projects focused on outcomes and the team focused on productivity, not a stream of messages and comments you normally find in e-mail. https://asana.com/
Your stuff, anywhere
If you’re looking for a safe and secure way to share larger files with colleagues, Dropbox is a simple solution. You can choose to send files via a link to anyone – regardless of if they have Dropbox – or collaborate by sharing a file or folder with another Dropbox user. A free account gets you 2GB of storage space, and the more people you refer, the more storage space you get. https://www.dropbox.com/