Know what you’re eligible for

• NPOs, and (outside of Quebec) Coops incorporated as NPOs are eligible for reduced, if not outright free access to services. TechSoup is a group that can provide access to:
  • Google Apps Domain, Microsoft 365, Canva, reduced Lenovo (laptops) hardware, Adobe suites, Bitwarden / onepass, Slack, and more

Look the part

• Get a domain name, e.g. foodgroup.com ! (~$25CAD/year)
• Koumbit is a one-stop-shop for webhosting ($180CAD/y). I recommend sharing an account with other value aligned organizations, it can host up to 100 domains for the same price. It affords:
  • Alias your emails 
    • turn foodgroup@gmail.com -> info@foodgroup.com
  • Host your website
  • Create easy links (e.g. newsletter.foodgroup.com could point to your newsletter, agm.foodgroup.com would point to AGM signup, etc)

• Creating a website:

  • Inverse correlation: convenience is often tied to a higher price point. While websites create an air of legitimacy, they can often be cumbersome to create/keep up to date.
  • Consider first a linktr.ee if you do not currently have a website
  • Static vs. Dynamic: Every step of the way, consider: do we have the capacity to keep this up-to-date / can that be automated?
    Do we expect people to go to our website and see an upcoming event, or can that stay on our social media only?
  • All a group’s website needs to accomplish at the start
    • What does your group do?
    • How can people get involved (very important)?
    • How to get in touch?
    • A static site should be able to sit pretty for at least a year without needing to be updated
• Send professional looking emails, easily
  • Use an HTML Email builder: Stripo, sendgrid, Topol, etc.
  • Email listserv services for over 100 people per month usually costs $20/mo.
  • Sending out to everyone can be expensive, in the short term BCC all works, 

Archiving is KEY

• Think for a moment about your organization as a thing that is greater than the sum of its parts; the people who are making it happen. 
  • At any moment, a person and their insitutional knowledge and experiences could leave the organization resulting in a gap and consistency issue. 
  • In order for more people to be able to join and lend their efforts, there needs to be objectively easy-to-navigate documents and structures.

• CRITICAL documents to keep up-to-date:

  • An organization info sheet: 
    • every bureaucratic number you need (TPS/TVQ, registration number, links to key files e.g. letters patent, etc.)
    • What services/logins do you currently have (I recommend having the username and who has access, a sheet with all your org passwords is a vulnerability)
  • A resource guidebook to your organization:
    • What’s the structure of the organization?
    • Who has what role/responsibility?
    • What bylaws/policies exist?
      

Google Workspace Best practices 

• Control permissions via google groups:
  Example: create board@foodgroup.com which has every member of the board. That way, when the board rotates, you can remove the old and add the new and voila, access to the drive and included in one email listser
• If you are an NPO, migrate to Google Domain (more control over emails, document access, more storage, other premium services)
• Create archive folders within folders to keep things tidy
• Make a point to periodically clean up the drive, recommended once every 2 months
• USE SHORTCUTS: you can have the same file located in multiple places in the drive without having to update them all
• Upload new file versions without having to delete the old (the url will stay the same)
  •  

Get your communications down

• Within the organization, different groups may want to communicate differently. The key is to make sure:
  • Ideally there is one shared platform everyone uses
  • If an internal group would prefer to discuss amongst themselves, they can do so so long as they’re in the shared platform too

• Slack has predatory pricing features, such as locking messages more than 30 days old. Discord is a decent alternative. NPOs can get slack for free
• Use google groups to create easy email lists of multiple people, so nobody gets left out
• Revisit every once in a while to make sure the communication platform you’re using is working for everyone. Have that conversation

Various Shoutouts

• Zeffy: totally free fundraising / event platform
• Signal: computer/phone end-to-end encrypted secure comms
• Streak (for gmail) track emails opened
• Jotform: the BEST form software out there