Choosing and Using Open Source Software: A Primer for Nonprofits

The open source community model for software development and support represents a huge potential opportunity for nonprofit organizations. The promise of open source is to allow the nonprofit sector to:

• Share technical expertise across organizations
• Leverage limited software development resources
• Avoid lock-in to proprietary technology platforms, and
• Minimize licensing costs as well as total cost of ownership.

However, non-profits have been slow to explore the opportunities afforded by open source. Many are not even aware of the open source approach as an option. This is due to a combination of factors:

• The technical nature of the benefits involved makes them difficult to communicate and understand
• The open source community tends to be a closed loop, designed to serve the needs of its members, who are mostly very technically savvy. Open source development efforts tend to neglect software ease of use, tutorials and documentation, and support for less technical users.
• Most open source applications do not incorporate features and functionality that address non-profit's unique operational needs

The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) was begun in June 2001 to bridge this gap between the nonprofit and open source communities. For more information on our current efforts, follow the links to the right or click here to get involved.