Connecting Up Blog
Free or discounted tools from Connecting Up to help you work from home

Updated: 28/07/2021

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted how easily our routines can be disrupted. In response to the crisis, organisations worldwide have begun to embrace remote work to halt the spread of the virus. 

Thankfully, we live in a time when technology can allow many people who are well enough to work to continue to be productive even when they can’t be in the office. We also know not every organisation was well-prepared to support a remote workforce through the first 12-months of the pandemic (based on findings from our 2020 Digital Technology in the Not-for-Profit Sector Report).

The key to excelling in a remote work environment is in the tools you use – choosing the right solutions to make a distributed workforce efficient and productive, with particular attention to using robust communication platforms that keep all your departments easily connected.

The Infoxchange Group has put together a list of technology resources that charities and not-for-profits can access to help them make the transition.

Here are some quick resources and tools you access through your Connecting Up membership to help you manage. There is a more comprehensive list of tools, services, and training resources here.

 

Google for Nonprofits

Google for Nonprofits provides free tools to charities and NFPs that allow them to work more quickly and efficiently reach a wider audience, spur more supporters to take action, and tell their story more compellingly. What’s available in the Google for Nonprofits program?

  • Google Workspace for Nonprofits - Simple solutions for effective NFP organisation management. Enable your teams to collaborate, iterate, and innovate together, from anywhere in real-time with Google's cloud-based productivity suite
  •  Google Ads - Share your story to boost your NFP funding with supporters around the world. Receive in-kind advertising for your organisation through Google Search and increase awareness worldwide.​
  •  YouTube Nonprofit Program - Bring your organisations marketing story to life. Share your videos through YouTube to better connect with supporters, volunteers, and donors.​
  •  Google Earth Outreach and Google Maps Platform - Bring your NFPs story to life with custom maps and global location data. As part of Google for Nonprofits, you may be eligible to receive Google Maps Platform credits to further enhance your organisations utilization of the Google Maps Platform.

If you're not registered for the Google for Nonprofits program, you can get started here.

Office 365 and related Microsoft cloud services

There’s a reason Microsoft’s cloud products are ubiquitous in remote work environments – Office 365 has online versions of the essential tools that every workforce needs, meaning anyone with the internet and a web browser can be a fully functional worker wherever they are:

  • Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive online each have all the essential features of their desktop counterparts
  • Teams, OneNote, and Tasks provide a virtual touchpoint for all communications, projects, task tracking and collaboration
  • SharePoint serves as the central online hub of it all, allowing complete visibility, transparency, and synchronous work for everyone
  • Microsoft Teams in particular is designed and optimised for remote teams to work together seamlessly. Teams plugs into all the key Microsoft apps for file sharing, communication, task tracking and project management. There's a learning curve - but don't worry, we've got a course for that.

Of course, don’t forget Skype for Business – a classic web app with roots in the earliest days of web-based communication. Skype provides audio and video conferencing, which is vital for remote teams to meet, chat, strategise and brainstorm.

Zoom – video conferencing and collaboration

Zoom is perfect for remote teams. Specifically designed with a distributed workforce in mind, Zoom lets you run video conferences, share your screen with colleagues, run presentations and webinars and a lot more. One of the best features of Zoom is the personal meeting ID – a unique link attached to the user profile that lets you run “instant meetings” at the drop of a hat.

Connecting Up members can access a 50 per cent discount on a one-year subscription for a Zoom Meetings Pro or Business plan and certain add-ons with up to 99 licenses.

TeamViewer – remote control and support

Your tech support people should be able to work from home too, and TeamViewer is a great app to allow just that. TeamViewer allows remote access and control of work computers from anywhere with at least 3G internet access or better. So, your tech people can even provide support from their smartphones. TeamViewer also has an option for remote management, which allows your IT security experts to monitor your entire virtual system and keep it running smoothly.

Connecting Up members can access a 60 per cent discount on one-year subscriptions for any TeamViewer Remote Management services for up to 200 endpoints and up to 1,000 GB of cloud backup.

Box – file storage and sharing

There are numerous cloud-storage services available, but the benefit of Box is that charities and not-for-profits can get a perpetual licence (i.e. pay once for a licence that never expires and never needs to be renewed). Box also has the advantage of being conceived as a business-oriented approach to cloud storage. Notable competitors being focused more on individual needs, at least in the beginning).

Asana

Asana is online collaborative work management software that helps teams coordinate and manage their work. Asana Premium is for teams. Asana Business is for organizations to monitor, manage, and standardize work across all their teams. With either plan, teams can collaborate from anywhere with Asana's mobile and web applications.

This offer provides you with a coupon code to receive a 50% discount on an annual subscription to either Asana Premium or Asana Business for one team.

Essential hardware

Some companies supply laptops or tablets for staff to use at home, while others expect their employees to use their personal computers. It is at your organisation’s discretion, but relying on staffs equipment can cause issues if the hardware is outdated, bloated with questionable software, or not secured sufficiently with virus/malware protection.

Remember that going refurbished is always a good option for supplying staff IT gear at any time. A refurbished laptop, tablet or smartphone is a low-cost way of preparing your employees for remote work and gives you control of security and software requirements.

Connecting Up Online Courses

Connecting Up Online Courses is an online learning platform with hundreds of course topics to help you get the most out of technology. Unlike many other online learning tools, you don’t need to pay a subscription fee – all courses are either free or come with a one-off cost, so you only pay for what you use.

We have several courses to give you a kickstart on many aspects of remote work and associated tools, such as:

... and a lot more.

Embrace the future of work

If there was ever a time that demonstrated the importance of having cloud-based systems to support a distributed workforce, then the last 12-months was it.

Even if you’re not working remotely at the moment, you may be soon – but it’s not just about a global pandemic. There are many other benefits to productivity and employee health and wellbeing that are a topic for another blog post.