I no longer believe that that should be the case anymore. I think many nonprofits can get away with a kind of virtual IT system where the files reside primarily on Amazon’s S3 and any more specific applications can be set up remotely (maybe even on Amazon EC2 which now supports Windows servers). Even better, you can get by without having to pay some IT guy thousands of dollars a year for maintenance. The suggestions that follow are for you to follow should you want to create a IT infrastructure for your nonprofit that keeps labor costs down as much as possible.

Here’s a suggested IT system for nonprofits under 25 people:

Software

Use Google Apps for your e-mail and file storage solution. There’s a nonprofit version that you can get if you’re a 501c3. It’s a far superior solution to untagged and unclassified documents on a shared hard drive which is how many nonprofits have stored their documentation over time.

Cost: $0. 

Unfortunately, Google Docs are just not ready for primetime. Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint are still superior solutions if you need to get down and dirty with your documents. You can get Office 2007 for $16 at Techsoup. However, try out Open Office and compare. Personally, I think the jump in quality from Open Office’s Writer to Office’s Word is worth the $16.

Cost: $16 per user.

You still need to buy antivirus software for each computer. When you buy your laptops and desktops, say no to the optional antivirus software. Just go over to Techsoup and pick up 25 copies of Norton 2009 for $70.

Cost: $70 for all 25 users.

CRM sofware for basic fundraising purposes can be had for free from salesforce.com Foundation. That’s 10 licenses for $0. We’re assuming your org has no more than 25 people. If more than 10 people need to see your CRM at a time, extra licenses are available at a pretty massive discount.

Cost: $0.

There are tons of decent vendors at a price point under $300. I recommend looking at GiftWorks and DonorPerfect.

Hardware

Buy desktop computers for everyone but make sure to buy laptops for everyone who needs mobility. The price points between the two kinds of computing have declined to the point that it’s now a business decision more than an IT budgeting issue. Here are a few tips:

• Go to Dell’s website and buy Optiplex  desktops and Latitude  laptops with 4 year ProSupport plans. This will give you a chance to space out your purchases yet still have them get serviced for at least 4 years.  It also means you won’t need a tech guy to fix these computers, you’ll just need someone to call Dell.
• These computers come with Vista. Never run Vista with only 1 GB of memory. It will be too slow and your employees will suffer needlessly. Always buy 2 GB of RAM for each computer.
• Buy the desktops with the added Wi-Fi USB stick. Wireless is much cheaper to install so even the desktops will be wireless.
• Buy the cheapest 17-inch monitors Dell will have you buy.

Cost: $1100 per computer.

Networking

Internet, Internet, Internet. You can’t skimp on networking as it is the backbone of what makes this low-cost configuration work. It also means you’ll need to pay for someone to network you unless you know how to do this yourself. Chances are you won’t or you wouldn’t be reading this post! It’s not rocket science but it’s certainly not for the uninitiated.

Find yourself TWO ISPs. You can get a cable provider such as Comcast or Time Warner and a regular DSL connection through Speakeasy or your local telecom.

You then buy an Internet router and then buy yourself a regular wireless access point. You will need a specialized router like the Cisco RV042 which has auto-failover. This means that if the cable connection goes down, it auto-switches to your slower DSL connection. Why such an elaborate scheme? Your employees will stop working if the Internet goes down. It’s just that plain and simple.  You need Internet running all the time to make this system work.

Cost:  $600 for the Cisco Linksys RV042 10/100 4-Port VPN Router, a Linksys Wireless N Access Point (WAP4400N) and to pay someone for about two hours worth of time to set it up. It will be around $100-$150 a month for Internet possibly more depending on what vendors are available at your location.

File Storage and Backup

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that file servers are no longer necessary. Instead, your small nonprofit can use the workgroup edition of JungleDisk. The way this works is that the JungleDisk application spends all it’s time synchronizing your files with Amazon’s S3 service. Your files are up on the Web automatically and every few minutes are being backed up into another copy. This service alone eliminates the need to have a file server sitting on your system always waiting for a nightly tape backup. It also means practically instant business continuity in the event of a disaster.

Even better thing about JungleDisk? You have 24 hour Web access to your files.

Cost: $ 0.15 per GB. Yeah, that’s right 15 cents per GB.

Final budget over 4 years:

Software: $680 for MS Office and 4 years worth of Norton Antivirus 

Hardware:  $27500 for 25 computers

Networking: $5400 – $7200 for a router, access point and Internet access

File storage: Assuming a total of 100 GB in the first month and a growth rate of 3% per month, JungleDisk will cost you $1566

Not bad huh? That’s a total of $36,946 for 4 years worth of reasonable computing for 25 people. Mind you, there may be some hidden costs in the third or fourth year of operation. Hopefully, you may have outgrown your hardware needs or want to add services at that point. The great thing about this configuration is that it’s so barebones that you’re not actually painting yourself into a corner with anything. And frankly, that’s one of the biggest headaches for any IT Director worth his or her salt. You almost never want to subject the patient to a course of treatment that you can’t back off from. It’s the Hippocratic oath for IT people. Above all, do no harm and hopefully I haven’t done so. Just so you know, this is a path I’ll be charting on my own as my nonprofit comes into being.

It’s nothing fancy, but I hope to put a few more tutorials up there for nonprofit staff. All the documentation there is set up so that you can literally just go from the first to the last step just by looking at the screen. I tried to include every possible screen. Just so you know, there will be an amendment to Part III – Setting up Google Apps this week. There was a little chunk of the tutorial missing regarding a DNS change you have to make to prove to Google that you control the domain you say you do.

There’s a lot of rigmarole that I try to cut through but it can’t be helped. I hope that some of you, dear readers, may be interested in creating your own tutorials for nonprofits too broke to have consultants or too cool to know nerds in their life. Here’s to continuing their nerdless existence!

UPDATE: As of 4/21/2008, this post has been revised to include the domain verification process.

Step 1. Go to http://www.google.com/a

Look around for the “Organizations and members” link in the lower right-hand corner and click on that link to go to Step 2.

Step 2. Click on the Google Apps Education Edition link near the bottom of the screen to go to Step 3.

Step 3. You will be asked to enter a domain name.

In this case, I am using mydemononprofit.org. Enter the domain name you set up in Step 2 of Part I of this series. Don’t use mydemononprofit.org. It won’t work. Trust me. Click on “Get started” to go to Step 4.

Step 4. This is the major sign-up sheet for your organization.

You will need your Employer ID/Federal Tax ID number to fill this out properly. You can’t really fake this part for too long — Google is checking you against a database of Federal Tax IDs. Forget Santa Claus — Google knows who is naughty or nice.

Please substitute the information in the form with your org’s information. You can enter less people for number of users but I think 1 is your minimum. I’m assuming your organization does NOT provide e-mail accounts. That is, you’re probably using a Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, or Hotmail account for your org. This tutorial doesn’t cover moving your e-mail over from another e-mail system to Google Apps. I suggest that as a workaround you just forward all your old e-mail to your new account after your new e-mail is working. Make sure you are entered as a “Non-profit organization”.

Hit the “Continue” button (not shown) at the bottom of this page to go to Step 5.

Step 5. This page has you enter your username and password.

Please make sure you remember the username and password you enter in this screen. Write it down if you have to but throw it away once you’ve got it memorized. Really. I mean it. Click on “I accept. Continue with set up” to go to step 6.

Step 6. You made it! You’ve got Google Apps set up for your organization.

Now it’s time to configure your e-mail. If you followed Part II of this series, your e-mail should already be ready to flow to your new Google Apps set up. Go to Step 7.

Step 7. Look at the right-hand side of your screen.

Click on the “Activate email” link to go to Step 8.

Step 8. Does this look familiar?

You already did these steps in Part II. If you have not, please make sure you do these steps in GoDaddy. Otherwise, e-mail will not come to your domain. Think of it as creating the digital equivalent of a sign telling the postman that you are now here at Google Apps. The postman will now drop off the e-mail at your new address.

If you have already made the necessary DNS changes from Part II, feel free to click on “I have completed these steps” to go to Step 9.

Step 9. You did it!

Google is now checking your MX records. At this point, you’ll have to cool your heels for at least a day or two while Google is making sure your new domain is correct. Also, they’ll be checking to see if you are a real nonprofit in the meantime.

Step 10. But wait there’s more. Do you see this message at the top?

Google has to make sure you really own this domain. In order to prove to Google you do, you have click on “Verify domain ownership” to go to Step 11.

Step 11. Google now asks you for which verification method to choose.

Click on the little down arrow to choose a method and to go to Step 12.

Step 12. Click on “Change your CNAME record”.

Ok, you’ll need to copy and paste that “unique string” somewhere. You will need it because we’re heading back into GoDaddy to get you back into the Total DNS control screen.

Step 13. Assuming that you’ve already signed up with GoDaddy in Part I of this series, please click on “My Account” after you’ve logged in.

Step 14. Look at the left-hand side of the screen and look for “Manage Domains”. Click on “Manage Domains”.

Step 15. Look for your nonprofit’s domain name. In this example, I called it mynonprofits.org. Click on the link to your domain name.

Step 16. Click on “Total DNS Control and MX Records”. It’s on the right-hand side of your screen.

Step 17. Look for the CNAMES section on the left-hand side of your screen.

Click on the “+” next to CNAMES to go to Step 18.

Step 18. The CNAMES section popped up. Look at the right-hand side of the screen for “Add New CNAME Record”.

Click on “Add New CNAME Record” to go to Step 19.

Step 19. This is where you enter the unique identifier Google Apps gave you in Step 12.

Please fill out the form in the same as the screen shot above. Just make sure to enter YOUR unique string from Step 12. Click on OK to go to Step 20.

Step 20. GoDaddy should give you a confirmation screen.

Step 21. Go back to http://www.google.com/a

Look at the top right-hand corner of the screen. You’re now a returning user.

Click on “Returning user, sign in here” to go to Step 11.

Step 22. Look at the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Kind of weird, right? You click on the link above and nothing happened except that now the screen is asking for something new.

Make it look like the screen shot below:

Enter your domain and click on the arrow that’s pointing down until it says “Manage this domain”. Click “Go” to go to Step 12.

Step 23. What’s this? Google says “Your domain has changed to a new edition of Google Apps.”

What does that mean? It means you’re legit! Google has figured out you’re really a nice person with a heart of gold and thus are capable of running a nonprofit. It figured this out by dividing the number of Google searches you made on “kittehs” by the number of times you have said “LOL” while in GChat. Just kidding. Basically, they just did a search on the Federal Tax ID you submitted and moved you over to Google Apps for Non-Profits. Please note that this screen may not necessarily show until Google has figured you out.

You can pick any administrator username you want. However, it’s probably smarter to use “administrator” instead of your actual username. That way, if you add more users later on, they won’t need to have access to your e-mail account to change Google Apps. Click on “I accept.” to go to Step 13.

Step 24. You’re back in the administration screen!

Notice how the “We are checking MX records for your domain” notice is gone. Instead, you have a URL that says “http://mail.google.com/a/mydemononprofit.org” underneath the E-mail section. If you click on it, you will get your new e-mail.

Step 25. You may also see this message at the top of your screen:

You don’t need to re-verify domain ownership. Just make sure this message isn’t around for a couple of days.

That ends part III of the series. You now have e-mail and Google Apps running for your domain. Your domain will also be verified by Google Apps. You’ve started to get your non-profit up and running. There is one thing that I’ve left undone and that is, you don’t have custom subdomains for your Google Apps. Basically, instead of going to http://mail.google.com/a/mydemononprofit.org for your e-mail, you can set up a custom subdomain like “mail.mydemononprofit.org” instead. It’s much shorter than the way Google Apps leaves it to you. If enough people are interested, I can write a tutorial for that as well.

I also have another offer. Do you want to see what a live demo of Google Apps using the mydemononprofit.org domain looks like? E-mail me at abenamer@nonprofittechblog.org and I can set you up with an account and you can play around with Google Apps yourself.

Despite the lengthy instructions you’ve followed, you don’t have a Web site yet and I’m going to introduce a new series, “How to create a free Website for your nonprofit.” However, don’t worry too much about a Web site yet. You have a lot to learn about how to use Google Apps. Don’t forget. It’s more than just a place to get e-mail. You can write documents, make spreadsheets and collaborate with others. To learn more, go to http://google.com/support/a/. Please leave me any comments as to how you’ve used this series to get your non-profit up on the Web. Any feedback you might have would be appreciated.

Update: It looks like I forgot to do the domain verification procedure that Google asks for. Don’t worry — Google gives you a grace period of 30 days after your Google Apps site has been created. I’m working with Google right now to write the necessary instructions for domain verification.

Unfortunately, Google Apps for Domains is perhaps the most complex part of the series and I’ve been going back and forth with Google trying to get a demo account together so that readers can actually pretend to sign up for Google Apps for Domains without any penalty. I think we’re getting close so that’s why I’m posting this. Google has an incredible amount of help videos and instructional pages for Google Apps but oddly enough very little on how to set it up for yourself. With a bit of luck, that gap will be bridged for nonprofit novices. Those of you who support tiny nonprofits, please feel free to comment on any particular screens you want shown in the process. I’m trying to capture it click for click but if there’s any thing that you think requires emphasis I’ll be sure to do that.

Step 1. Assuming that you’ve already signed up with GoDaddy in Part I of this series, please click on “My Account” after you’ve logged in.

Step 2. Look at the left-hand side of the screen and look for “Manage Domains”. Click on “Manage Domains”.

Step 3. Look for your nonprofit’s domain name. In this example, I called it mynonprofits.org. Click on the link to your domain name.

Step 4. Click on “Total DNS Control and MX Records”. It’s on the right-hand side of your screen.

Step 5. This is what the DNS records for your domain will look like. They’re nice but not useful for getting your site to work with Google Apps. Go to Step 6.

Step 6. Do you see the records called MX (Mail Exchange) from Step 5? To the right, there are these boxes with a little “x” in them. You need to delete these MX records to prepare your domain name to accept Google Apps. Now click on both of those little boxes.

Step 7. Now that’s done, you need to add a bunch of MX records per Google’s instructions. Click on the “Add New MX Record” box. This will allow you to enter the records for Google Apps. This will make e-mail for your nonprofit’s domain go through Google instead of the default e-mail servers that GoDaddy had set up for you. You will have to keep adding new MX records until you go through the list of Google servers.

Step 8. This is the screen for entering all of Google Apps’ information. This is a quote from Google’s FAQ on setting up MX records using GoDaddy.

For each MX Record, enter information according to the data in the table below:

• For the Select the Priority Value drop-down menu, enter the priority value.
• For Enter a Host Name, leave the default setting to @.
• For Enter Goes To Address enter the Gmail server name.
• For the Select TTL Value drop-down menu, enter 1 Week. This will appear as 604800 seconds within the DNS system.
  

  PriorityValue	HostName	Goes To Address (Mail Server)	TTLValue
  10	@	ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.	1 Week
  20	@	ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.	1 Week
  30	@	ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.	1 Week
  40	@	ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	1 Week
  50	@	ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	1 Week

Ok, did you enter all of the MX records? Make sure you go through all five of them and keep entering those records. That’s it for now. Your domain is now configured to pass e-mail through Google apps.

1. Get your domain name through GoDaddy.

2. Get your e-mail infrastructure up and running from Google Apps for Domains.

3. Get your web site up and running over at WordPress.com.

And the great thing? It’s going to cost you about $8 a year. I promise. Ok $9 a year if you want to keep your registration details off the Web.

This blog post and others following after it will be about those three steps. I’ll try to get these all up by the end of this week. I’m planning on taking these articles and dumping them into a Wiki so people can add their own comments in the future.

But first, let’s talk about domain names. You need one. It’s the stamp that shows that you’re a real organization. When your e-mail ends in an aol.com or a yahoo.com domain name, you’re not going to be seen as serious or web-savvy. If your name ends in a gmail.com account, you’re getting close. However, it’s best to have your e-mail address end in a yourorgnamehere.org.

So the first thing that has to happen is you getting a domain name. The old way to do this was to go through Network Solutions which for years was the only place you could get a .com or .org domain in the United States. You can now get domain names at a whole slew of other sites. GoDaddy is a good alternative.

There is one problem though. There’s a good chance that your organization’s name has already been taken. You’re going to have to find acceptable alternatives. For the purposes of this tutorial, do NOT use any site bybut GoDaddy or Network Solutions to look for a domain name. Less scrupulous web sites will take your domain name searches and register YOUR domain names thus forcing you to pay an additional fee in order to use it. That practice is called “domain name front running”. Yeah, the Internet sucks sometimes, this is one of those moments.

Before you get a domain name, you will need:

• A credit card or a PayPal account that has at $10 credit on it.
• Lots of imagination for coming up with a good domain name.
• A mailing address to get any notifications from GoDaddy.
• An e-mail address. But wait, Allan, I thought I was going to get a new e-mail domain name and everything? Unfortunately, you’ll still need your old e-mail address. You can change this info later once you’ve your e-mail infrastructure up and running.

Step 1. Finding your domain name

I went to godaddy.com and found a text box that expected me to enter a new domain name.

I decided to enter mynonprofits.org. And clicked on the orange search button.

Step 2. Get your domain name

Good. They found a match. And you could get the other domains if you wanted to just so you could redirect those domains to your site later. However, our budget is less than $10 so let’s not go crazy. Click the orange Continue button at the bottom of the page.

Step 3. Get a GoDaddy account

You have to fill out registration information. It’s pretty easy, once you’re done, click on the orange Continue button.

I’m going to show what GoDaddy does after you fill out the sheet. It asks you to verify the contact information. PLEASE make sure it’s correct. It’s the only way GoDaddy can contact you when your domain name is going to expire.

There’s a lot of extra junk on this page. It’s basically intended to make you register your own name as a domain name. Just disregard it. It’s just intended to get a little bit more money out of you. Once you’re done checking things, click on the orange Continue button.

Step 4. Decide how long it will before your domain name expires

What’s that? Domain names expire? Yes they do. Make sure that registration length is at 1 year. When you know your organization is going to be stronger next year, you can then move ahead. Some options explained. Why do you need private registration? Actually, you don’t need it. You may want it. Technically speaking, if you’re still running your org out of your house, you probably entered your home address into the contact info at Step 3. Unfortunately, this means that people searching for who owns your new domain name will find your home address in there. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to check for “Deluxe” registration but I’m not doing it here because we’re looking to do a bare-bones registration. However, a more private registration will only cost you about $2 a year.

Really, don’t bother with customizing your order. All you need to do is somehow make it to the checkout screen.

Step 5. Almost there!

GoDaddy LOVES to give you extra chances to buy stuff. Just bear with me. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get a domain name. Make sure you’re only buy for 1 year.

Make sure the Domain Registration Agreement and Universal Terms of Service checkboxes are checked before you hit the Continue button.

Step 6. Sign in and pay for it.

Nothing interesting here. However, just make sure your e-mail address is correct. If GoDaddy can’t contact you, then you won’t know that your domain name is expiring next year. This can cause a lot of grief (I know, I’ve been there). And you may end up having to sign in ANOTHER domain name because it can take weeks to get an expired domain name back in your hand especially as other sites are looking to take your domain name from you so that they can sell it back to you. Yes, I know this all sounds horrible. However, just make sure that you renew your domain name every year. And don’t take offers from anyone but GoDaddy after you’ve signed up. Please note that just having a domain name doesn’t mean that you automatically get your new domain name in your e-mail. There’s a bit of configuration that has to happen first. You need a mail server at the

Next post will be on how to use your new domain name with Google Apps.