I've worked with computers for almost fifty years, starting with mainframes and changing with the industry. I've run an architectural business that was "ahead of the curve" in its use of computers and integrated the use of computers into my teaching for 30 years. I've been doing it long enough that I'm relatively immune to fads and am intensely focused on what makes sense to the end user - not what's the latest cool tool/toy.
In particular I believe that there's an almost bewildering array of useful free and low-cost software that can enhance the productivity of most organizations. No one can keep track of it all, but I've spent a great deal of time looking at it and experiment with it to try and find what's useful.
What I bring to a nonprofit is the ability to listen and understand what's important to you, then to recommend potential solutions, recognizing not only the cost of the hardware and software, but also the training and maintenance issues. Below I've put down areas where I should be able to help. I'm comfortable with both Windows and Mac systems as well as their operation.
Office suites - MS Office (MS-365) & OpenOffice, Google Workspace
Small Office database tools - FileMaker, MS Access, OpenOffice Base - online simple databases
Large databases such as Oracle or MySQL are beyond my scope.
Image Tools - Adobe Suite, GIMP (free Photoshop substitute), PaintNet, Canvas - many others
Website Creation - Wordpress, Google Apps (this site), Wikis etc.
BIM & CAD Tools - Revit, Autocad etc - these aren't usually important in small offices, but can become important in a construction project.
Utilities to Improve efficiency - clipboard assist, file synchronization, file backup etc.
AI Tools - Google Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, CoPilot for research and search.
Appropriate computers for the job at hand, balancing first cost and operating efficiency
It's easy to pick a good machine from a major company - most are very good - but there are still situations where specific needs can make a difference in terms of graphics cards, monitors, external disks etc.
Small networks and internet connections
Large networks and servers are beyond my scope - it's quite specialized knowledge
Any nonprofit should join Techsoup.org to take advantage of their bargains on both software and hardware.
See also my page on Specific Software
Updated: 4/5/2025