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Private Christian schools, churches, and other non-profits often need and desire to have tools and equipment that will make the operation of their business more smooth, but the cost of such hardware, software, and other resources compared to their shoestring budget means that many settle for cheaper alternatives that don’t meet their needs or accomplish their goals. As a former Christian school principal, a tech minister for my small church, and someone who’s worked over 15 years in the world of non-profits, I wanted to share just a few of the resources that I found most helpful and give some suggestions on what you should purchase.
Tech Soup
TechSoup is a resource for non-profit agencies to purchase donated software and hardware at a reduced cost. Let’s see if you recognize some of these names: Microsoft, Zoom, Adobe Acrobat, Norton Internet Security, or QuickBooks. All of these are available on TechSoup. Our church & school saved hundreds of dollars by purchasing QuickBooks, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft for Non-Profits at Tech Soup. Microsoft for Non-Profits contains volume licenses for Windows, Office, which includes Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and can also host your email, which can eliminate the need for expensive I/T services to host your email and server. They also have laptops, projectors, printers, and other hardware available. TechSoup is definitely worth your time.
Cloud Storage
If you’re not familiar with and utilizing cloud storage, you should be. Chromebooks are popular these days in schools, but Chromebooks typically have low storage capacity. So if you’re downloading and installing apps on the Chromebook, it’s similar to your phone or tablet: Your space is limited for saving and storing things like documents, pictures, videos, etc. Cloud storage becomes a must. And with Chromebooks, it is an android-based software so it ties in perfectly with Google’s platform and Google Drive. Google Drive is my personal favorite cloud storage. It connects with your email account (if you have a Gmail account) and your storage is at 15 GBs compared to DropBox at 2GB and One Drive from Microsoft at 5 GB. Google’s storage, however, is tied all across their services. So, if you use Google Photos and store 300 pictures, you’re using up that same 15 GB that you would be using with Google Drive. 15 GB is a lot of space for documents, but not for videos and pictures. All of these cloud platforms have mobile apps to download your documents from to your phone or tablet. One of the advantages of a cloud is it makes for a great backup for the necessary documents that you need to keep safe. You can set them to sync frequently to continuously upload documents from your PC and keep your files up to date. That’s particularly helpful for directors to keep copies of documents you might need if something were to happen to the building or if you needed something outside of normal business hours and didn’t want to go to the center to get it.
Google Suite
Google Suite includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. Basically, Google offers their version of the Microsoft Office Suite for free online. Google Docs is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word. Sheets is a spreadsheet tool similar to Microsoft Excel. Slides is a presentation creator similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. Forms can help you acquire data into a spreadsheet and use it later on (i.e. a survey, a registration form, etc.). These are 100% free and available online with Google. Microsoft Office also has a version of its Office Suite available on mobile devices (except Chromebooks) for free. I think it requires you to login to whatever account you use for Microsoft Office on a PC though. It generally will have the same features as the desktop version of Office. I found Google Docs to be more user friendly on tablets versus Microsoft Office. I’ve also heard of some bugs associated with the Microsoft Office suite on IPads, but I have not experienced those myself.
How Do I Pick Out Hardware for My School/Church/Business?
What you should buy greatly depends on what you need. When picking out laptops or desktops, I generally recommend at minimum users look for PCs with at least an Intel I5 processor, 8 GB RAM (preferably 16 GB), and 256 SSD hard drive. For basic computing and office work, I don’t generally pay a ton of attention to things such as graphic card memory, processor speed, etc. For basic computing, anything with these specs should be sufficient. As for brands, I’ve had great success with most brands and tremendous failures with most brands. I’m not as much of a brand snob as I was 15-20 years ago. People often ask about Macs or other Apple products. I’ve enjoyed my experiences using them for various functions and enjoy some of their functionality and speed compared to Microsoft Windows. The cost on them can be much higher, unfortunately. It’s up to personal preference and budget, but I do enjoy them also.
Here are some suggestions I found on Amazon.
Another question I get is about tablets. My word of caution is you get what you pay for. If you go to Wal-Mart and purchase a $50 Android tablet, it’s going to perform and be like a $50 Android tablet and probably have the same lifespan for that cost and the frustrations that come with aging machines: Sluggishness, screen difficulties, memory issues, and more. My recommendation is spend a little more and get an upper scale tablet if you’re looking to buy one. Apple’s IPad are my favorite (and I say that as a long-time Samsung Galaxy phone user). I enjoyed my Samsung Galaxy Tabs, but noticed some sluggishness as they aged. My Apple IPad is almost 4 years old and is still performing tremendously. The cost on IPads has dropped significantly over the past several years. The base IPad is only $299. If you’re not using them for extravagant functions, the base version should be sufficient. Storage can be a concern with IPads and other tablets so I would also recommend upgrading to additional storage if your budget allows.
Conclusion
Purchasing technology can be overwhelming and it can be confusing with so many options available. Hopefully, this blog has helped, but if you’d like to contact me directly for advice, please do so! I’m happy to help in any way I can.