Software is expensive.  Why spend your oranization’s hard-won money on software you can get for less, or, better, free?

If you don’t yet know about TechSoup, go check them out.  In addition to useful information (including webinars and a host of useful articles), TechSoup also serves as a clearinghouse for discounted technology for non-profits.  You can get discounted Microsoft software, access to eTapestry, scheduling software, and more.

There is also the wonderful world of open source software.  Here are some of my picks:

AVG or Avast — Options for virus control instead of Norton.  Free for home use, differing rates for business use.  (At least Avast has an option to request a non-profit discount — not sure about AVG.)  Combine with Spybot for great protection.

OpenOffice – Like Microsoft Office (although not the horrible Office 2007), but free.  It is completely compatible with Office, so you won’t lose the ability to send documents on to others.  It will even write your files to pdfs!

Firefox — If you’re still surfing with buggy Internet Explorer, stop!  Not only does Firefox have fewer vulnerabilities than IE, it has so many other benefits that I can’t imagine going back to IE (in fact, I only use IE for testing how my org’s webpage will look in it).  Firefox has many optional add-ons or extensions you can choose to use.  The chief of these is Adblock Plus, which helps you avoid popups, and the now-ubiquitous ads on every website.  There are also a variety of GreeseMonkey scripts that will strip any remaining ads, and do just about anything you could possibly imagine to your browser. Other additions include the Developer Toolbar and Firebug, which can be a great boon if you’re trying to manage a website.

Audacity (download from SourceForge or Download.com) — Audio software, that can be used for making podcasts, audio tours, or even digitizing cassette tapes.

Irfanview — Image editing software.  It certainly doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Photoshop, but it will help you resize or change format.

Gimp — Another option for image editing software, about on par with Photoshop.

Various CMS — as discussed previously, Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal are all open-source content management systems.

Notepad ++ — Regular Notepad doesn’t have much in the way of features.  If you’re trying to tweak your website code (say, the php files for your CMS), regular old Notepad can be a pain, and opening DreamWeaver can sometimes be a bit much.  I’ve been much happier since I found this.

Ajax Animator — Adobe’s Flash (to program it, not to just view it) can be pretty pricey, but there is a free way to nevertheless build flash components.

PicMarkr – A utility to help you add watermarks to your images (I’m not saying you must watermark your images, but it’s there if you want it).

Zamzar — A web service that will convert your files (emailing the new file to you) to any number of formats.  It can take a little while to receive the email however, so be sure to plan ahead if you’re converting files on a deadline (say, for grants submittal).

Osalt – Not software itself, but a great resource for finding Open Source alternatives.