Five cheap digital tools you need right now

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting the charity sector. With income dropping, organisations are having to think carefully about how they best use their budgets. This includes spending on digital tools and resources.

 

The Charity Digital Skills Report 2023, which explores the effect of the cost-of-living crisis on charities and their use of digital, shows that three in 10 charities are spending less money on digital tools. Plus, over half of charities (55%) feel that the cost-of-living crisis has negatively affected their capacity to do digital work.

 

We’ve done some research and put together a list of affordable digital tools you can use at your charity.

 

 

Video editing

 

Video content can help you to raise awareness of your work and increase engagement, so it’s an important part of your communications work.

 

If you can’t afford to commission an agency to produce a video, try Adobe Premier Elements.

 

This is a cheaper and simpler version of Adobe Premier Pro for video editing. It’s ideal for beginners who haven’t done video editing before.

 

There’s a one-off fee of £86.56 with no subscription cost. For comparison, Premier Pro costs just under £20 a month so Elements is less than double the cost over the course of a year.

 

Elements has step-by-step assistance to help you trim clips, add transitions and animated overlays. You can also choose a specific object – or area – of your video and apply an effect, like brightening the subject or blurring the background.

 

Once you’re happy with your video, you can compress it for easy sharing and then resize it for social media.

 

Adobe has added new features to Elements for 2023, including combining your videos and photos into animated slideshows and new audio tracks to add to your videos.

 

If you’re unsure about committing to the cost, you can try Elements out with a 30-day free trial. There are tutorials available to show you how to use the tool.

 

You can access some Adobe products on the Charity Digital Exchange.

 

 

Graphic design

 

If you can’t afford an in-house designer or to commission a freelancer, there are other options. Graphic design tool Canva is offering Canva for Nonprofits for charities through Charity Digital’s Exchange.

 

It gives you free access to Canva for Teams’ features for up to ten members of you team. This includes access to more images than the free Canva plan and more colour palettes. You can upload your own fonts and logos and share designs and folders with your team.

 

To sign up to Canva for Nonprofits, you can check the eligibility guidelines on the Exchange to see if your charity is eligible.

 

 

Project management

 

If you’re looking for a project management tool, you may want to try asana. It has a free basic plan which gives you access for up to 15 team members to work on projects together, as well as unlimited file storage and an unlimited activity log.

 

The Premium and Business plans on Asana are more expensive than some other project management tools. But you can get access to discounted rates on the Charity Digital Exchange, with £55 off a one-year Premium or Business Plan.

 

 

Video conferencing

 

We know that Zoom is regularly mentioned on Charity Digital, but it continues to be widely used in the sector. If you want a quick meeting with your team, then the free plan is a good place to start. It offers 40 minutes for each meeting for up to 100 people and includes team chat.

 

The paid for versions of Zoom, starting from £12.99 a month, offer extras like cloud storage and longer meetings. You can access a 50% discount on the Zoom Meetings Pro or Business Plan with a one-year subscription through Charity Digital’s Exchange.

 

 

Social media management

 

Writing and publishing social media posts can take up a lot of time. That’s why it’s handy to use a social media management tool to plan and schedule content. If you’re a small charity, Buffer is a useful tool to manage your social accounts.

 

The social media management software application has a free plan that allows you to connect three different social media channels and schedule content. It includes planning and publishing tools.

 

To access Buffer’s analytics and engagement tools, you need to upgrade to the Essentials Plan which costs $6 (around £4.70) a month for one channel (you can add extra channels for $6 a month). You can try it out for free for 14 days.

 

Buffer has a help centre with video tutorials. You can also speak to a customer advocate on Facebook messenger.

 

If you’re looking for other ways to save on budget, read our tips on how to buy cheap software. Our article on the refurbished tech market explains how you can also make big savings on technology purchases.