Over the last few weeks of interactions with various people doing some amazing work in their domains, have seen the struggles they have undergone to create platforms to manage their projects, accounting, volunteering, fundraising/crowdfunding etc.
This is a major problem that ERPNext/Frappe + FOSS United have decided to solve for anyone who is an NGO or creating software for public goods and services. ERPNext/Frappe is of course free to download and install - there’s also a super cheap hosted version of the same to get started quickly (and some funding available for making that free on a case by case basis). If you have tech help in house or via volunteers, there’s also help available to train them, or if you have a good case for it, some time set aside for actually doing implementations for your needs.
So seriously, NGOs, please stop wasting your time and energy on creating software - leave it to a solid platform and the serious pros - your need will also help create something that’s available to a lot of others with similar needs.
There’s enough out of the box, free and open source systems out there that can be used for all sorts of things. ERPNext/Frappe is one of those systems, a business ERP with all sorts of business components from accounting to lead and project management built in. Using something like that (self-host for free, build in-house developer capacity) instead of building CRMs and dashboard from scratch can save immense amounts of money and time.
From my personal interactions with several NGOs, I’ve come to realise that it’s a lack of awareness that creates big technological gaps, or massive waste of precious funding on re-inventing systems.
Likw @sameershisodia said, we have been speaking to the ERPNext team to make hosted (“cloud”) versions available to NGOs for organisations that do not have the technical resources to self-host. Will have an update on this soon.
I am building a small tech team within our design agency.
As a part of our clientele is NGO who currently prefer Wordpress, can there be anyway I can get my team trained on ERPnext/ Frappe.
PS: Team currently is set of engineering freshers and interns and doesn’t have a tech lead.
Would you recommend us to hire a slightly senior engineer before taking on projects?
Very true that the crunch is not the tools but Human Resource at local level to be adept with most basic appropriate tool. A vocational school such as Navgurukul is addressing this beautifully. We need to work with advising NGO heads not to be swayed by donor class that have a big tech approach to IT systems. Many a cases a basic Google sheets with a dashboard does better than an elaborate ERP .
It’s the simple use cases and workflows, website, crm, fundraising etc. Many an org grow beyond the Google sheets level of coordination quickly and start building things in house. We are happy to help to avoid that effort and expense.
being there in Govt hospital fighting covid. we have seen how health care staff is not able to manage report bed availability & oxygen Management, Vaccination management properly. is it possible to help them with a Mobile app for doctors/ Nurses?
I work as Technology Coordinator at Rainmatter. Thank you for reaching out.
Sending you a direct message to better understand the requirement and how we can help.