OSS mainstays: Non-profit IT pt.1

At Athens Area Habitat, I can vouch that the money we receive is used very ethically.  When people donate their hard-earned money, we work over-time to make sure we build as many homes as possible with it.   Every internal and promotional project with a “your budget is zero dollars” mentality.  We are, however, a full-on business with extensive IT needs and a professional brand to maintain.  Nobody but me at the office has anything beyond basic computer skills SO it falls to me to figure out how to accomplish enterprise level operations with basically no money whatsoever.  It was the need to get a whole lot done for very little money that initially spurred my investigation of open source software.  The amazing thing that I discovered was that the open source solutions available were often competitive, if not better than their full-price counterparts.

As a quick guide, here are the programs I use on a daily basis to get everything done that I need to get done.  They are all completely free and come highly recommended.

Graphics:

GIMP: substitute for Photoshop.  Will do absolutely everything you require and expect from a graphics editor.

Inkscape:  This program is an exemplary vector based drawing program.  I prefer it head and shoullders above illustrator.

Scribus: Solid page layout software.

Open Office:  You’re screwed, Microsoft.  This suite sponsored by Sun is the posterchild of open source success.

Ubuntu:  A free OS.  Use this for a few weeks and you’ll understand what computing is really about.  Free yourself from the corporate structure already.  Anyone who gives a dime to Apple or Microsoft is the victim of a scam.

Those are my staples.  To be fair, there are some gaps when it come to OSS.  There’s no real alternative to Flash, Dreamweaver, or Final Cut as far as I’m aware.  If anyone has a good suggestion, I’m open to it.

Two amazing tools…

I just finished putting together the initial design/framework for Athens Area Habitat’s new web site using Joomla and I found it to be fairly pain free.  If you need to get a fairly complex, flexible site up fast this is recommended.  I didn’t have to code a single line of PHP, so mission accomplished!  It’s available at Joomla’s site, and can be installed very easily via Fantastico on Blue Host’s servers.

Also, thanks to a tweet from IdaApps, I learned about Ning this morning.  I wanted to set up a Social Network for Athens Area Habitat’s volunteers and supporters but thought it would be impossible.  The Ning site took about 15 minutes to set up.  No joke.  This is a great resource.  Check out the Habitat Community!

Social Movements

Ok, here’s the deal.  I started working for Habitat for Humanity because I wanted to make a difference in peoples’ lives:  concrete change for the better, in measurable ways.  My enthusiasm was quickly burned away by the day to day drugery of maintaining an office and a sales & fundraising environment.  I forgot what I was about and I forgot what Habitat is all about.  This isn’t a job.  I’m a footsoldier in an epic war against poverty.  While the statistics in Athens are staggering (we’re the 5th poorest county in the country), there’s a large and enthusiastic base of people willing to work for positive change.  My problem centers around tapping into this potential energy and unleashing it on the community.

 

Millard Fuller started Habitat and it was revolutionary.  The energy surrounding that needs to be rekindled.  People need to be empowered to affect the change they desire to see.

 

All of this was inspired by a series of conversations I had over the weekend with my friend Daniel Wright.  He recently spoke with Spike Jones, a leading proponent of word of mouth and social media networking, and member of the Brains on Fire company.  Anyhow, Briains on Fire is all about creating “movements” rather than “campaigns,”  i.e. John McCain had a campaign while Obama had a movement.  Movements can set a whole nation on fire starting with nothing but passion and hope.  That’s what Habitat needs right now.

I’m developing a plan.  This morning I made a couple graphics to get the juices flowing.  Here’s one:

 

the caption reads “nex ut paupertas” which translates “death to poverty”

Bike Race commercial for HFH

Jittery Joe’s Fall Classic Century

Habitat is putting on a Metric Century ride in conjunction with Jittery Joe’s Coffee, and I’ve been generating different marketing materials for the last couple of weeks.  I’m really relieved because we just shot the tv spot this morning and it went well.  Once it’s edited it’s going on youTube, so I’ll let you know.

Here’s some of the print stuff I made for the event:

Poster

Rapid Summer

July is screaming to a conclusion and the days seems to be ripping by at a mechanical pace. Lots and lots of good things are happening. Here’s a flyer I designed today for a benefit Habitat is putting on:

If you live in Athens, you should definitely come. It should be a great show. I’m particularly excited about Don Chambers’ appearance. So that show’s pretty much planned, but we’ve got a bunch of other events in the works, including three different fund raising races. As you can imagine, races are a complicated affair but a lot of fun.

I promised you some photos of the show my wife and I shot at the Caledonia. These are from her blog:

The band pictured is Pet Volcano

Anyway, that’s some of the stuff going on. Vacation someday.

Mass media & Wall-E

We’re shooting a tv commercial for Habitat today AND shooting a concert tonight. Hyper. I’ll try and post some stuff when both are done.

—

Last night I finally had a chance to see Wall-E. Oh my goodness. This film doesn’t feel at all like the rest of Pixar’s work and pushes beyond a cartoon into something more complex. It feels like a full blown drama, but there are these ridiculous robots bleeping at each other the whole time. It’s amazing. As it started I was skeptical. Can this maintain my interest for an entire film? How are they going to develop character out of what amounts to a metal cube with arms?

They developed the character. They developed the story. In short, by the end I’d cried twice. Yes, I feel like an idiot, but what can I say? Pixar is awesome.

This doesn’t happen often…

I read a news story that made me feel great today. I love the ideas and attitude behind Obama’s plan to increase service in the United States. Read the story here.

My whole job centers around working with volunteers, and I can tell you right now that America isn’t the awful bag of consumers our current foreign policy has led the world to believe. There are so many awesome folks out there who want to lend a hand that I have to turn people away all the time due to overbooking. Finding funding is ten times the problem finding volunteers is. The economy is not the government’s only responsibility. Empowering and inspiring citizens to do the right thing is huge (and I have my suspicions that the economy may benefit in return anyway).

I believe that this is a great plan, and I’d love to see these programs strengthened and given the respect they deserve.

That’s ten points for Obama in my book.