G-Suite for Nonprofits background overview
Google gave us (NECASE) the unlimited license in July 2017 as G-Suite for Nonprofits. FYI. There are 3 different variations of G-Suite used today for commercial purposes. Among them G-Suite for Nonprofits can be compared to as G-Suite BASIC version See pricing. Every account created/license assigned on G-Suite BASIC, the organization must pay CAD$7.80/user/month but Google gave us the same features free to build our non-profit community stronger, technically sound and do more collaborative work.
Personal privacy is maintained all the time, i.e. no personal NECASE email account can be accessed by anyone other than the account holder.
Win audience trust and add credibility
Establishing a very good first impression is vital in the business world. The same holds true to community organizations. People trust certified domain with valid email signatures rather than regular-Gmail, yahoo or Hotmail email accounts. These days, most of the scam and fraudulent emails, phishing emails, spear-phishing emails, spoofed emails, etc. with all evil intentions are sent out via those email accounts which many businesses are vulnerable to. Having said that, if we need to deal with donor organizations or ask for donations, for example, earthquake victims fundraising or fundraising for a big project like NCCHC, using a valid certified domain creates more trust than just a regular private email. Those private Gmail, Hotmail and yahoo emails end up in the junk folder more often compared to the certified domains like @necase.ca. On top of that, emails from a certified domain look more professional and trustworthy.
Increased donations
Email marketing allows non-profits to increase donations by reducing the barriers for donors. Email is a more cost-conscious and less intrusive way to ask for donations than direct mail, which makes it far more effective. Simply including a “donate now” button on a certified email makes the donation process a lot easier for the donors, which potentially increases the chance of generating effectively more donations.
Mailbox capacity
Regular GMAIL mailbox: 15G
NEASE G-Suite mailbox: 30GB
Google Meet
Up to 100 participants can perform online conferencing with friends/family and teammates compared to only 10 users in Google hangouts. Toll-free dial pin# has been added if the participant doesn’t have Google Meet App on the phone or can be connected to the conference calls using landline phone#.
Shared Drives
A centralized file/folder management system is the best choice for document handling. For many years we have noticed that the documents are haphazardly managed and data is lost as volunteers leave their portfolio, which, later on becomes extremely difficult if not unavailable for the succeeding volunteers to access. Thanks to the Shared Drive, all documents can be shared with volunteers seamlessly resulting in a far less time consuming and warm turn over to the oncoming volunteer.
Recently, we have implemented the IT policy which does not allow @necase.ca email account holders to share any data with any private emails such as Gmail, Hotmail or yahoo users on Google Drive.
Ads-free experience
There are no advertisements. Less spamming and no undesired bugging.
Additional Calendar options
G-Suite offers more control on Calendar, Out-Of-Office and Appointment scheduling which is not available on a normal Gmail account.
Centralized management
All @necase.ca data, users, members are retained forever which are the valuable assets of the community. Any technical support can be handled by the IT Director and his/her team. Data analytics and reporting for transparency can be pulled at the request of the Board of Directors. All the information of each user can be maintained with a highly secured environment that never leaks out making it prone to malware attacks.
Resources use, groups or mobile device management, policy-based browser, email routing, and Organization Unit based service policy and many more features can be utilized by using G-Suite for Nonprofits
Google Classroom
According to Wikipedia, Google Classroom is a web service, developed by Google ONLY for schools that aims to make creating, distributing and grading assignments simple and paperless. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students.
Recently, it was introduced at Juneli School and tested with pilot users/teachers. This technology is already in use in the Edmonton Public School system. Since we have got a license for Google Classroom parents, teachers and students can enjoy this feature for free which otherwise would have required a paid license.
IT Policy
Volunteers who are involved at NECASE directly, e.g. the Board of Directors, NCHC project team and other committees must use @necase.ca. However, this is not mandatory to the general public (NECASE members) but it’s recommended for proper communication within the NECASE community. If electronic voting comes into effect in future, all users must have @necase.ca account to vote (disclosure: this matter is currently under discussion in ByLaws committee)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]