🗨️Communication Apps (Telephony & Chat)
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Communication apps like Microsoft Teams, Google Voice/Chat, and Slack serve as integral tools for nonprofits, facilitating seamless telephony and chat functionalities. These platforms enhance collaboration among team members, enabling efficient communication, real-time information sharing, and streamlined coordination, ultimately fostering increased productivity and organizational cohesion within nonprofit environments.
All of Microsoft Teams chat, collaboration, and meetings features come with your free Business Basic and Business Premium licensing.
The Teams VoIP telephony solution keeps improving every year. It's easy to use and easily accessible on any device or platform. It can handle advanced call routing and queuing or simple setups. To get started, you can purchase these additional (discounted) licenses directly in the Microsoft admin portal catalog:
Teams Phone with Calling Plan (country zone 1 - US) (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) - $11.20 user/month, includes phone numbers
Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) - 10 for free
Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) - 25 for free
Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic without Audio Conferencing (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) - 25 for free
Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing with dial-out to USA/CAN (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) - Unlimited for free
One downside to the Microsoft Teams phone solution is that it doesn't provide SMS (texting) out of the box, and you need to pay for an additional service to add it.
Google Chat and Google Meet are built into the free offering for Google Workspace, which includes a plethora of other features for nonprofits.
Google Voice Standard is a premium subscription for a cloud-hosted VoIP system that you can get through Google Workspace and optionally added to your nonprofit's free licensing. It's $20/month per user and is easy to configure and use. The plan includes SMS texting as well, but some users of Google Voice have reported issues with their numbers coming up as spam.
Slack is an app that allows you to chat quickly with volunteers and your team. You can easily add anyone, and it is easily accessible from any computer or mobile device. Slack offers a free workspace to everyone but offers important security and management capabilities to nonprofits for free. Slack offers the Pro Plan for free for 250 members and lower, so select that plan on the nonprofit application.