This document discusses how non-profits can leverage cloud technologies like startups to operate efficiently with limited budgets. It provides examples of how a startup used cloud services to launch with under $50 per month in recurring costs. The document also lists key cloud resources available for non-profits, including free or discounted offerings from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others for applications, platforms, and other services like backups, phone systems and web meetings.

1. Techies for Good
May 5, 2015
Leveraging the Cloud like a Startup:
Cheap Fast and Good?
Edwin Miller
CTO, Aledade, Inc.
edwin@aledade.com

2. Borrowing from Startups
• Scrappy
• Tech Savvy
• Fast growing and impactful
Also…
• Lack funding
• Extreme time pressure
• Constant compromises

3. Borrowing from Startups
• Cultural Agility
• Fail Fast
• Minimum Viable Product + Iterative improvement
• Impactful goal setting & mission orientation
• Cloud computing lets you start small!

4. An Example from our startup
• Seed funding to launch – ~14 days
• Initial decisions:
• .com/.org Domain reg
• email, apps
• Logo
• CRM
• Website
• Hosting
• Application Dev
• Phone
• Zero servers, zero capex
• < $50/mo recurring cost after free trials

5. Not Everything Was a Keeper
Pla orm
Devops
Services
Analy cs
Data Store
Integra on
Stack Evolu on
Confiden al and Proprietary
28
Presenta on
Other/COTS
PipeDrive -> Salesforce
DigitalOcean -> Amazon Web Services
Ruby -> Python
Added Atlassian tools (has non-profit pricing)
But it wasn’t a big deal to change things.

6. Key Cloud Resources for NonProfits
Applications
Microsoft Office365/OneCloud *
Google Apps *
SalesForce CRM *
Mailchimp Free Tier
Vertical Response email marketing *
Others through techsoup.org and
grassroots.org *
Link
https://products.office.com/en-us/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-
plans-and-pricing
http://www.google.com/nonprofits/products/
http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/nonprofit/
http://mailchimp.com/pricing/free/
http://www.verticalresponse.com/pricing/non-profit/application
* Free/heavily discounted for 501c3 nonprofits with some exceptions (hospitals/healthcare, etc)

7. Key Cloud Resources for NonProfits
SaaS Platforms
Amazon Web Services
Google Compute
Microsoft Azure
DigitalOcean (linux only)
Dreamhost *
Bluehost * (through grassroots.org)
Box.org *
stripe.com – payment processing (card not
present/web)
Square – payment processing (card present)
Secure fax – sfax.com
Links
http://aws.amazon.com/
https://cloud.google.com/pricing/
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/
https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Non-profit_Discount
http://www.bluehost.com/nonprofit
http://www.box.org
http://www.stripe.com
https://squareup.com/
* Free/heavily discounted for 501c3 nonprofits with some exceptions (hospitals/healthcare, etc)

8. Key Cloud Resources for NonProfits
Other Resources
Free AntiVirus – Avast, Malwarebytes
Backups – Cloud drive sync (Google Drive, Microsoft
OneDrive, Box *, etc)
Phone – Google Voice *, RingCentral, phone.com
(through grassroots.org)
Webmeeting – join.me, Google Hangouts *
Google Adwords for nonprofits *
Links
https://www.avast.com/index
http://www.malwarebytes.org/3/
https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/
* Free/heavily discounted for 501c3 nonprofits with some exceptions (hospitals/healthcare, etc)