Amongst community organisations money is generally in short supply. It's tough to make good choices for wise spending, and always tempting to see where you can save a few dollars. After all, the more you can spend on your actual services the better.

And in that climate of careful spending websites often look like something where you don't need the 'luxury' of a professional web designer. After all, there are so many places where you can make your own website, or get a friendly volunteer hobbyist to help.

But in the Scottish Business Blog professional web designer Heather Burns explains how sometimes taking the 'cheap' route can turn out more expensive, and even sometimes disastrous. She writes about businesses, but everything she says is also valid for community organisations. In her post, Why hire a web site designer?, these are her concluding remarks:

… to quote a Scottish Business Forums member, “If you think professionals are expensive, then just wait until you see how much amateurs cost”. Web sites are complex and they are technical. But they are not expensive. Cleaning up the damage caused by homemade web sites, “e-z site” builders, and bruised family egos is what costs companies far more than they budgeted for in the long run.

A trained web professional will take a genuine interest in helping you and your business to succeed. Whatever issue arises with your web site - whether it involves search engine optimisation, visitor tracking, legal requirements, e-commerce, marketing, copywriting, design, security, or the brave new frontier of web 2.0 - your professionally trained web site designer will work with you throughout the life of your site to give you the best web presence possible.

You just won’t get that in a DIY kit. Get your web site right the first time - hire a professional.

Read Heather's article at : Why hire a web site designer? | Scottish Business Blog.]

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TechSoup has come to New Zealand, bringing donations of software for community organisations:

TechSoup New Zealand provides donated software and hardware from companies such as Microsoft to eligible New Zealand Charities, Voluntary and Community Groups registered as a charitable organisation under the New Zealand Income Tax Act 2004.

If you're still persevering with costly proprietary software — programs such as Microsoft Word — this could be very useful for your organisation.

There's not a lot there for Mac users at the moment: 2 programs. Virtual PC which is of use only to people using older Macs that don't have an Intel processor, and Powerpoint for those who don't use Apple's own Keynote.

Windows users have more than 100 programs listed.

Linux users are likely to use Open Source software anyway.

… New Zealand organisations have already begun to register and receive software donations.

There are minimum product and ordering frequency requirements for eligible organisations with charitable status. So it is important you register now and then think about what your software requirements may be over the coming year.

The software itself is donated free of charge, but there is an administration fee of only 4% of the retail value of the product. This amounts to a mere $13+GST per copy of Windows Vista (Business version), only $27+GST for Office Professional Plus 2007 and $89+GST for Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition.

[Via : CommunityNet Aotearoa.]

There are, of course, plenty of other options — we often write about them here. For many purposes you can replace Word, Excel and Powerpoint with Google Docs or Open Office, and Mac users have an excellent suite of Apple software in Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

There's loads of Open Source software available to handle almost everything you can imagine doing with a computer, and many online web applications take the emphasis off storing and using information on isolated computers and allow greater collaboration. For example, Basecamp is an excellent online collaboration tool.

Explore Techsoup and see what it can offer. There may be something there that can save your organisation hundreds of dollars, freeing up funds for more exciting online initiatives.