Email options for a small community organisation

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Qitas

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Wannabe Geek

#322604 4-Sep-2025 06:16

Hi everyone. I've joined the committee of a small community organisation (not for profit) that uses Gmail for email. Essentially, the committee all have the Google login (I know!) and are in there using the same Gmail inbox. It gets chaotic, things get moved by people with the best of intentions and emails get missed or deleted.

Is anyone here aware of a free or low-cost option that we could use to help us manage this better? Our Committee ranges from tech-unsavvy through to confident, so it needs to be simple. We don't know what we don't know.

We can pay a modest amount, we just don't want to commit to a thousands of dollars for a solution each year as that's beyond our finances.

If anyone has any advice please I'd be grateful. Thank you.

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#3410954 4-Sep-2025 07:49

The big two are Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Perhaps have a look at their non-profit offerings.

Google Grant Application Eligibility - Google for Nonprofits

Compare Microsoft 365 Nonprofit Plans | Microsoft 365

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#3410964 4-Sep-2025 09:01

Microsoft 365 for non-profits.

We set up quite a lot of these. Everyone gets their own account and then just shared mailboxes for the things everyone needs to see.

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#3410965 4-Sep-2025 09:09

If you're a registered charity its reasonably easy to get Google Workspaces for non profit... the challenge I faced was proving we owned the domain name (was a really weird experience). However; once you get through their hoops its then free.

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#3410968 4-Sep-2025 09:19

Hi - the club I belong to has similar needs (it seems) - we've been using Gmail quite successfully for a few years. I had help from a more tech-savvy person to set me up as administrator (we do have domain name based accounts) and I've then set up about 8 different a/c's for executive members (president@..., secretary@..., treasurer@...) that they each manage. The administrator can oversee & access each email account and allocate passwords. Each person can then reset passwords & 2FA which temporarily locks out the administrator, but the admin can nuke those settings and reset as needed (some people can't help fiddling and 'personalising' 'their' email accounts.

So maybe this would work for you to stay with Gmail - they might be OK for you to upgrade to this type of a/c for free as a nonprofit...?

richms

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#3411023 4-Sep-2025 10:31

I would say Microsoft over google as with google, anyone with an android phone has additional concerns when adding a Gmail account to the phone with what access that gives that account.

If multiple people are working on the same things, you do not want email you want a CRM system so that you can see more about how things are being processed and who has said what etc.

This seems very rare among local places with so many messing around using email for this purpose and as a result all that crap about things being missed and overlooked or actioned by 2 people happen.

Richard rich.ms

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#3411038 4-Sep-2025 11:49

richms:

I would say Microsoft over google as with google, anyone with an android phone has additional concerns when adding a Gmail account to the phone with what access that gives that account.

If multiple people are working on the same things, you do not want email you want a CRM system so that you can see more about how things are being processed and who has said what etc.

This seems very rare among local places with so many messing around using email for this purpose and as a result all that crap about things being missed and overlooked or actioned by 2 people happen.

Can you recommend a free CRM that might be suitable?

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richms

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#3411052 4-Sep-2025 12:26

kiwifidget:

Can you recommend a free CRM that might be suitable?

No idea sorry, the only ones I have used in the past were not part of my buying decision. I have seen oodo praised by some people that I vaguely trust but they may have been a victim of sponsored video hype.

Richard rich.ms

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#3411075 4-Sep-2025 13:30

@richms I agree that email is not the best solution for running a small committee. Cos thats what we do and its inefficient and cumbersome at best.

Probably a CRM solution would be over the top though.

A committees primary role is decision making.

Each decision requires its own space, where each committee member can provide input, and everyone else sees that input and once a decision is reached that discussion can be closed for further comments, but still be visible for referring back to later. Sounds a bit familiar actually!

Dealing with all the non-committee members is a whole different ball game. 🙃

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