Ask Slashdot: Event Sign-Up Software Options For a Non-Profit?

New submitter don_e_b writes I have been asked by a non-profit to help them gather a team of volunteer developers, who they wish to have write an online volunteer sign-up site. This organization has a one large event per year with roughly 1400 volunteers total.I have advised them to investigate existing online volunteer offerings, and they can afford to pay for most that I've found so far. In the past two years, they have used a site written by a volunteer that has worked fine for them, but that volunteer is unavailable to maintain or enhance his site this year. They believe the existing online volunteer sign-up sites are not quite right — they feel they have very specific sign-up needs, and can not picture using anything other than their own custom software solution. I am convinced it's a mistake for this non-profit to create a software development team from a rotating pool of volunteers to write software upon which it is critically dependent. How would you convince them to abandon their plan to dive into project management and use an existing solution?

Comments

Re:non profits are run like for profits.

[i kan reed]

Yeah, not-for-profit corporations tend to be, on average, pretty scummy. That's not to say the intent of the law that allows them is bad or that all of them are.

Just that most have the majority true:
*Earning a profit. Not to distribute to shareholders but to "grow".
*Paying their executives exorbitant salaries that just so happen to replace the large sums that regular CEOs usually get from profit sharing.
*Using "not for profit" as a shield against unethical behavior, as if qualifying money as "profit" is the only way it corrupts.
*Charging market prices for services.

Some combinations of these are okay, but others are just shitty. I try not be too cynical a person, but when I hear a company describe itself as "not for profit" my first thought is "tax system gamer" and not "charity".