Tools you can use: Basecamp online project collaboration tool
As part of some recent re-branding work at NPower Seattle, we’re doing a redesign of our website. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of collaboration going on as the many members of our technology-driven organization desire to have their voices heard in the development of the site. We’ve employed the use of Basecamp, an online project collaboration tool that we often use with our clients, to help manage the project. I sat down with Project Manager Kate Witt and our “client” in this scenario, Director of Community Engagement Peg Giffels, to talk about Basecamp, how it works, its pros and cons, and possible applications for the average nonprofit organization.
Originally posted on community.npowerseattle.org/npowering on March 15th, 2011.
We’ve come to the realization that many of the tools that we use internally at NPower could have applications for our nonprofit clients and friends, and have decided to launch a blog series on “tools you can use” so we can share our working knowledge and get you thinking about ways to use technology to work more effectively. This post is the first in the series.
As part of some recent re-branding work at NPower Seattle, we’re doing a redesign of our website. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of collaboration going on as the many members of our technology-driven organization desire to have their voices heard in the development of the site. We’ve employed the use of Basecamp, an online project collaboration tool that we often use with our clients, to help manage the project. I sat down with Project Manager Kate Witt and our “client” in this scenario, Director of Community Engagement Peg Giffels, to talk about Basecamp, how it works, its pros and cons, and possible applications for the average nonprofit organization.
Kate considers Basecamp to be ‘project management lite’. “I bill Basecamp as a way for our clients to de-clutter their inboxes. It’s basically a web app that allows you to collect project-specific communications and files including the scope, timeline, graphics, meeting notes, and task lists.” While it can’t track everything for the management of a website development project, she’s found it to be valuable as a landing pad for project-specific communication, helping everyone involved stay plugged-in, whether they’re part of the NPower team, staff members at the nonprofit client, or third party designers or writers. “It is also an excellent tool for staff to show their organization’s leadership that progress is being made against the timeline, and gives a great snapshot of where the project is at the moment.” Since Basecamp is a Cloud-based service, it can be accessed by anyone, from anywhere, meaning that you don’t have to rely on access to a specific server or group drive to use it.
As our internal “client”, Peg was reluctant to use Basecamp at first. “I just thought, ‘Ugh, another login that I have to remember.’ I’m used to being able to use my email to track those things, and our file system for document storage, but it was clear that the size of files being sent around during a web development project would quickly max out my existing systems.” Despite her initial resistance, Peg was ultimately pleased with her Basecamp experience. “I liked that Basecamp is Cloud-based so I could easily use it while working from home. And it was a helpful tool when it came to communications. Being able to send messages to certain members of the team eliminated cluttering email inboxes unnecessarily. I appreciated having a one-stop-shop for the website architecture, project milestones, and all project-related conversations.”
Having used Basecamp across several different projects now, Kate can easily imagine what a useful tool it could be for nonprofits to use in the course of their work. “I think Basecamp would be a great site for Boards. They could use it to send each other messages and share files.” Kate also mentioned the benefits of using Basecamp with external vendors in the process of event planning. Peg suggested the possibility of using Basecamp to collaborate during the grantwriting process as a way for development staff, program staff, and external grant writers to share ideas and exchange documents. While Basecamp is a great tool for all of the aforementioned tasks, if your goal is to create a strict document versioning system, a tool like SharePoint might be a better option (but that discussion deserves its own blog post!).
Basecamp offers a free 30-day trial for all accounts, meaning you can give it a risk-free try whenever you like. They have a free plan that allows you to run one project with no file-sharing, but they start charging when storage is involved. The Basic plan will run you $24/month and allows up to 15 projects and 5GB of storage. Prices go up from there with options to meet the needs of most organizations. Check out their website for more details.
