Hi there,

I'm currently involved a project where I am studying an NGO whose purpose is to improve the nutrition of the worlds poor. I'm conducting an industry analysis which includes how Information Technology is used in the industry.

These uses could include things like: managing donations, managing project contracts, responding to RFPs, email, communications, tracking, supply chain management and more.

I just finished reading up on all the good things Microsoft can do for NGOs but I'd much rather finish this project by recommending something from the open-source world rather than something from Microsoft.

If anyone can hook me up with some links about using Linux to help NGOs it would be a big help.

Preferably these links should be about the "as-is" state since I am at the moment conducting an industry analysis.

Many Thanks!

Linux can do many things, I'm not particularly well-versed in the uses of NGOs, but email and communication shouldn't be an issue on linux, managing donations you could probably find some way to work it out.. you may want to look at pages like the FSF's free software directory to see what kind of relevant programs are available (http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page)
With that as a starting point you can probably figure out what it's capable of doing, since it's all free software on that site it's all free to be modified and used for whatever purpose.

As I said I'm not well versed in NGOs or their particular needs, so I can't recommend anything really beyond looking at the available software to see how free software can address the needs of the organizations in question.

This is an example of the sorts of businesses and organisations (even a couple of NGOs) using just one Linux distribution:
http://www.centos.org/modules/news/i...?storytopic=12
It shows that the whole range of computer services can be provided: all the things you mentioned. A quick on-line search revealed several articles specifically about NGOs, such as
http://audiovideo.ngoinabox.org/?q=node/43
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8184

The chief thing MS can do for anyone is charge them money!