Funding Sources

A central tenet of Idealware’s vision and approach is to keep the reports and articles on our website free to nonprofit organizations. Unlike other subscription-based models, Idealware does not charge users for its research.

Donations and Grants

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Idealware accepts funding in the form of donations from foundations and the general public. This funding allows us the independence to continue to create the thorough, unbiased and high-value resources nonprofits have come to expect from Idealware.

To see a list of our major supporters, view our Supporters page. For more information on making your tax-deductible contribution, visit www.idealware.org/donate.

Commissioned Research and Training

In addition to Idealware's own series of online seminars, we work with many foundations, affiliate groups, publications and membership organizations to provide training, reports, and articles by commission.  We welcome the opportunity to create new resources that can help nonprofits choose software.  For more information about commissioning work, please see our Custom Resources section.

Sponsorships and Directory Listings

Idealware also seeks and accepts sponsors, both for our website and our major reports.  Our major reports reports sometimes include directory listings for consultancies, for which we charge a fee.  Both of these opportunities are  subject to the restrictions below.

For more information on becoming a sponsor or buying a listing, contact Andrea Berry, Idealware’s Director of Development, at andrea@idealware.org or at 718.208.8172.

Funding Restrictions

In order to maintain our independence and objectivity, and our ability to provide our reports and articles at no cost to the user, we typically do not accept funding from vendors:
•    No general operating support or donations are knowingly accepted from software vendors.
•    Idealware does not accept funding or advertising for a particular report from any vendor whose software is being reviewed in that report. A software vendor can only contribute to Idealware’s work by funding general research that does not contain rankings, and which can be published with no ads, conditions or restrictions on the part of funders.