Best Of Idealware: 2011 Edition

The end of a year is always an occasion for every magazine, newspaper, TV news show and website to put out lists of their favorite things. We have favorites, too, but thought it might be more interesting to tell you what your favorites were—at least, your favorite Idealware posts.

 

First, a word about the criteria: The measurement was the number of unique views, and we allowed a few resources published in 2010 to sneak onto the list because of their continuing popularity in 2011.

 

So here they are, the top 10, beginning with the most-viewed:

 

1.      Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org (56,434 views).

2.      A Few Good Online Survey Tools (53,070)

3.      Comparing Open Source Content Management Systems: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Plone (34,099)

4.      The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide (25,971)

5.      A Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems (21,829)

6.      A Few Good RSVP Tools: Online Registration Options for Free Events (9,812)

7.      Using Facebook To Meet Your Mission: Results of a Survey (9,799)

8.      A Few Good Online Donations Tools (9,474)

9.      A Few Good Accounting Packages (8,244)

10.   2011 Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits (7,882)

 

Our Consumers Guide to Volunteer Management Systems and Consumers Guide to Grants Management Software both made the top 15, as well.

 

What can we learn from this? Our “Few Good Tools” series of articles seems popular, accounting for seven—nearly half—of the top 15 most-viewed resources. Our big reports also did well, accounting for seven more. The remaining publication was also our most-viewed, an article comparing Microsoft Office’s suite of productivity software to OpenOffice’s free, open-source competitor, a topic with broad appeal both in- and outside the nonprofit community. (Though written the year prior, its popularity continued to lead through 2011.)

 

It’s nice to see our research being used. And since the end of one year means the beginning of another, and a new year is a time for making resolutions, at Idealware, we’re resolving to continue creating and updating the thoroughly researched, impartial resources to help organizations like yours make smart software decisions.

 

What would you like to see more of from us in 2012?

 

Happy new year, and thanks for your support of Idealware.