How does Nubay charge for its services? How much will it cost?

First and foremost, we charge as little as possible.    A primary goal is to help you use great technology while saving money to put towards your primary mission.   We charge for the cost of hosting and managing a dedicated server (an "instance") for your applications.   We also charge for applications support and training at a rate that takes into effect the complexity of your applications and the amount of support required.   For clients who are largely self sufficient, our support costs are minimal and act as a back-stop for the really hard problems.   And for many clients we do the unthinkable - we actually lower fees as they become more experienced and self-sufficient!

So, in terms of monthly costs, our fees range from $50 to $250 per month.  Most clients end up paying between $100 and $150 per month - "all in".   And there are no per-user license fees so you don't have to restrict usage for your staff, volunteers or constituents.   There are also some start-up costs for configuring your application and the extra training and assistance that gets you off the ground and running over the first 3 - 6 months.   We suggest that clients budget between $500 and $1000 for those expenses.

How about security? Are open source applications secure?

Nubay has several levels of security in place to protect your applications and your data.    The first thing to note is that open source applications are not inherently insecure.   In fact, many would argue that they are more secure because of their wide user and developer base.   More eyes to catch and fix any security flaws that might exist.   A key issue is to make sure that security patches and version upgrades are done on a regular and timely basis.  Nubay manages that for our clients.

A second level of security is the hosted systems that run the applications.    Nubay uses Amazon Web Services as our hosting provider.  AWS is the largest cloud services provider and they maintain industry leading security capabilities.   Nubay uses AWS firewall systems to control access to your websites as well as the backend database for your data.    

Further security is provided to secure data transmitted over the internet.  This is known as SSL security and is evidenced by the https prefix for your url.   All Nubay clients use SSL encryption for all  pages of all websites - not just for payment pages.

These system security capabilities are only effective if our clients make effective use of user password security best practices.   Nubay allows clients to define password complexity and resetting requirements.  We also support dual-factor authentication as an option for clients who want to require administrative users to sign in using a second key in addition to their passwords.

What size and type of non-profit do you work with?

While our anchor applications - CiviCRM and Drupal - are used by organizations from very small to very large, we tend to work best with organizations with budgets between $500,000 and  $5 million annually.     These are organizations that are large enough to require and benefit from a sophisticated technology platform of the type that we offer.  Another characteristic of our non-profit clients is that they tend to be service delivery organizations - meaning that they have operational requirements to manage programs, interact with clients and more.  Of course all of our non-profit clients need to manage their donor databases and maintain an on-line presence.

Can we use your software with our current web site?

Yes.    Our platform includes a "built-in" full featured Content Management System (Drupal).  But it can also be used with your existing website - whether it be WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix or any other site.   You can still use webforms and data views to integrate web pages with the CiviCRM database.   Simple theming can be done to emulate your website style for Nubay components.  And links from your current website to webpages on the Nubay platform can provide a seamless experience for your website visitors.

Can I convert/import my data to CiviCRM?

Yes, from spreadsheets to database applications, CiviCRM has extensive data importing tools for your data.   Anything that can be exported into a CSV file can be imported to Civi.    Further, the data deduplication features can help clean up your data.  Often the most important part of converting to a CRM solution is the opportunity to add structure to your data and eliminate duplications that have crept in over the years.

Does Nubay offer Accounting software?

No, we don't.    The reason is that we have not (yet) found an open source accounting solution that meets our criteria for inclusion.  We like this question, because it is easier to tell you what we don't cover than it is to describe all of the applications that are covered by our software suite.   We cover just about all your needs apart from accounting software.    By the way, CiviCRM does integrate with QuickBooks so you can transfer payment batch data from your CRM database to your book-keeping software.

What about SalesForce? How does Nubay and CiviCRM compare to SalesForce?

Salesforce is an awesome CRM application.   Salesforce is successfully used by the biggest non-profits but smaller organizations can struggle with the need for consultants to implement common requirements.  CiviCRM along with Drupal provide more extensive "out of the box"  capabilties for non-profits.   Also, the CiviCRM data model has been developed specifically for non-profits and can be more intuitive even for some fairly complex requirements.   Last, but perhaps most importantly, if your goal is to integrate your data management with a website, CiviCRM and Drupal provide unmatched capabilities that do not require custom coding or API based integration.  A demonstration of these features is an eye-opening experience.