Recommended Tools
Practical tools for writing, images, analytics, and organization. No developer experience required.
You don't need to be a designer or developer to use these.
Start here
Four tools cover the essentials:
- Hemingway Editor for checking readability
- Squoosh for compressing images
- Trello or Monday.com for tracking content progress
- Google Docs for collaborative drafting
Plan details below are accurate as of mid-2026; tiers and limits change often, so check before subscribing.
Both are table stakes for any nonprofit:
- Google for Nonprofits: Free Google Workspace, a substantial monthly allotment of Google Search ad credits (Ad Grants), YouTube nonprofit features, and Gemini AI tools. Requires 501(c)(3) via TechSoup.
- Canva for Nonprofits: Full Canva Pro + Teams for up to 50 users, free. Premium photos, brand kit, background removal, AI design tools. Requires 501(c)(3).
Writing
Hemingway Editor
Paste in draft copy and it highlights complex sentences and gives a readability grade. Aim for grade 8 or below — the range plainlanguage.gov and Nielsen Norman Group both recommend for public-facing web content.
The free version covers readability grading and sentence complexity, and is plenty here. Passive voice detection and AI rewrites are part of paid Hemingway Editor Plus.
Grammarly
Catches grammar, spelling, and awkward phrasing. The free tier handles the basics; the paid version adds tone detection and clarity suggestions. The browser extension works in Google Docs, email, and the CMS.
DeepL
Better than Google Translate for natural-sounding results when you need to translate content or check how something reads in another language. Free for basic use.
AI tools
AI is a drafting partner, not a replacement for your voice. Use it to get past the blank page, then rewrite in your own words.
What AI is good at
- First drafts. "Write a 2-sentence description of our meal delivery program for a card on the homepage" gets you most of the way there.
- Rewriting for clarity. "Simplify this for a grade 8 reading level" or "make this shorter without losing the key point."
- Alt text. Describe what's in an image and ask for concise alt text. Faster than writing it from scratch for 30 images.
- Brainstorming. "Give me 5 headline options for a volunteer signup page."
- Checking tone. "Does this sound warm and approachable or corporate?"
What AI is not good at
- Your voice. AI doesn't know how MOWP talks to its community. It'll produce something polished but generic.
- Facts and figures. AI will confidently make up statistics, dates, and details. Never publish a number from AI without verifying it.
- Emotional nuance. A testimonial request, a caregiver-facing page, a message about someone's loss. AI can help you structure it, but the words should be yours.
- SEO shortcuts. "Optimize this for SEO" gets you keyword-stuffed copy that reads terribly. Follow the SEO guidelines instead.
Which tool to use
chatgpt.com: The most widely used. The free tier is capable, and the paid plan is faster and has the latest model. Good all-around for writing tasks.
claude.ai: Tends to produce more natural, less "AI-sounding" writing. Good at longer content and nuanced tone. Free tier available, with a paid plan for heavier use.
gemini.google.com: Free with a Google account. Convenient if you're already in the Google ecosystem. Good for quick drafting and brainstorming.
Never publish AI-generated content without reading it carefully and editing it to sound like you. Use it to get started, not to get finished.
Images
You don't need Photoshop.
What you already have
Check your computer before downloading anything:
- Preview (Mac): Tools → Adjust Size to resize, File → Export to save as JPEG at a lower quality. Handles most image prep.
- Photos (Mac/iPhone/Windows): Crop, adjust lighting, straighten. Edit iPhone photos here before exporting.
- Screenshot tools: Command+Shift+4 on Mac, Win+Shift+S on Windows.
Free tools for compression and editing
- Squoosh — Google's image compressor, with a before/after comparison as you adjust quality. The one for getting a hero under 500KB without visible loss. No account, runs in your browser.
- TinyPNG — batch compression, up to 20 images at once. Works for PNG and JPEG despite the name. Free under 5MB.
- Canva — resizing to specific dimensions, text overlays, simple social graphics. The nonprofit program gets you the full Pro tier free.
- remove.bg — one-click background removal, useful for consistent headshots on the leadership page. Free at standard resolution.
Bigger files mean slower pages. Hero images under 500KB, card thumbnails under 200KB. A photo straight from a camera or phone is several megabytes — run it through Squoosh or TinyPNG first.
Analytics & insights
We'll set these up. You should know they're there and how to read them.
Google Analytics (GA4)
Where visitors come from, which pages they visit, how long they stay, and where they leave. Free. Three things worth watching:
- Which pages get the most traffic: are people finding what matters?
- Where people drop off: are they leaving the donation flow? Getting stuck on a form?
- Traffic sources: search, email campaigns, social, or direct?
Google Search Console
search.google.com/search-console
Which search queries bring people to the site, which pages rank, and any technical issues Google finds. Free. It's where you'd notice a page that isn't being indexed or a title that needs improvement.
Microsoft Clarity
Free heatmaps and session recordings, with generous limits: where people click, how far they scroll, and recordings of real visitor sessions. Watching a few shows where people hesitate and get confused, which the numbers can't.
Accessibility
- WAVE — paste in a URL and it flags missing alt text, low contrast and heading structure problems. Less technical than Lighthouse and focused on content-level issues you can fix yourself. Also a browser extension.
- WebAIM Contrast Checker — paste in two colors and it tells you whether the contrast meets WCAG. Use it before any new color combination goes into a design.
Organization
Content tracking
The goal is visibility: who's working on what, what's done, what's stuck. Spreadsheets work early on, but once several people are editing across the whole site a purpose-built tool tracks that history automatically.
Most of these offer free or heavily discounted nonprofit plans, so it's worth applying even where the tool looks expensive.
monday.com: Visual project tracker with content calendar templates, status automations, and board/timeline views.
Nonprofit program: 10 seats free, steep discount from seat 11+. Requires 501(c)(3) verification, so a team of 5-10 pays nothing.
trello.com: Simple Kanban board — "Not Started," "Drafting," "In Review," "Approved," a card per page. Easy to learn, low overhead.
Nonprofit program: Deep discount on Standard/Premium through Atlassian's Community License. Free tier covers up to 10 collaborators.
notion.com: A wiki, database, and content drafting tool in one, so content status, page drafts, asset links, and notes sit in the same place.
Nonprofit program: Discounted Plus plan. Requires 501(c)(3) via TechSoup.
airtable.com: Spreadsheet-database hybrid, for when you like the feel of a spreadsheet but want status fields, assignees, due dates and linked media.
Nonprofit program: Discounted Team plan. Free tier supports 5 editors and 1,000 records.
Monday.com if you want something visual and the 10 free seats fit your team. Notion if you also want a place to draft content and keep notes. Trello if you want the simplest possible setup. Airtable if you think in spreadsheets but want more structure.
Photo folder
A shared Google Drive or Dropbox folder organized by image type: heroes, cards, headshots, locations, testimonials. Set the structure up now so assets don't pile up unsorted, and drop each good photo in with a note about where it was taken and who's in it.
Google Drive / Docs / Sheets
Google Docs is a fine starting point for drafting and collaborating on copy. Write there, check readability in Hemingway, paste into the CMS when it's ready. Google Sheets works for early-stage tracking — page names, status, owners — until that starts to feel painful.